A privilege, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is a special right or advantage available only to a particular person or group of people. As a child of God, you have a great advantage available to you – you have an open invitation to come into God’s presence through prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to pray. He instructed them to present their daily needs before God (Matt. 6:11), and to cast all their cares upon Him. The assurance that He gave them was that their petitions would be heard, and this is the assurance that we have as well. What a great privilege this is, and what a great sadness it is that we don’t take advantage of this privilege as often as we should!
Jesus, being the sinless One, endured struggles and torture of soul in a world of sin. His humility made prayer a necessity, as well as a privilege. He found comfort and joy in communion with His Father. If the Savior of men, the Son of God, felt the need of prayer, how much more should feeble, helpless, mortals feel the necessity of fervent and constant prayer?
Our Heavenly Father waits to bestow upon us the fullness of His blessings. It is our privilege to drink largely at the fountain of boundless love.
What a wonder it is that we pray so little when God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayers of the most humble of His children.
Imagine what the angels of heaven must think of us. Here we are poor and helpless human beings who are subject to so many temptations, and here is God, with His heart of infinite love yearning for us, ready to give us more than we can ask, or think – yet we pray so little and have so little faith. The angels love to bow before God. They love to be near him. They regard their communion with Him as their highest joy. Yet, the children of the earth, who need so much the help that only God can give, seem satisfied to walk without the light of His Spirit and companionship of His presence.
Did you know that the darkness of Satan encloses those who neglect to pray? His whispered temptations can easily entice us to sin if we don’t make use of the privilege that God has given us. Without unceasing prayer, and diligent watching, we are in danger of growing careless and of deviating from the right path.
Satan seeks, continually, to obstruct the way to the mercy seat so that we won’t obtain grace and power to resist temptation. He knows how powerful prayer is. He knows that if he can limit your prayer life, he has a better chance of weakening you and taking you down. He knows that your prayers limit him, so he does whatever he can to limit your prayers. He uses distraction, unbelief, doubt, fatigue, fear, and anything else that he knows will prevent you from praying. This is why you have to make prayer a priority. A priority is something that has to be done no matter what. Priorities will bump everything else off of your to-do list. Priorities will push past every obstacle that stands in the way. Priorities will fight every hindrance that comes to hold it back. You have to make prayer a priority!
How is your prayer life? If you struggle in this area, pray that God will give you a praying spirit. Pray that God will increase your desire to pray and seek His face. If you have a hard time finding words to say let me suggest the following plan:
- Start off by praising God and thanking Him for who He is and what He has done in your life.
- Pray for those around you. If you know someone is not saved, struggling, sick, or hurting this is your opportunity to pray for those people.
- Pray for your church leaders, those in authority in the community and in the nation.
- And lastly, put your own petitions before God.
You have to take advantage of the right that you have to pray. Your soul depends on it.
