Prayer is the Master Key to a Victorious Life?

Prayer, the study of God’s word and being led by the holy spirit form the trio part of the master key for a victorious Christian living. By engaging in regular prayer and immersing oneself in the scriptures, believers gain spiritual strength and wisdom necessary for daily living. Being led by the holy spirit adds to the mix, the divine guidance to correctly apply the acquired strength and wisdom

A victorious Christian, is enabled, on a daily basis, to overcome sin, make godly decisions, navigate life challenges, and stand against the Devil and his agents.

This blog post focuses only on prayer. It is crucial to grasp the art of praying correctly to avoid exhaustion and discouragement caused by unanswered prayers; so we will examine the reasons why Christians should pray, when to pray, how to pray, and the potential obstacles that can hinder the effectiveness of prayer.

Why should Christians Pray ? 5 Reasons

(1) Building a relationship with God: Through Prayers, one could access the spiritual realm and relate with God tangibly because He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him as is stated in Hebrews 11:6 and according to James 4:8, when you draw near to Him, He will draw near to You. we are even encouraged to come boldly to the (His) throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16

(2) Spiritual Growth: A Believer’s level of alignment to God’s given purpose is an indicator of how much he/she is growing spiritually. Spiritual growth equips the believer to represent God better, handle Temptation, sin and the devil easily and to effectively carry out the assignment of reconciling sinners to God. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

It is through prayers you can develop your spiritual senses of hearing, seeing, perception and discernment. The Bible in Hebrews 5:14, teaches that maturity is attained when a man’s perception or senses are trained to distinguish good from evil. This training and sharpening of the spiritual senses are provided by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Likewise, the Holy spirit can highlight areas of your life that does not meet God’s standard and consume the “chaff” with unquenchable fire. Matthew 3:12

(3) Offering of Spiritual Sacrifices: Believers are the type of priests who do not offer physical but spiritual sacrifices through praying as is supported by the scripture 1 Peter 2:5

Other scriptures as Revelation 5:8 and Revelation 8:3-4 show that the believers’ prayers rise to God as an Incense. 

(4) Align with God’s will: God created man with a will, an ability to make choices and a prerogative to use these tools; the will and the choice, as they want. 

Since God has given the earth for human dominance, Psalm 115:16, Genesis 1:28, man is required to pray before God would interfere or intervene on earth.

Prayer therefore, is surrendering your will, Proverbs 3:6-7, and choices to the will of God, thereby becoming a channel through which Divinity could interfere and/or intervene in the affairs of mankind.

A good example is when the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples how to pray; in Matthew 6:10 He taught them to ask for God’s will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. 

Another example is the interesting story in 1 Kings 18 God wanted to give rain, again to Israel, after 3 1⁄2 years of drought due to the prophecy of Elijah in 1 Kings 17 but instead of just making rain to fall, God instructed Elijah, a man, to make it happen.

Elijah had to pray a couple of times until God released an abundance of rain. 1 Kings 18:41-46

(5) Divine advantage: In Mark 11:23-24 the Lord Jesus Christ taught that Prayer gives a divine enablement to “move mountains” and that everything is possible through prayers; to all who believe.

Therefore, through prayers, you can access an endless range of possibilities such as, miracles, healings, revelations and victory over life challenges of all sorts.

When should you pray?

At all times and at any Time

In the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 18:1, he enjoined believers to be consistent in prayers and not to be discouraged.

Likewise, In the words of Apostle Paul, Ephesians 6:18, Christians are to, at all times, pray in the spirit and otherwise and In 1Thessalonians 5:17, he advised Christians never to stop praying.

We can then deduce from the scriptures above, that since God can be accessed at any time of the day and that it is possible to be attuned to God all day long, the new testament believer should therefore approach everything, Philippians 4:6, with prayers, any time of the day and not give up praying until an answer is received. 

Keep a schedule

For the purposes of concentration, improved effectiveness and building a habit of praying otherwise called a prayer Life, one needs to keep a Prayer schedule called the quiet Time. Just as the name goes, it is a time set aside to shut the world out and be alone with God. One scripture that supports having a time set for only being with God, is Genesis 3:8 which suggests that God normally kept an appointment with Adam and Eve at the ‘cool of the day’. 

The schedule may be in the early mornings, afternoons or in the evenings depending on the person’s preference with respect to their daily routine.

Arguably, a lot more people favour early in the mornings because of some of the following reasons, starting the day with the lord, concentration would be highest since the environment would be quiet and they would have rested well after the night’s sleep and be in their best performance and alertness. 

What should you Pray for?

Everything

Apostle Paul in his writings, Philippians 4:6 and 1Thessalonians 5:18, recommends praying for everything ;  purpose or event. Everything covers a range from most “casual” such as what cloth to wear, to most “serious” needs such as what purpose to live for. 

ACTS: 4 Basic Components of Prayer

This is a popular acronym that gives a memorable structure to the content of a prayer endeavour. The meaning of each letter is stated below.

1. Adoration : recognise God’s sovereignty, praise him and adopt a heart posture of worship. You could sing a song too.
2. Confession: confess your shortcomings and solicit for forgiveness. 
3. Thanksgiving: thank God for all his goodness, blessings, answers and yet to be answered prayers. 
4. Supplication: present your supplications or request of personal needs and the needs of other people ( Intercession)

How should you pray?

This can be subdivided into two sections; preparations and the actual praying.

Preparations:

1. Plan – your schedule, posture and environment. 
2. Rest – be well Rested; you do not want to sleep off and your mind needs to be sound while praying.
3. Shut off – all distractions such as friends and family and other associates, phones and other gadgets.
4. Read – the bible, this will furnish the intelligence you need to pray within God’s will.

Actual Praying:

1. Pray In Jesus Name. John 14:13-14
2. Pray scriptures; Isaiah 43:26, sometimes this action of praying scriptures, will illuminate the scriptures with new revelations.
3. Have faith – in God’s word, abilities and personality. Hebrew 11:6, James 1:6-7
4. Comfortable posture; that would allow you to pray without sleeping off. You could switch between sitting, standing and laying stances or even walking around.
5. Be in for the Long Haul – PUSH – Pray Until Something Happens.
6. Depend-on and Partner with the Holy Spirit;  no one knows what to pray and how to pray it except the Holy Spirit helps the man. Romans 8:26
7. Partner with other Brethren. Galatians 6:2, Ecclesiastes 6:9-12

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Hindrances to Answered prayers:

Praying amiss (wrong motives)

We can see from Apostle James’ words above, that the motives of a prayer point determines if it would be answered or not. Any motive contrary to God’s will, disqualifies the prayer for an answer. 

Praying contrary to God’s will could be in any of the following forms or motives;  selfish desires, biases, competition and ignorance of God’s word.

The Bible teaches in 1 John 5:14-15 that of a surety, when we pray according to God’s will, he will hear and deliver the answer to us.

Doubt

This is the absence and therefore opposite of faith. The book of James 1:6-8 clearly stated that anyone praying but doubting, should not expect to receive answers from God because their mind is tossed up and down like the wave of the sea. 

While in Mark 11:23 we are taught by the Lord Jesus Christ that even a mountain can move by a prayer of faith and likewise, The Apostle in James 5:14 of his writing, ascertained that a prayer of faith would make a sick man healed.

One example of how doubt could deflect the power of prayers is seen in Mark 6:5-6, when the Lord Jesus could not heal many people in Nazareth due to their unbelief.

Noise(Distractions)

From Personal Experience, there are external (environmental) interferences and internal distractions.

Life is full of activities and the mind is flooded with many thoughts. A publication made in 2020 on Nature communications Journal, about the research work of two Queens University Canada researchers, show that about 6200 thoughts flood the mind daily. You can see the publication here .

So when one engages in prayer, certain distractions as wandering thoughts, a hasty heart and anxiety etc. may interfere with the prayers. Also distractions ( external) can come from friends, family and clients when they visit, text, call or need other attention at the scheduled time for prayer.

Hence, time must be given to attune or align the mind towards God. For a given Individual, the needed time to attune before effective praying is dependent on how encumbered the mind is.  for instance, one can attune the heart by meditating on the scriptures, praying in the spirit, or even just keeping quiet before the Lord with a waiting mind (heart) since prayer is not just about being verbose but all about alignment to God’s will.

In conclusion, a victorious Christian life requires overcoming sin, self, and Satan. Establishing a healthy prayer life intertwined with biblical revelations serves as the master key to achieving this victory. Take a moment to leave a comment on this blog post and share your thoughts on the topic. Keep striving for a life of triumph in Christ.