Be faithful in church and fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Luke 11:1-4 - "And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, 'When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil."
These verses interupts us to let us know that prayer is important to us. But these verses are a guideline to help you pray. These show Jesus teaching us to pray not necessarily what to say but to just to pray and communicate with God all day every day. We should always want to speak to Him. Jesus is always making intercession for us, so we should follow His directives and pray all day and every day without ceasing. When you pray, you need to pray a prayer that is new every day, not just a canned prayer.
Communicate with God so that you can build your relationship with Him. He is closer to us than even our mothers. We need to be in constant communication with God. We need to talk to God without a script. I've caught myself using those scripts but I work to keep my prayers fresh and talking to Him because He's right next to me. It's not a one-sided conversation; God does answer.
John the Baptist was the one who set the road for Jesus to come to us. He wasn't just a man who had visions, but he was a man of prayer.
John 3:30 - "He must increase, but I must decrease."
What if we prayed that way every day, that we would decrease and He would increase? We need to be decreasing ourselves and the things that we think we want and increase Jesus in our lives. Would John the baptist be accepted today if he wandered into our church today? Him with his animal skin clothes, unkept beard and hair, etc.?
Moses spoke to God on a regular basis. Not just for what the children of Isreal were crying for, water, meat, manna, etc., but for everything. Then they turned their backs on God and began to worship a golden calf. God never turned His back on him. God will never turn His back on you. God got the children of Isreal out of Egypt and Moses did God's works and miracles because he spoke directly to God.
Is your prayer life where it needs to be? We need to get back to praying for everyone. What can we do to help those to turn back to God other than pray? Is your relationship with God where it needs to be?
1 Kings 17:1- "And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Isreal liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these yeaers, but according to my word."
Elijah had an one-on-one relationship that when God gave directions to Elijah, he followed them. That's what we're suppose to do. Do you follow God's will when He tells you what you are suppose to be doing?
1 Kings 18:41 - "And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain." And just like that it started raining. Just like a snap of your fingers, that's the power of prayer. If we only had the faith that our prayers would be answered. Lay aside the things that God's not able to do and pray and have faith that God can do anything.
We need to have the faith that John the Baptist had, the faith that Jesus has. We need to make a promise to God that we are going to have open communication with Him. Now is the time to open that communication.
What kind of relationship can we have if we don't communicate with our maker?