Good day to all who are reading my blog at this time!! As I have said so many times before, may you be sensing the Lord’s favor richly poured out on your life and may you also sense His power and strength to get you through everything you may be facing in life today:-)

The Holy Spirit has been dealing with my prayer life a lot lately. I truly believe that prayer, and mostly the lack there of, is probably the main issue many Christians struggle with today. As a young boy I grew up as a Catholic and when I say that I could pray the Rosary with the best, you better believe it. If there were ever an Olympics held for who could pray the Rosary the best, I believe I would have a good shot at a medal. More than that, if my mother or my grandmother were alive today, there would be no one in my mind who stop them from winning the gold in praying the Rosary!! As a young boy, I vividly remember watching my mom’s lips move, as she prayed the Rosary in church or at home, and to this day I have not seen anyone who could move their lips faster in prayer than her; it was amazing!!

Please understand that in no way am I poking fun at the Catholic religion or any Catholic who prays, I am just talking from first hand experience! Yet in saying all of that, I can truly say that with all that praying going on in my life as a young Catholic boy, I never felt any closer to the Lord because of it. I have muscles in my knees still to this day from all the many hours of being on my knees in mass or at home praying to the saints and all.

When I first became a Christian at the age of 28, I came across the verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 where Paul says to pray continually and I remember thinking to myself back then, I got this verse down already. I never realized that it wasn’t about how long I could pray or even how fast I could pray that constituted praying continually. One of my commentaries describes prayer as, communing or conversing with God.  David declared in Psalm 65:1-2 “Praise awaits You, O God, in Zion; to You  our vows will be fulfilled. O You who hear prayer, to You all men will come.” Psalm 66:20 “Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me.” These verses on prayer, and so many others in the Bible, began to open my eyes to the truth that the Lord wanted an intimate love relationship with me in my prayer life which meant I was to be in constant communication with the Lord in the course of my day.

You see I was taught that I couldn’t pray directly to God for no one but the priest could do that, So because of that, we were taught to pray to Mary, Jesus’ mother, and all the saints and hope that they would either correctly convey my heart to the Lord or pray to the Lord for me. I always had the fear that they might misinterpret what I was trying to say to the Lord through my prayers. Then I rejoiced when I read the verse in Hebrews 4:16 “Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Because I had given my heart to the Lord and made Him the Savior of my life, I could now actually approach the throne of grace in prayer by myself; what an amazing concept that was!!!

In Matthew 6:7-15 we read where Jesus tells His disciples not to pray like the pagans do, for they feel because they babble in their prayers with so many words, they will be heard by the Father because of that. Instead Jesus showed His disciples how pray by giving them what we call today, The Lord’s Prayer. Again, I thought because I had said that prayer so many times, surely the Lord would know who it was that was praying to Him, but to no avail.

It wasn’t until I asked the Lord into my heart and made Him the Savior and Lord of my life that my prayer life and my attitude towards prayer changed. Suddenly I felt like the Lord was actually hearing me and actually cared about my littlest need; what a joy that was!!!! I could hardly wait to talk to the Lord each new day. Yet even though I know that truth today, it seems like my prayer life has gone down, instead of going up.

I could give you a list of the many reasons as to why this has happen to my prayer life but to be truthful, every one of those reasons are truly nothing but excuses. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Spurgeon writes: “Prayer must be continuous because there is no time we can afford to slacken (relax) prayer.”

Sadly many Christians today have allowed their prayer life to be become nothing much but, Bless me Lord…. Because of that they don’t pray with any authority anymore, with no conviction in their hearts. Their prayers have no faith behind it to believe that the Lord could actually do what they are asking of Him. Because of a lack of faith in their prayers their walk with the Lord has become nothing but a slow crawl. Sadly, a sense of apathy, a sense of disregard, has settled in their hearts, all power is gone from their prayer life.

Please know that I am preaching more to myself than anyone else right now. I have allowed people and situations to rob me of the power and joy I used to have when I prayed. Hear me when I say there is power when the people of God pray and believe that the Lord will do the miraculous, not only in their own lives but in the lives of others and in the life of the church. I believe when the people of God begin to wake up and take their proper positions as prayer warriors, we will see this world tuned upside down for the glory of the Lord. What do you say my brother and sister; care to join me on my knees in prayer!!!!