Prayer and Abiding Go Hand in Hand

There is absolutely no possibility that one can “walk in the Spirit” and be “led by the Spirit” without a life with Christ in abiding fellowship prayer (Galatians 5:16; Romans 8:14).

“The secret place of prayer is the place to fight our battles and gain our victories.” R.A. Torrey, How to Pray, p. 88

Jesus taught the need for “importunity” or persistence in prayer (Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-8). This is for the prayers we are praying for temporal, earthly things and most importantly, praying towards being with Christ eternally. The Son of God also spoke of the love of many waxing cold in the final days and the necessity of enduring to the end, “press(ing) toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

“Our whole life should be a life of prayer. We should walk in constant communion with God. There should be a constant upward looking of the soul to God. We should walk so habitually in His presence that even when we awake in the night it would be the most natural thing in the world for us to speak to Him in thanksgiving or in petition.” R.A. Torrey, How to Pray, p. 94

Why is prayer important? Because prayer is communing with and getting to know the LORD better and better—the very divine purpose for which we were created (John 17:3).

Prayer is perpetual fellowship with our LORD who came and died that we might know Himself and the Father (John 17:3). Prayer is not merely a privilege granted to believers to call on God in the time of crisis or to obtain their heart’s desires for temporal things. Even though offering supplications (humble requests) is a divine privilege and command to us and the very promise of God, that’s but one aspect of prayer. Prayer is saving faith in action—the obedience of engaging in a personal, perpetual, and intimate relationship with the Savior. Praying is an absolute imperative to fellowship with Jesus and overcoming, which is essential to receiving final salvation. If prayer were not so important in present abiding, victory, and of eternal consequence, there would have been no reason that the Son of God would have uttered the words of warning He issued forth in Luke 21:34-36:

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21:34-36

“It is one thing to be interested in our Lord’s return, and to talk about it, and quite another thing to be prepared for it. We live in an atmosphere that has a constant tendency to unfit us for Christ’s coming. The world tends to draw us down by its gratifications and by its cares. There is only one way by which we can rise triumphant above these things – by constant watching unto prayer, that is, by sleeplessness unto prayer. Watch in this passage is the same strong word used in Ephesians 6:18, and always the same strong phrase in every season. The man who spends little time in prayer, who is not steadfast and constant in prayer, will not be ready for the Lord when He comes. But we may be ready. How? Pray! Pray! Pray!” R. A. Torrey, How to Pray,  p. 23

Scripture informs us that Christ died to purchase a people unto Himself whom He is presently “sanctify(ing) and cleanse(ing) it with the washing of water by the word.” Jesus will soon return to gather a people “to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” 

“Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; ²⁶ That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷ That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27

HOW did Jesus teach us to overcome temptation to sin and be ready with unspotted garments for His soon return?

“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

Prayer is a matter of life and death. The person who doesn’t find it important to pray is not living by faith and is denying Christ. Most people believe that in order to deny Christ, one must verbally denounce Him. Not so! God’s Word reveals to us that backsliding—departing from Christ as “first love”—happens in the heart (Revelation 2:1-5).

“The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways (will reap an apostate state of heart): and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.” Proverbs 14:14

A person who is not in abiding fellowship with Christ through prayer merely has “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5).

Any person who has gotten saved and yet now does not acknowledge and enact what Jesus instructed, is in denial of Him. According to the LORD, His people must “watch” and “pray” to “be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”

One’s relationship to Christ is directly reflected in his prayer life or lack thereof. If one has no prayer life, it is because he does not count the Son of God important enough to spend time with or to get to know. Because of this, that person fatally allows the “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things” to displace His relationship with the Savior.

“Lord, teach us to pray.”  We also should ask the LORD to “teach us to pray.” The disciples called on Jesus to teach them to pray—to have a prayer life. Christ answered them and us by giving the whole Church a model prayer to be followed in spontaneous and joyful relationship. Here it is:

“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.” Luke 11:1-4

Jesus Is Coming.

Prayer: Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, I ask You to teach me to pray. Here and now I lay my life into Your holy hands afresh. You must increase, and I must decrease. In the name of Jesus, please bless this life to be dead and buried and raised up by You, LORD. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

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