Words from God

Prayer is very important to a Christian and it enable us to communicate with our Father in heaven. I went to church today and I received a bulletin from them. The first page talks about a powerful key to prayer. I felt a need to spread God's word regarding prayer and here I am doing it. I just wanna share something with all of you. For those who are not a Christian, you can read this just for some sort of knowledge or get to know what prayer is all about for a Christian. And for Christian, we usually pray alone but it would be better if you pray with the other fellow believers. Why I said this? Continue reading and you'll know the reason..

In the bible, there's a verse stating 'And I tell you more: whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them.' (Mt 18:19-20,TEV)

If you look at the Lord's Prayer, you'll see that it reflects praying together - "Our Father ... give us ... our daily bread ... forgive us our debts ... as we also have forgiven our debtors ... lead us not into temptation ... deliver us ..." (Mt 6:9-13,NIV)

Many of us miss out so much because only pray on our own. Yet, when Jesus gave us an outline for prayer, He spoke about praying together. There is power in group prayer.

If you're not praying with other believers, then you're not getting the support you need. You're missing out on one of the major benefits of being a Christian. Jesus says "Whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them." (Mt 18:19-20,TEV) That's the power of praying with other people.

Ask yourself, "Who am I consistently praying with on a regular basis?" You may be saying you've never prayed with anybody before and it scares you to death. It's okay to start slowly: When you get together with five or six other friends, you don't have to pray if you don't want to; you can sit there and be quiet.

Then, after several weeks, as you become more comfortable, you can begin to participate more in the group's prayers. You'll find a new level of stability in your life.

If you've never prayed with other people, start by praying aloud when you're alone. I do most of my praying when I'm alone in my bedroom. Another suggestion is to pray at meals.

Praying together is one form of worshipping God.

-Most of the parts are extracted from Rick Warren's Devotional on Prayer, 17 April 2010-