Why Prayer Is Important - Pursuing Intimacy With God
Why Prayer Is Important (And Spending Time With God)
God sees you as a precious treasure, and He desires to have close fellowship with you. More than anything God wants you to have intimacy with God, close fellowship with Him, and a partnership with God in His kingdom work & mission.
Why Prayer Is Important (And Spending Time With God)
God desires for you to spend time with Him daily and intimately communicate with Him, to hear His voice, to enjoy fellowship with Him, to trust and follow Him, and to join Him in His kingdom work. He wants to give your life great value and meaning and purpose through these things.
There are many reasons why you should pray and spend time with God. Here is why you should pray and regularly spend time with God:
Why Prayer Is Important (And Spending Time With God)
#1 Reason Why Prayer Is Important: God Desires Close Fellowship With You
1 Corinthians 1:9 tells us that God’s desire and God’s call for you is first to have close fellowship with Him. God created you to have the closest possible fellowship with Him.
“God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 1:9
The Greek word for fellowship is “koinania”. This means the closest possible intimate fellowship with God, complete unity with God (being one with Him), and also having a partnership with God in His Kingdom work and mission.
God has a desire in His heart for you. To have close fellowship with you. Because He loves you so much and you are so special and precious to Him. Why is prayer important ? Because it is important to God to have close fellowship with you.
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” – Galatians 3:26
“ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business; I have called you friends…” – John 15:15
See “Your True Identity In Christ” (Who you are in Christ)
Another Reason Why Prayer Is Important (And Spending Time With God)
God desires for you to know Him more and more. As you know God more you will trust and believe Him more. And you will love God more and more also.
God’s desire is for you to grow closer to Him, and more like Jesus. Another reason why prayer is important – because God wants you to grow closer to Him and more like Jesus.
John 17:3 ” Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Being a Christian is much more than being saved and then waiting around to go to heaven. God wants you to grow closer to Him, and to know Him in real and personal ways. God wants you to fully trust Him no matter what, as a result of knowing Him personally. The more you know God personally and in real ways, the more you will trust, obey, and follow Him.
Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. “
Psalm 27:4 “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”
Remember, God wants much more for you in your fellowship with Him than just to know about Him. God wants you to know Him in real & personal ways, by seeing and experiencing Him in and around your life. This is a much better & more intimate and real knowledge of God than just knowing about Him.
Another Reason Why Prayer Is Important (And Spending Time With God)
Jesus is The Source of life. Not just physical life. Jesus is The Source of Abundant life. An abundant, full, and meaningful life. And Jesus is The Source of eternal life. An eternal life in Paradise (heaven) with Him.
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Another reason why prayer is important – God wants you to have full abundant life here, and then eternal life with Him in heaven. Abundant life is a full life with great meaning and purpose.
John 14:6 “Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life…”
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Why Prayer Is Important – Jesus Is The Source Of Abundant Life
What do you think of when you hear the words “abundant life” ? Having a lot of material things ? Having a lot of money ? Living on a tropical island ? Something else? In John 10:10 Jesus tells us that He came to give us life – eternal life forever in heaven, and abundant & meaningful life here on earth.
John 14:6 Jesus tells us that “He is the life” – the source of eternal life and abundant life. You need to walk with Jesus in an intimate love relationship, daily trusting & obeying & following Him, in order to experience the full and abundant life only He can give.
You cannot have abundant and full life without Jesus. When you give yourself fully to Jesus, then He will fill you with His overflowing and abundant and victorious life – He is the life. When you do not spend time with Jesus regularly, you are unplugging yourself from The Source of abundant life.
“O, the fullness, the pleasure, the sheer excitement of knowing God on earth.” – Jim Elliott
Another Reason Why Prayer Is Important (And Spending Time With God)
God is The Source of all you need and desire. People that truly know God in personal and real ways know that only God is perfectly faithful, and that He will satisfy your every need and desire. God not only is The Source of all physical and material needs, but also emotional and spiritual needs as well.
God also is The Source of satisfaction for your soul. Only Jesus can fill the void in every person’s soul. Only Jesus can bring true satisfaction and peace. And only Jesus can give you a truly satisfying life full of purpose and meaning. All the things the world has to offer will eventually disappoint you and leave you unsatisfied.
Lamentations 3:24 – “I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
John 6:35 “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Psalm 63:1-5 “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.”
Another Reason Why Prayer Is Important (And Spending Time With God)
Only Jesus can give you purpose, meaning, and direction for your life. Another reason why prayer is important – you will miss out on God’s best for you and your life when you do not seek Him and His will & plan for your life.
John 8:12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Isaiah 55:1-3 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy ? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”
More Reasons Why Prayer Is Important (And Spending Time With God)
You need to pray and spend time with God in order to know God in personal and real ways. And you need to be fully committed to Him in order to trust and follow Him wherever and however He leads you. And you need to walk closely with God in your daily life, so that He can bring about all that He has planned for your life.
The more you know God personally, the more you will love Him. And the more you will be devoted to Him. And He will become your First Love, your Treasure, and your Passion.
Philippians 3:8-10 – “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my LORD, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ-yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”
Psalm 27:4 – “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”
Like Paul & David, you need to be passionate in your seeking to know God, and in your fellowship with Him.
Seek God With All Your Heart
God’s word promises us that when we seek God with all of our heart we will find Him. May we have a desire and passion in our hearts to pray and spend time with God and seek Him.
”Now devote your heart and souls to seeking the Lord your God.” – I Chronicles 22:19
”And you my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek Him he will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.” – I Chronicles 28:9
“For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:11-13
In Part 2 we will look at more reasons why prayer is important (and spending time with God). Remember, the number 1 reason why prayer is important is because God desires to have close fellowship and intimacy with Him. Because God loves you so much and you are so special and precious to Him, He longs for you to spend time with Him and enjoy close fellowship with Him.
Pursuing Intimacy With God is committed to helping you with the most important thing in your life… your intimacy with God , your fellowship with Him, and your partnership with God in His Kingdom work & mission.
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