Jan 20, 2014 Words of Grace – Devoted to Prayer in 2014
We are praying together at Grace this week. The “Devoted To Prayer” guide you received on Sunday gives you Bible passages and prayer requests for eight days.
Here are four benefits of persistent prayer I hope we experience this week:
1. The increase of the glory of God in our minds. Coming to God in prayer each day will remind us of his graciousness and his greatness. He is gracious to hear us and great to provide for us. These two attributes of God elevate his glory in our minds.
2. The increase of our sense of need. We naturally think that need is bad. So we try to avoid it at all cost. But the fact is we do need God, and realizing our need sends us to him – asking, waiting, and receiving.
3. The increase of our faith. Persistent study increases learning. Persistent investment increases wealth. Persistent service to each other increases love and appreciation. So it is with prayer. Persistent prayer increases our faith in God. Each prayer is another act of faith, which is at the heart of our relationship with him.
4. The increase of our joy. King David said of God, “In your presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11). Though God is ever-present, and we are never out of his sight, prayer is the activity of entering into the presence of God with our minds, emotions, and bodies engaged with him. The child of God experiences a unique joy in this kind of engagement with the Father.
– Scott