The Value of Prayer

Prayer, to anyone who believes that there is a personal God, can put no value on prayer; it's the lifeline of the Christian and Jew. To pray for a Christian or Jew is to talk to his/her personal God. Prayer is a personal act and can never be otherwise.

E. M. Bounds (1835-1913) was a Methodist minister who wrote very well-known and powerful books on prayer. He was a chaplain during the American Civil War. He wrote of the power of prayer and it's moving force to change lives and situations. He wrote that prayer's reality is in the reality that God wants to communicate with His creation and wants the reality of His presence to indwell with that creation. The possibilities of prayer is that with God all things are possible and that all things can be done via prayer and the God of prayer. Philippians 4:13 is the reality and purpose of prayer in a nutshell. Prayers are essential for spiritual growth and for direction in a Christian’s life. To a Jew, the act and devotion of prayer is a solemn act of a believer reaching out to God. Prayer is a mere creature of Earth seeking and wanting to find God. A Jew knows prayer as much as breathing is part of him/her. To a Jew or even a Christian, praying is breathing on a spiritual level. One cannot remove prayer from a Christian or a Jew and expect him/her to remain spiritual.

To pray is to believe that there is someone listening who wants to hear those prayers. Prayer is only for those who believe that God is personal and wants a personal relationship with His creation. Christians know prayer and the Jew knows prayer as they both have encountered a God who declares “Talk to me and I shall listen.”