Praying is absolutely necessary for a Christian—I would say it is vital and indispensable. Some have compared prayer to breathing and I would agree. A person cannot survive more than a few minutes without breathing and a believer can’t prosper in his walk with the Lord without prayer.
What is the best part of praying?
A more spiritual Christian than me would say it is praying itself. There is nothing better than spending time alone with our God, praising Him, interceding for others and pouring out our hearts in his presence. This is what prayer is all about.
Others, a little bit less spiritual than me perhaps, would argue that the best part of praying is receiving the answers we have prayed for. There is great joy when we hear testimonies of healings, miracles, providential interventions by God and many other blessings as a result of our prayers.
For me, the best part of praying is being part of the answer to my own prayers. It is good to pray and spend time alone with God; no doubt about that. I confess that my prayer life is not always what it should be, and that I want to learn to pray better and longer; but I do pray and I rejoice when I spend time with my Lord and when He answers me.
I rejoice even more when He uses me as part of the answer to the prayers. It is good, for example to pray for my sons, but it is better to pray for them with my lips and to help them with my own hands. I have prayed that God will help them spiritually and I talk to them about Christ; I have prayed that God prospers their financial situation and we have also been used by God to give them a hand when they need it; I have prayed for God to help them in many other situations and we have been blessed to take part in some of them.
For whom or what do you pray for? If you pray for the salvation of others, you might need to be like Isaiah who answered his own prayer. He said: “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Perhaps you can’t be a missionary, but you can pray for them and send money to them and write letters (or emails, texts, etc.) to them, and tell those around you about Jesus.
Be the answers to your own prayers whenever possible. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ. Become also a follower of your prayers, or be like James says, “doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).
Alexander Gonzalez
