Prayer - How Long has it Been ?

How long has it been since you prayed? I don't mean the before-you-eat kind of prayer, but, instead, the lay-it-all-out-there kind of praying. I mean the kind of prayer where you tell God your deepest, most private thoughts; where you pour out your heart to Him. We NEED an intimate relationship with God through prayer.

Need forgiveness? Pray. Need healing? Pray. Need comfort? Pray. Need direction for your life? Pray. Need a job? Pray. Need money to pay the bills? Pray. If you truly have a need, God wants to meet that need in your life!

There are some prerequisites though. First of all, you must put your faith and trust in Christ for forgiveness of your sinfulness and be committed to being a Christ- follower. He hears the prayers of His children. Only those who are in His family of believers are His children. After that, you must pray within His will. If you know you've been called to be an evangelist, but you are praying for a job as an accountant, that probably isn't in His will - and you know it. The same goes for asking the Lord to let you win the lottery. He doesn't want you to waste your money on such things! The last prerequisite is simple but we sometimes forget it. We must ASK, believing that if it is within His will, He will provide what we need. Yes, God knows our needs before we ever come to Him, but He wants to hear it from us. He wants us to communicate with Him!

So, I' m not a Name-it-and-Claim-it kind of gal, because I don't believe we can ask for just anything because we want it, and then expect God to give it to us. However, we ARE told to bring our burdens to the Lord. We are also told that if we call to Him, He will hear us and will show us great and mighty things which we did not know. So I ask again, how long has it been since you prayed? Has it been a while? I want to encourage you to find a quiet spot and spend some time with God today. He's waiting to hear from you!