A few Sundays back, while at church, Roger Simpson, the Vicar of St. Michael le Belfrey, said something that started me thinking hard about my personal walk with God. He quoted from Robert Murray McCheyne, an 18^th century church minister who said, "What a man or woman is on their knees alone before God is what they are and nothing more". This simple but yet profound observation best sums up the essence of who we are as Christians. Namely, we are sinners saved by Christ, not because we deserved it but because God in his mercy and love wanted to do it. We are nothing more than living dust that lives each day here by the grace of God. We are nothing more or less and we are because Christ is in us.

So what has this got to do with prayer? Indeed why should we pray? I could answer the question by quoting you Paul in his letter to the Ephesians who told us to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions and with all kinds of prayers" (Ephesians 6:8), or I could quote you Jesus himself who encourages us all to "always pray and not to give up" (Luke 18:1), but praying for the sake of praying, or because the Bible says so is missing the point. Indeed, these types of prayers might seem tedious or even officious to those who fail to understand the full divine nature of prayer.

Prayer is a means of communication between you and God. Prayer is, if you like, a direct line to God. Like a mobile phone that allows you to make calls to anywhere at any time, prayer is your permanent means of communication with God. Prayer is available to all who believe in the power of the resurrection of Christ and accept Him as their personal Lord and Saviour. To Christians, prayer is their means of sharing their hopes and fears, their joy and sorrows with God. It is also a means by which they express adoration and praise to God their Father.

Like our earthly relationships that thrive on communication, so too is our relationship with God. More often than not, I find prayer to be a very healing too for me. It soothes and comforts, it lifts your spirit up when you are down, and perhaps most importantly it brings you closer to God. This particular aspect of prayer is very important. Prayer reveals the most holy God to you. It allows you to know who God is and how God conducts His relationship with you and your fellow human beings. It binds and strengthens your relationship with God and with other Christians.

Secondly, prayer is a tool for Christians to use in their fight in spiritual warfare. Luke writes that we are to pray so that we will not fall into temptation (Luke 22:40). As our relationship with God is strengthened, spiritual attacks from the devil intensify. The evil one will seek to make us stumble and make us doubt about our whole relationship with God. Very often I find that these attacks are strongest when I am determined or enthusiastic about doing something for God and His Kingdom here on earth. We are told to go into spiritual warfare by putting on "the full armour of God" (Ephesians 6:11), so that we will be ready to fight the devil. In fact, this whole passage (Ephesians 6:11-17) is worth a read, and I personally find it most encouraging. In 2 Thessalonians, we are told that "the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one" (2 Thess 3:3).

Thirdly, prayer is an expression of faith. As Christians, we believe in the power of prayer to change things and to deliver us from evil. Indeed, we are called to pray and to believe that we will receive what we ask for (Mark 11:24). James also writes that when we pray, we should not doubt. For if we do so, we should not expect to receive anything from God (James, 1:6-8).

Prayer is the key that unlocks faith in our lives.

Prayer and faith are complimentary. As Christians, we need to put our faith into action and one way to do that is through prayer. Indeed as I pointed our earlier, Paul asks us to pray at all times and under all circumstances. We should pray not only in good times but in bad times as well. Bruce Barton, the editor of the "Life Application Bible", notes that prayer is not optional. It is not something that you do only when you feel good, but something that you do all the time. Especially so during bad times. Barton notes that prayer is absolutely essential and not replaceable with anything else.

In summing up, why should we pray? We pray because firstly, it helps us foster a deeper and more intimate relationship with God. Secondly, as Christians, we are expected to engage in spiritual warfare and be harassed by the devil, who will continually seek to cause us to stumble. Thus God provides us with the most powerful weapon to combat this enemy and we are to use it to keep the evil one at bay and in his proper place. Remember, our prayers are powerful, and by faith we can cast out demons and spirits. By faith too, we will claim God's victory over the evil one. Thirdly, prayer strengthens our faith. It allows us not only to exercise our faith, but also to remind ourselves that prayer is indeed essential and not an optional add-on to our Christian life.

Kenneth Seet