Prayer Life by Pastor Isreal Easter

These last couple of years have been difficult for a lot of people and our communities and churches. We have faced some hard times, seen many loved ones pass on and still some are struggling with the effects of the pandemic: socially, mentally, economically, and spiritually. One thing that remains constant is the NEED for prayer. Seeing as how REVIVAL is our theme I want to encourage or challenge you to be more devoted, more sincere, and more enthusiastic in our prayer life so we can be revived. I challenge each of us to pray an extra prayer each day, read more scripture, or spend more time praising God. We need to pray for the lost to find Christ, pray for our country, or whatever God has laid on our hearts. We got to keep praying! 

Luke 22:46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Jesus tells his disciples to rise and pray, reminding you this is after he had found them asleep twice already. This advice or I should say command from our Lord and Savior is still true today, Why are we sleeping? Rise and Pray so we won’t enter into temptation. In the last couple of years, we have seen people get sick, lose their jobs, quit going to church, and even give up. That’s not what we should be doing, we need to rise and praise God and encourage one another to get more involved with Christ and the church and closer to Christ not farther away. Colossians 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Stay devoted

As Christians, sometimes our prayers may become habitual or routine. If this happens we have to ask ourselves are we really praying? When we pray we have to be sincere and do it wholeheartedly. Colossians 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Praying has a purpose, it a real conversation with our Lord and Savior, so why take it lightly, we have got to be more in tune and sincere in our prayers to God. This reminds me of a quote from War Room, “The goal of prayer is not to change God’s mind about what you want. The goal of prayer is to change your own heart, to want what He wants, to the glory of God.” https://bookroo.com/quotes/war-room 

In these last couple of years, the pandemic has taught us to be more alone or separated than we once were. This is not always a bad thing, sometimes we just got to still away and pray. I think we need to get back to our prayer closets or areas where we always go to do that special praying. As in Matthew where Jesus just fed the 5000 and now was getting ready to walk on water, the Bible says he went alone. Matt 14:23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening has come, he was there alone. When He was in the garden, moments before being betrayed and knowing what was ahead of him, even the disciples were with him but they slept, he went on and kept on praying alone. 

In closing Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Our society seems to become weaker and weaker because we are getting farther and farther away from God and His Word. Let’s start being the prayer warrior Christ needs us to be. Just as Jesus tells the disciples here, the flesh is weak but thank God the spirit is willing, so in our prayer life, stay dedicated and keep praying, we all need it.