The Necessity of Prayer

My prayer life deepened out of necessity. After a spiritual earthquake of epic proportions cracked the very foundation of my life, not even my construct of faith was spared from its destruction. In retrospect, that’s all it was: a construct of faith. Despite having been a lifelong Christian, I had no practical understanding of the power of prayer, the authority we carry within us in the form of the Holy Spirit, and the intimacy we cultivate in the secret place with Christ. 

Until the barren season.

In Christianese we call it “the wilderness”, which is equally as accurate. No matter how much I prayed, I could not claw my way out of the grief. It was suffocating. Not only was I suffering in private, my plight was evident in public. I was emaciated and jobless for months, aimlessly living with my parents and wondering what my purpose was on this earth if I couldn’t even provide for myself as an adult. 

Nothing I prayed for came to pass…that my eyes could see. Still, it can be so discouraging to be on your knees morning, noon, and night, praying for something, anything to dislodge this stagnancy. What I discovered in this place of pain is that prayer is not begging. It is not even necessarily asking, receiving or taking. Prayer is spending time with the Father in a secret, quiet place where his voice is the only one we can hear. In this place we align our hearts with the will of the Father. Oftentimes, God will hide his hand so we can seek his face. What I’ve found is that as we align ourselves with his heart, our desires are refined to reflect his own for our lives. And when we pray for what has not yet manifested, it is often already loosed in the spirit. It was easy to pray fervently and constantly when I was in a desperate place. Now that the fear of God is in me and some of the external pressure has alleviated, I find that meditating on God’s word daily has disciplined my flesh to pray like David: first with prayer and thanksgiving, then with supplication and request, and ending with a reiteration of our gratitude.

Prayer is our greatest comfort, and our greatest weapon. 

-Written by Christy Bradley