Growing up I never gave much thought to prayer. Even as a young adult in my twenties, prayer was far from my mind. I mean, I would pray the "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer before going to bed. It was the only prayer I knew as a child. No one taught it to me, I recall reading it somewhere and memorized it for myself. As I got older, I would pray to God when things went wrong but never talked to Jesus about anything.
You see I didn't go to church on a regular basis. The church was rarely talked about in my household. We heard gospel music on Sunday, but no church. We had a large Bible laid open on the living room coffee table, but there was no praying.
There is no way I can even imagine my life without prayer. I look back and realized that God still answered most of my prayers even though I didn't attend church or did not fully know Him. This is why Psalm 145:18 is one of my favorite scripture. It states, "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." And Mark 11:24 is another one. It says, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." As far as I am concerned, prayer is what saved me from taking my own life when going through a state of depression being a single parent and raising teenage boys. My life was extremely difficult when they were in high school and all kinds of trouble was happening. This is why I say I cannot imagine life without prayer!
Now I want to leave you all with this commandment from God about prayer - In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, we are to "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
Be blessed!
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