Importance of Prayer

Acts 10:4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.”

In the earlier verses, we read when Cornelius was devout and his family feared God. These things please God but when we pray, these come to God’s immediate attention and He responds. We should know the effect of praying well. Cornelius was in a time where the Gospel was not opened up to the gentiles yet. Paul’s ministry has not started in full swing yet and the current leader Peter has issues with gentiles as we know how Paul had to confront Peter in Galatians 1. But because Cornelius prayed constantly and gave alms, he became the first gentile convert. It is important for us to understand that our prayers are powerful and God is listening.

According to His will

1 John 5:14 says that we can ask anything to God which are according to His will and He hears us. This confidence, we have with God. Asking things according to His will is very hard as we should understand what His will is. Bible says that His will is Holiness as in 1 Thes 4:3. For this will to happen He had to send His own begotten Son to the world. For this will, He had given us the Holy Spirit, the most precious gift of all times. If need anything that is in-line with His will, that is our pursuit of holiness, we can confidently ask God. We have to understand that Cornelius had no idea about Jesus as he was a gentile. But He gets to hear the gospel earlier than most others.

Luke 18:10-14 has a parable about two men who were praying. One was self-sufficient in righteousness and had no scope for further rectification. But the other’s prayer was very simple and pleaded God to work. It is not the Pharisee’s sin to be in that stage but his prayer was not right. Our prayers can cause our righteousness to fail if we do not pray in the right sense. Jesus said that Justification was the reason why both of them came to pray, but only one of the two received.

There is another thing to note here that God did not want Cornelius to go meet Peter, but rather Peter had to come visit him as per the angel’s instruction. This the expectation God has upon His servants. God knew Peter would not agree to Go, actually if we further read, we can see that Peter did not eat any of the animals shown in the vision and God had to convince him three times before the meeting. God sees such prayers as powerful and is shaken.

Wicked Intentions

Psalms 66:18, 1 Peter 3:12, James 4:3 and many other verses point to the fact that God does not answer prayers because of wicked intentions. Just like we know that God can hear people when they are righteous, we also know that God can completely ignore prayers from men who have evil intentions. If they are answered, then there is somebody else answering prayers. It is important for the Church to measure everything in terms of holiness. Even the devil can provide material wealth for his own plans, but God gives everything to us according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:9).

In the same chapter verses 1 – 9 we read about persistent prayers to God so that we would receive justice. Jesus says that if we cry to God, He will surely hear and bring justice without delay. In the end Christ questions if He will find faith in earth even after living so well with this support from God. According to verse 1, losing heart is lack of faith. God has been answering our prayers in His time and we should understand that He is really doing this speedily. But still we somehow manage to complain. We can also see that the widow is asking for something that she legally owns and the enemy is trying to encroach. This prayer is important to all Christians as Jesus the husband has purchased something for us like freedom from anxiety which most of us have lost it. We need to legally own these things.

Corporate Prayers

Corporate prayer has more power as Jesus wanted us to agree in asking (Mat 18:19), like if we together agree God would answer. This has to happen especially in families where disagreement is seen the most. God does not answer our prayers about our children because of this reason. There is power in two people joining together in prayer as we see that if we gather in Jesus’ name like this church, Jesus is already here. He has given the Church authority to decide in what we want as in the same context Jesus mentions whatever you bind in earth shall be bound in heaven.

Prayer is not optional as Jesus wants us to pray continually. But not as a ritual but as a constant communication chain with God.

Amen.