{"id":7409,"date":"2014-08-24T01:20:29","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T05:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=7409"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"privilege-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/privilege-of-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"THE PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calvin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prayer is an awesome aspect of divine fellowship.\u00a0 In fact, it is the heart and soul of our relationship with God.\u00a0 Although we communicate with our heavenly Father through Bible study, meditation, songs and worship, it is prayer that defines and undergirds each of these.\u00a0 Perhaps the greatest privilege of our Christian pilgrimage is prayer.\u00a0 How blessed we are to be invited by God Himself to sup with Him and He with us.\u00a0 The availability of God to our sometimes awkward and inconsistent faith staggers the imagination.\u00a0 Prayer is our access to the heavenly Father through His Son Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Without it, God becomes a distant deity with no invited input into our daily circumstances.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prayer is the most personal and private part of our interchange with God.\u00a0 For this reason, no one can ever keep us from praying.\u00a0 It cannot be legislated either in or out of our lives.\u00a0 We can offer our private prayers anywhere and anytime we wish.\u00a0 It is a matter of desire and need to talk to God.\u00a0 Our personal conversation with God need not interfere with anyone else’s religious freedom.\u00a0 God deals with each of us as though we were the only one with whom He converses.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus made quite a case for private prayer as He elevated the prayer closet over the street corner as a better place to pray.\u00a0 Of course Jesus did not eliminate public prayer as a part of our conversation with God.\u00a0 On several occasions He offered beautiful prayers that He apparently wanted others to hear.\u00a0 Jesus did know, however, that public prayer could get twisted and distorted because of improper motives.\u00a0 Praying done to impress others with either words or piety did not receive high marks from our Lord.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prayer requests that are made primarily to spread malicious gossip do not serve a compassionate purpose.\u00a0 Matters that would embarrass and discredit are better left for the privacy of the prayer closet.\u00a0 Prayer chains are not designed to be hot lines to the latest rumors.\u00a0 They are sources of intercession for the latest needs which can be discreetly announced.\u00a0 Prayers that intimidate and subtly boast of our own goodness fit our Lord’s definition of hypocrisy.\u00a0 Care must be taken that the public aspect of our praying is not weakened by ulterior motives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prayer, when used for its intended purpose, is nothing short of a miracle.\u00a0 To think we can talk to God about anything, anywhere, and anytime\u00a0is super…no, it is supernatural.\u00a0 This\u00a0does not mean our petitions will always be granted as we desire, but we are heard, loved and given what God deems best.\u00a0 Prayer does not always change reality, but it changes us to adjust to reality.\u00a0 T<\/span>herefore, pray lovingly without ceasing.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

     Prayer is an awesome aspect of divine fellowship.  In fact, it is the heart and soul of our relationship with God.  Although we communicate with our heavenly Father through Bible study, meditation, songs and worship, it is prayer that defines and undergirds each of these.  Perhaps the greatest privilege of our Christian pilgrimage is … Continue reading “THE PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-7409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19172,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7409\/revisions\/19172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}