Prayer

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Original Author: Flora Seward

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Prayer
What is prayer?
Prayer is communication with God. Because God is personal, all people can offer prayers. However, sinners who have not trusted Jesus Christ for their salvation remain alienated from God. So while unbelievers may pray, they do not have the basis for a rewarding fellowship with God. They have not met the conditions laid down in the Bible for effectiveness in prayer. Christians recognize their dependence upon their creator. They have every reason to express gratitude for God''s blessings. But they have far more reason to respond to God than this. They respond to the love of God for them. God''s love is revealed through the incarnation and life of Christ. His atoning provision at the Cross, His resurrection, and His continuing presence through the Holy Spirit. Prayer can not be replaced by devout good works in a needy world. Important as service to others is, at times we must turn away from it to God, who is distinct from all things and over all things. Neither should prayer be thought of as a mystical experience in which people lose their identity in the infinite reality. Effective prayer must be a scripturally informed response of persons saved by grace to the living God who can hear and answer on the basis of Christ''s payment of the penalty that sinners deserved.
The Prayer of Jabez
I Chronicles 4:9
The Prayer of Jabez was a very simple, but beautiful and powerful prayer with a deep meaning that got the results that he wanted. Jabez was born under adverse circumstances. His mother named him Jabez because she bore him in pain. Jabez learned who the God of Israel is. He believed in God and trusted in God. He had a personal relationship with God and is prayer was heard and answered by God. Because of his knowledge of God, Jabez was able to reverse the curse that his mother had put on him at birth. Instead of becoming a man that would cause pain to others, he became a ''blessed'' man that could be a ''blessing'' to others. The Bible says that Jabez was more honorable than his brothers although his mother named him Jabez meaning to cause pain. this was the hand of God on Jabez''s life. He knew that God is the source of everything. Whatever his mother thought of him, he knew this was not the final word for his life.
Parents can damage their children''s lives by their beliefs and actions, but God can free children from wrong thinking, believing, low self estem and self pity.