…The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
James 5:16
Can prayer really make a difference? Can my prayers actually change things? Is it possible for the will of God to be thwarted because I don’t pray? You may be thinking “If God is so powerful, He’s going to do everything the way He wants anyway, so why do I need to pray?” These seem like legitimate questions and the answers you give them reflect the very foundation of your relationship with the Lord. Remember God calls you to pray not so we can have our way with Him, but so He can have His way with us. In other words, prayer gives us the ability to tap into the power of the God of the universe and be involved in His work on earth.
God uses prayer to make the impossible, possible and the ordinary, extraordinary. Prayers make our efforts effective and help us to define God’s will more clearly. C.H. Spurgeon said, “Whenever God determines to do a great work. He first sets His people to pray.” Faithful praying releases the Holy Spirit to act and allows us to see God in His full glory.
Someone once said, “God does things when we pray that He does not do when we do not pray.” Be inspired to seek the Lord in prayer. Look up prayer in your Bible’s concordance. Read the prayers of the great saints of the Bible and study those verses. It will help you become endeared to prayer and to realize just how vital prayer is.
Prayer Focus: Thank God for hearing all the prayers that have been lifted up on our church’s behalf. Thank Him for answering them. Pray that you will pray more than ever before and that everything we do as a church will be labored over in prayer.
Posted by Northview Prayer Team 
