"Through Prayer, To Prayer"

     While it is true that we come to God through prayer, it is just as true that we come to prayer through God.

    "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).

    Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ and the enabling of the Holy Spirit, we can no more rightly pray than we can accomplish any spiritual endeavor that meets our Heavenly Father's standards.  "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  Thus, our Father sends the Spirit of Christ to indwell believers for the purpose of empowering our communication with Himself.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).  The same Lord Jesus who prayed so effectually and fervently during His earthly lifetime now lives in us, giving believers hope that we can communicate with God in a manner pleasing to Him, and beneficial to us and those for whom we pray.

    As a new year begins, nothing lies before us more important than our conscious walk with our Heavenly Father in loving and prayerful devotion.  Recognizing that prayer begins with Him, and is empowered by Him, leads us to the throne of grace with confidence that we can grow and flourish in this most blessed of spiritual graces.  "Lord, teach us to pray" asked the Savior's disciples long ago (Luke 11:1).  We do well to echo their request, but also supplement the asking with grateful affirmation of indwelling Power from above to motivate, enable, and fulfill the life of prayer to which God calls us.  The praying Christ lives in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Through Him we can, must, and will walk with our Father as we first see prayer as a gift, then as a responsibility, and finally as one of the most wondrous evidences that the Christian life is the life of Christ revealed in those who live - and pray - "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).  The year that lies before us will demand such confidence, and God will provide such communion as we believe and rejoice that He has indeed sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba Father...

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit."

(Ephesians 6:18)

Weekly Memory Verse

    The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

(Psalm 27:1)