Breakthrough prayer

Prayer is as to the spirit of man as air is to the physical body. As a Christian, when your prayer life dwindles, you feel suffocated, disorganized and frustrated. You will become less enthusiastic in your daily activities. You feel as if you are the only one dragging yourself along the path of life. A close observer can easily notice the dullness in you. This is because you are somehow disconnected from the ultimate source of life, strength, order and direction, God Almighty.

One of the major communication media between God and His children is prayer. Our relationship with God is incomplete without prayer. Interestingly, the same thing is applicable to other gods. Prayer is a major effective mode of communication between these lesser gods and their worshippers too. Prayer is not one of the ifs of the Bible, but one of the strong whens of the Bible. Jesus, speaking to the disciples, in Matt. 6:5 says, “And when you pray…” not if you pray, implying that prayer is a must. I took the pain of checking through most of the popular translations of the Bibles, none of them has succeeded in replacing the word when with any word which suggest conditionality of prayer. Truly, prayer is a must for every Christian.

Unfortunately, as important as prayer is, in most cases, it is the most neglected aspect of Christian worship. Casual and simple publicity can gather people for praise cantata but not prayer meeting. The sternest announcement from the pulpit can only attract a handful of people if ithas to do with prayer and fasting. Matthew Skariah, in reacting to this hell-masterminded attitude, commented thus, “It is truly deplorable that such a major Biblical doctrine in both the Old and New Testaments have been neglected, ignored and disrespected.”