Prayer is just like breathing; it is the heavenly aroma that accompanies our life and activities

Welcome, dear readers, to „Daily Word for Spiritual Edification”! I thank God for every one of you and pray you maintain your hunger for the Word of God and fellowship with God in prayer. We are continuing about the importance of prayer.

We have established that God’s plans are already blessed, so we need to submit our plans to God’s plans. Besides, we also learnt that to pray is to invite God to take part in our lives. He will not come into our lives if we don’t ask Him. Let’s continue to examine the traits of effective prayer.

Prayer is just like breathing; it is the heavenly aroma that accompanies our life and activities. Prayer is the living breath of heaven. As believers, we can be givers and can be involved in many important activities; nevertheless, without prayer all this ‘work’ will lack the heavenly breath of life. Take a look at artificial flowers: they are beautiful, but have no aroma. We are able to do good works without prayer; but we have to realize that our works will lack the aroma of life, the footprints of heaven. If these flowers were alive, then they would smell.

How would you like it? Do you want your work to be beautiful on the outside, or you want to spread the life of God all around you? Would you like people to praise you and say, „Oh, he is doing so much!” What is this work worth without the heavenly aroma, without the spirit of life? Sometimes it may seem that this can be done without praying and the result is good, but this work will fall apart, just give it some time, because it was not done in heaven. Every work that has been accomplished in heaven abides forever. The footprints of heaven are eternal footprints. So whatever you do –whether you are a housewife who raises children or a husband, or a teacher, or a minister of God, – immerse you work and everybody around you in prayer and spread the aroma of heaven.

You can even do an experiment: try doing some things without praying, but others – with praying. Also pray when you do them and after you have finished. Immerse some of your activities in prayer and watch what the result will be. You will see for yourself that everything that is done without prayer lacks the life of God. God’s life comes through prayer.

Prayer is also a fight, a battle and a war. Satan is not afraid of a believer who does not pray and does not pay much attention to prayer. Satan will even help you to stay busy so that you would not have any time for praying. He is only afraid of those believers that pray and he will do everything in his power to bring you every possible disappointment to stop your prayers, to create barriers and to make you weak, so that you wouldn’t pray.

Have you seen ‘Chronicles of Narnia’? Or maybe you have read the books? They were written by Clive Staples Lewis. C.S. Lewis wrote stories using images to describe different types of people. Through the character of Lion, the author showed us Jesus. In one of his books Satan was displayed as a doctor who had an enemy; this enemy was God. This doctor had a patient who was a believer. The doctor gave assignments to his helpers not to allow his patients to pray and fellowship with God, doctor’s enemy, «Do whatever you need to do, but do not allow them to fellowship with God, because it will be our end! » Do you realize what that means? When a believers starts praying effectively, the hell trembles!

„…men always ought to pray and not lose heart» (Luke, 18:1).

We will continue tomorrow!

I wish you abundant God’s blessings!

Pastor Rufus Ajiboye