What is prayer and why do you pray?!?!?

Now , I know a fabulous answer to the above question is that we, as Christians pray because Jesus did!! That is correct, however, let's make this question real and personal in your life today~ put your name in the blank "Why does____ pray?" There are so many Christians that pray at night before bed, and at mealtimes, maybe they squeeze in a morning time prayer~ not that these are bad times to pray at all; however, you will have a life changing occurance when your prayer becomes constant and continual~God tells us in His word to pray without ceasing, how many of us really do that? My favorite thing is when God wakes me up in the middle of the night and puts one of you on my heart and I wake up and sometimes, just like last night between the hours of 3 and 5~ I had a wonderful conversation with Jesus~ If you placed yourself in a car for 24 hours with your spouse or friend, and you never said a word ~ at the end of that long road trip, you would know nothing more about them than when your journey began! Without prayer, we cannot seek God, without 2 way communication, we cannot know Him more, we cannot know more about who HE is and who HE wants to be in our lives~ As I continue to grow, I am learning to pray in different ways, sometimes, I pray with petition for others, sometimes I just have prayer full of praise and thanksgiving, and adoration. Lately though, I am learning that prayer is also when I am still and quiet, and when I am listening to what God wants to say. For those of you who know me know that this is difficult, I am a motor mouth!! I've had many of you ask me how do we hear God ,how do we know that it is Him, God's word will not return void, simply ask Him, He will give you evidence that the "I am" is speaking to you!! Over the next 6 weeks on Wed. nights we will be talking about prayer, the different kinds of prayer, and how amazing it is that we serve a God who desires that direct communication with us~ when praying this week~ don't remain so focused in frusteration of trying to understand or know God's exact plan on your life that you miss the journey that you are travelling to ultimately see His face. He promises to fullfill His purpose in your life, simply ask Him in your prayer time, seek His word through the Bible, and He will speak to you this week, HE WILL SPEAK, the answer might be yes, no, or wait~ BUT THERE WILL DEFINITELY BE AN ANSWER, just make sure that you are ready to accept the answer that He chooses to give. He wants to be EVERYTHING in your life! This week my prayer for each of you is this~ that you will know Jesus more today than you did yesterday, that you will seek Him in different ways than you have before, and that He will become real to you and in your life! I pray that you absolutely crave two way communication with your Father today and always~ when times are good and when times are difficult~ HE REMAINS~ the "Alpha and Omega!"

Moment by moment~
Kimberly
Ephesians 1:17-18