Prayer… This is one thing that we as youth can not place too much importance upon. Prayer is the line of communication between our Father in Heaven and us that cannot be broken without forfeiting our eternal wellbeing. It is very important that we keep this line open between our Father and us. We must not only keep the line in working condition but also keep the cables sizzling. So hot that they cannot be touched by the enemy, Satan. This is what Paul meant when he said, “Pray without ceasing.” Now, speaking in a practical sense, how is this possible? Hardly giving us time to be confounded by him, he says, “Quench not the Spirit.” There is the answer to our question; when the spirit of Christ is dwelling within us, we are constantly in communication with Him – whether it is consciously or unconsciously. While the flag is flying high from the castle of our heart to show that the king is in residence there, nothing can cool the circuit.

“As children of our heavenly Father, we have been given the immeasurable privilege of coming into His holy presence with our praises and petitions. Sadly many Christians do not value or understand what an amazing opportunity they have…” – HW Magazine

Yes, sadly many do not. Many people look at prayer as a sort of religious exercise; they do not realize what an opportunity they are missing. Prayer is an undevoidable privilege given freely to all… but unaccepted by many.



As youth we need to spend time with God, we need to have a time of strengthening and sharpening of our character. While we are building our life is when we need to seek God in prayer. He has much in store for us in His heavenly warehouses, and what is holding us back from receiving them? We only need to ask and we shall receive. God wants us to spend time with Him, to spend time seeking His face.



Christ said, “Pray lest ye enter into temptation.” He knew the importance that prayer has for our wellbeing. For Christ, prayer was an actual communication with His Father in Heaven. It wasn’t one of those mechanically memorized prayers that we spit out thoughtlessly so many times. He wanted to gain audience with His Father. This is the same thing that God wants of us; He wants us to speak with Him, to tell Him our problems, to unload our burdens at His feet, to praise Him in all circumstances, to build faith in Him, to daily lay ourselves down at His feet. God wants to work with us as a father beside his son. He wants to have a relationship with us, yes, one like He had with Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David. We have an eternity of learning ahead of us. We are only preparing for it in this short breath of life, but God wants to give us a foretaste of His wonderful plan for eternity!





The question is asked, “How can we maintain the balance between ‘praying in faith’ and asking, ‘not my will, but Thine be done’?” But really, there ought not to be a separation. Saying, “not my will, but Thine be done” is the only way we can pray in faith. Any other way is not trusting God, which is what faith is all about. Simply because our prayers are not answered the way we would have liked them to be does not mean that our prayer was not or is not going to be answered at all. When Christ said, “Not my will, but Thine be done,” He displayed the greatest faith known to mankind. He trusted His body and soul into the hands of God.

Many people view faith through rather fatalistically tinted glasses. “If only I had faith… I could… move mountains, I could…” but lets stop here for a moment and take a second look. We can have faith and we can move mountains, but moving the Rocky Mountains to the east coast would hardly be helpful to God! Instead, the mountains which we have to move today are not physical ones, but rather they are mountains in our lives, trials and difficulties, that can be moved by faith. All we must do is trust God, to say, “Not my will but Thine be done.” Yes, we can start moving mountains right now; or rather we can start trusting God to move the mountains for us.



When we face physical situations that are testing our faith we need to trust God’s will. We don’t need to try moving the mountains, or healing the sick, for we cannot. There has never been anybody who has, no, not even Christ! Christ Himself said, “I can of mine own self do nothing!” which was a result of His life purpose, “I came… not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” Our Father is the one who can and does according to His selfless will. When we ask of the Lord, we must keep in mind that He knows what is best and even if He does not answer us in the way we think, He has something better for us in mind. When Job—spotless before the Lord—was going through the testing and trying of his faith, he trusted God, and was willing to place his entire life into the hands of God, thus completely defeating Satan’s wicked plan. Yes, faith has conquered the world and the prince thereof—Satan—at the cross. (Please Note: I do not mean to bring Christ down by saying this. I mean to magnify Faith. Christ lived and breathed His Father, we need to do the same.)



Satan knows that once he destroys our line of communication with God, we are helpless. This is the first thing that he tries to destroy—our relationship with God. This is his entire goal for mankind; he wants us to misunderstand God. He wants us to get an unclear picture; in fact he doesn’t want us to get one at all. If he can break our spiritual relationship with God, he has gotten a strong foothold on our heart. There he can then instill fear, fear that cannot be there when we have a trusting relationship with our Father in Heaven. Is it possible to have trust or faith without prayer?



Through prayer faith has its beginning, without prayer we cannot have faith, without prayer it is absolutely impossible to have faith! Without faith we cannot have a trusting relationship with God. Unless we take the time to get to know God personally we will have trouble believing His words. For after all, why would you believe somebody that you don’t even know? I read somewhere about a bumper sticker which said, “God isn’t dead; I just talked to Him this morning!” That is the kind of relationship we need to maintain with God. We need to know Him personally.