Pray?

Importance of Prayer?

All throughout scripture prayer is essential in the lives of those who follow the Lord. Prayer is needed to be filled with God’s Spirit and when we are filled with the Spirit God gives us knowledge of how to live a life worthy to Him and how to be prepared for battle against the enemy.

We can only know and understand God’s commands and how to stand against the enemy when we fill ourselves with Holy Scripture. We are not going to understand God’s Word if we are not filled with God’s Spirit, we will not be filled with God’s Spirit unless we are in prayer taking the time to form a relationship with our Heavenly Father, and we will not understand how to come before the LORD in prayer if we do not indulge in God’s Word. With all of these things being so closely intertwined, prayer is essential.

Not only is prayer essential for this reason but it is one of God’s commands for us. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 states in simplest terms, “pray without ceasing.” God wants us to continually be praying. This can be on our knees crying out for help to Him or it can simply be resting in His presence as long as we are acknowledging God in our lives at every moment and giving Glory to Him and Him alone.

Why do we need to have a 24-7 prayer movement? Can’t we just pray on our own?

Praying alone is definitely an essential part of our lives as we live to bring Glory to God. Throughout the Gospels we see Jesus going off by himself to pray. We need to take our time one-on-one with God to deepen our own personal relationships with Him. However, God tells us there is power when more people come together. Matthew 18:20 says, “For when two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” When we come together lifting the same prayers to God, there is more power in that.

Also, we want to see the Body of Christ come together in Unity and this is a perfect opportunity to do so. Psalm 133:1 says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” God created us to follow His commands but also to be in unity. It is pleasing to Him when brothers and sisters come together to lift up His name.

We pray for this unity to be true of UWSP, this city, state, nation, and world.

One last question to address: Why a specific prayer room?

We already know that God is glorified when we come together in unity. Having a specific prayer room gives us even more unity. If you didn’t already know, God blessed us with our room to pray in, an anonymous donation for all the supplies we needed, and free furniture in just 2 ½ days! It was incredible how quickly God provided and in the amount that He did. God has blessed us with this opportunity for us to utilize. In Acts 1:12-14, Jesus had just been ascended into heaven and the apostles return to Jerusalem. The verses say that they went upstairs to the room where they all joined together constantly in prayer. The original text actually uses the word “the” instead of just a room. It shows the apostles so to a specific room where they were in constant prayer. When we unite into one room, God’s presence shows up with fire. Our vision is that we will have passionate hearts that believe when we constantly call on the name of the Lord in one specific place, God will overwhelm us with His Holy presence, give us the desires of His heart and then bless us with answers to huge prayers.

God is all powerful and Mighty God. We cannot change people’s lives but we can and are commanded to ask and trust for God to change people’s lives. We trust the Lord to change lives here on this UWSP campus but also believe that God will answer prayers in bigger ways and bless us more when we actually humble ourselves and come together in unity as we pray continually to see God’s power work in amazing ways in the students’ lives here at UWSP and in this community. We pray that you will allow God to continually give you a bigger passion for how essential prayer is for God to change the lives here on this campus.