The Necessity of Prayer

Love for Jesus is the driving force of the Christian life. “You are my friends” (John 15:16). This is a distinctive feature of the Christian religion. In all the great religions, God is regarded as Great, Majestic. He must be entreated, asked for forgiveness, adored. It is truly a relationship between a mighty one and an inferior who keeps a certain distance between them. The Christian lives this too, but in addition, he knows that Jesus revealed God to us as a Father, a friend, someone with whom we can be familiar.

It is also this friendship that shows the necessity of prayer in our lives. We must be men and women of prayer. Not merely people who pray now and then, or at a given moment, and who after praying consider that they have fulfilled their duty. We must always be ready to listen to what God is going to say to us. For he will speak at the hour and the time he wills, not only at my hour of prayer. Our Church today needs Christians who pray. God wants us to renew his Church. This cannot happen unless we are men and women of prayer. Every Christian, whatever his social standing, his congregation, or his movement, should be a person of prayer.

The witnesses who prayed

All the saints were men and women of prayer. Jesus himself, the Son of God, prayed a great deal. He spent whole nights in prayer (Mark 1:35; 6:46; Matthew 14:23; Luke 6:12). Yet Jesus was busy with preaching and teaching, healing the sick, delivering the possessed, and journeying, for he traveled through the towns. But his occupations did not prevent him from finding time to be with his Father. This is why, knowing the value of prayer, he asks us to pray continually in Luke 18:1. No one can claim to serve God without leading a life of deep prayer. Many servants of God who had extraordinary gifts and who forgot, or neglected, prayer fell lower than one would have imagined. Just after Jesus showed the necessity of love of neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), we have the story of Martha and Mary. Mary is seated at the feet of Jesus, listening to his word. Jesus says, “She has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her.” Sometimes we risk doing a great many things for God while not actually pleasing him.

Being united to Jesus

If we are not united to Jesus, we cannot bear fruit. Why are so many lives without true or abundant spiritual fruit? It is the lack of union with Jesus. In our lives, we notice times when things are not going well. The fruits of the Spirit become scarce. This is above all the result of a neglected union with Jesus. When we admire someone spiritually, as with the saints, it is because their union with Jesus is solid. Jesus shows us how we must be united to him. He and the Father are one (John 17:21). What Jesus does, he does in union with the Father. Jesus also tells us that if we are not united to him, we can do nothing. “Just as the branch that is not united to the vine cannot bear fruit, neither can you, unless you are united to me” (John 15:5).

Henri Bayemi