December7, 2024

What a joy to know that we have access to God in prayer.  When we pray we know that God listens and hears us.  We don't have to go through other people, we can go directly to God with our needs.  However, there are two things we must keep in mind.  We should be careful to not forget who we are talking to.  Our prayers are to an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and absolutely perfect God. He is our Father and we need to remember to enter His presence with proper awe and respect.  Sometimes we can turn God more into a friend rather than remembering that He is God.  That is why Jesus started the Lord's Prayer the way he did, by focusing first on who we are talking to needs to be hallowed.  

Secondly, we need to remember that it is still a good thing to ask others to pray for us and to pray for others.  Yes, we have access to God and can bring our needs ourselves, but there is something encouraging and powerful in knowing that others are coming to the same God with the same requests on our behalf.