Page 5 - The Importance of Prayer Student Textbook

image of God (Gen1:26-27) and that God by instinct has created an awareness of His divinity in all of the
created order. (Rom1:19-20) With this in view we can loosely define prayer as a personal response to
the knowledge of God. But God longs for a deeper encounter with Himself than just an awareness that
He exist. He longs for us to become His children by placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord
and savior. (John 1:12, John 3:16, John 5:24) Once we trust Christ as our personal Lord and savior the
Bible recognizes us a newborn babe in Christ. (I Peter 2:2) According to this verse God provides
nourishment in His word so that these newborn babes can grow. This relationship will continue to grow
as you are committed to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter
3:18)

In Keller’s book, Prayer Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, he points out that most writers
approach prayer from two positions. The first is that prayer is a tool that God can use to move us into a
deeper love relationship with Himself. I will begin this exploration of prayer by spending a great amount
of time on the importance of this aspect of prayer. The second group of Christian writers’ approach
prayer from a position that, prayer is a spiritual warfare. Everyone recognizes that there is a spiritual
war going on but there is a wide variation of thought and interpretation on this issue. I will deal with this
subject later.

As we begin our study of prayer, we must realize that one volume cannot exhaust the depth of the
richness that prayer encompasses. Therefore, I am going to approach this subject as an introductory
course on prayer. I have wanted to elaborate on the various topics and aspects of prayer but again it is
beyond the scope of this volume to do so. Personally, I was shocked as I began my studies to discover
just how many books have been written on this subject. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will use this
course to ignite a lifelong passion for prayer and the study of it in your lives.

Prayer – What is Prayer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LG_3pX88fM

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