Why Pray?

Prayer is essentially talking to God and communicating with God. It is a vital part of a believer's relationship with God. It is the responsibility of believers to pray and to intercede on behalf of others who are suffering. It is part of our role and it is one of the channels through which God releases the power of transformation and reaches out to a hurting world. God wants us to communicate with him and to have a relationship with him. Taking concern for injustice to God will have an effect. It is important to be persistent in prayer and to keep asking. God also wants to share his compassion with us. There are no hard and fast rules about how to pray, though there are many books about prayer which give good guidelines (try your local Christian bookshop). It is good to pray both on your own and in groups with others.

Prayer Has an Amazing Effect...

There are countless records and stories through history of people claiming miraculous answers to prayer. Prayer has often been at the heart and inspiration of many social reformers including William Wilberforce who abolished the legal transatlantic slave trade and Martin Luther King who campaigned against racism in the Southern States of America. Shafesbury in his struggle for workers rights and against child labour was also radically committed to prayer. The biography of Desmond Tutu shows a man with a powerful prayer life. During the Second World War Rees Howells shut down his bible school so that everyone could devote themselves wholly to prayer. God gave them phenomenal direct insights into the situation. There are records of prayer meetings in areas of Colombia and Brazil having a direct effect on crime rates in the immediate locality of where people are praying. The Jubilee 2000 campaign came out of a prayer meeting of two University Professors, and its impact has been phenomenal. SPEAK as a whole also started because people with a similar heart and vision joined in prayer.

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world." 1 Corinthians 10 v3-4