Prayer is a way of life; not an action.

Intimacy, n. [from intimate.] Close familiarity or fellowship; nearness in friendship.

Close familiarity or fellowship; that is the main reason for prayer, not to get our needs meat; God already does that because He loves us. But the real reason we pray is to get to know the Master of all things, to draw near to Him in friendship with Him. The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:10, speaking of Christ, that it was his desire to, “know the power of his resurrection”. He also wrote that he desired to know the fellowship of Christ's suffering. We all want to experience the power of the resurrection of Christ, but most of the time we don’t want to have anything to do with suffering. For us to understand the pain and suffering of Jesus calls for us to have a stronger relationship with Jesus. The word fellowship here means to be partners with, to become familiar with something or someone, in this case the suffering of Christ. If the truth be known, we can only get to know someone if we understand the things they have gone through. I believe that our strengths and weakness are manifested in our hurt and suffering, that is when those around us see what we are made of. So, maybe Paul was saying that He wanted to know and understand the things that Christ went through, to see and identify with the suffering of Christ. The question then is what did He suffer? He suffered heartache, sorrow, rejection, and He was hated by those He had come to help and despised by those that claimed to be His friend. His own family turned against Him and did not believe that He was the Christ until after His death. The question that lies before us is, are we willing to go into this place of loneliness and share with Him the pain of rejection and betrayal? In our personal quite time with our Father getting to know the pain that Jesus went through we began to see and understand the sorrow of a life broken on the cross. Only when we allow Him to show us His pain can we understand our own, and as we understand the pain we start to recognize the strength we need to overcome it. Jesus has the answer to overcoming the pain and rejection of life, and when we become familiar with His suffering we can be find His strength. It is in prayer we see the true Jesus, the Jesus that gave His all so we can overcome this world. Before we can understand the power of His resurrection we must understand that the pain of life is a part of our understanding Jesus as a man. The closer we are drawn to Him, through prayer, the more we will see the suffering we go through is what binds us to the life of Christ. People do not want to know anything about suffering, suffering is so distasteful to us, not only will we deceive our sleeves into believing that our life is without suffering, we will compromise our belief system to prove that we do not have to suffer. We have been told by evangelist and pastors for years we do not have to suffer. We’ve been told that once we become a Christian everything is going to be just fine, there will be no problems, but that is a lie. If we can convince ourselves that life is pain free and nothing will ever go wrong, then we can laugh and smile and dance our way through life. However, life experience teaches us that this is not true. Throughout history we have seen that true believers must suffer ridicule and shame from those of this world. In fact, if we study the lives of the apostles, we see that ten out of the original twelve disciples were martyred for their faith. John being the only one that died in his old age. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 10:24 and 25 that if the Master suffers, so will the servant. I know you are saying, “If we have to do all this suffering why become a Christian?”. We must remember that there is a reason we suffer and that is to know the power of His resurrection. As we draw closer to God in prayer, and the more we understand the suffering of Christ, the more we understand the power of His resurrection. The more we know Him the more we understand how we can overcome the trials of life. Jesus has given us a way to rise above everything we face in this life. The way Jesus was able to overcome the things of this life was to learn to rest in the power of a living God. Paul teaches us in Hebrews chapter 10 that we must learn to rest from our work just as God did His. I believe the power of His resurrection comes to us when we learn to put our trust in God. We then, allow Him to work in our lives and bring us peace. There is a reward for learning to live our lives the way Christ lived His. Paul teaches in Romans 8:17 that we will become heirs with Christ if we suffer with Him. Why do we even entertain the thought that our lives should be free of trials, when we know that Jesus suffered in life? He said in Matthew 10:22 that we would be hated for His sake. There is nothing in the Word of God that states that when we believe in Jesus Christ, as our savior, that everything is going to go without problems. Why does God wish us to suffer? I believe we suffer so that we can learn what it is too trivial in our time of prayer. How can we learn what it means to callout to God if we have never suffered? Only through what He has done for me am I able to move beyond my weakness, into the things He wishes me to accomplish in this life. The true seeker of intimacy with God must realize that it is the Father that enables us to do anything. Acts 17:28 tells us that it is only in Him that we live breathe, and have our very being. If I humble myself before the Lord, He will lead me into the relationship I desire. By learning to submit to His strength I am able to enter into that place of sweet communion with my Lord. I find that turning from the flesh, and allowing my sprit to be in control, I can get to that place where I find rest in Him. When the Spirit of God rules our prayer life we can go beyond what we want into what God has for us. When we start moving in this realm we began to see the Heart of God, which is what He wants. Rising above the things of the flesh into the spiritual realm is most important part of our prayer life, and it the most difficult thing to accomplish. I would be amiss if I told you that it is easy to accomplish a true attitude of prayer. We must pay the price of self-denial, the complete sacrifice of our flesh.

In Romans 12:1; we see that we are reasonably expected to become a living sacrifice. The word reasonable, in the Greek means rational. Webster states in his dictionary of 1828, that the word reason does not leave any place for doubt. In other words, we should not have any doubt about our duty to submit completely to the things of God. Submitting to the plan of God may not be the easiest thing you have ever done, but you will find it the most rewarding.