{"id":963,"date":"2014-11-06T22:27:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T22:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/?p=963"},"modified":"2014-11-08T04:01:23","modified_gmt":"2014-11-08T04:01:23","slug":"prayer-as-a-last-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/prayer-as-a-last-resort\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer: Not our Last Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1Maximov_Sick_Husband\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two years ago when my 88 year old mother, Verlantina, had a stroke, we called 911 for ambulance so that she can be taken immediately to the hospital for emergency. I began to call family members. Relatives came right away to be with my wife and I. We prayed as we waited for the medical diagnosis. Church friends also came and visited my mom. It was inspiring to witness them praying over my mom as they probably saw my worried look. <\/p>\n

One thing I noticed in this experience. When troubles come, we pray. But there is something missing. I noticed though that we tend to use prayer as last resort. <\/p>\n

Yet, God wants prayer to be our first line of defense. Why is it that we pray when there is nothing else we can do? When the doctor says, \u201cThere is nothing we can do\u201d, then we ask for prayers.<\/p>\n

God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.<\/p>\n

Prayer is simply a conversation with God. It is speaking to God with the expectation that God hears and answers. Prayer should not be the last resort. In His Word, God encourages us to engage Him in prayer (Philippians 4:6).<\/p>\n

We also have his promise that when two or three are gathered together in His name, He will be there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).<\/p>\n

For those who have experienced the power of the Almighty, our first inclination often will be to cry out to Him. When we hear that someone is sick or someone lost their job, how long does it take before we take it to God in prayer? <\/p>\n

\"1jesusprayed\"<\/a>When we look at Jesus\u2019 life, we see a person so dedicated to prayer. It is His oneness with God the Father and his being in harmony with Him that defines Jesus. His ministry, service, compassion, love, etc.. are an outflow of His intimacy and connection with God. Jesus is connected with the Father every hour, minute and second. His prayer and solitude preceded all his miracle events. <\/p>\n

Prayer is not the last resort. Prayer is our way of life from beginning till end. It is our closeness and total dependence to our Loving Father in Heaven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago when my 88 year old mother, Verlantina, had a stroke, we called 911 for ambulance so that she can be taken immediately to the hospital for emergency. I began to call family members. Relatives came right away to be with my wife and I. We prayed as we waited for the medical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bermiedizon.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}