Thoughts on Prayer - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

Pray without ceasing.
1 Thessalonians 5:17

Thoughts on Prayer
One of the indications of the importance of prayer is the Lord's attitude toward it. He often went to be by Himself to pray. One of the few instances that the Lord was angry was when He saw what was being done in the temple, His Father's house. The "house of prayer" had been converted to a den of thieves.

As we consider prayer, may we realize that we can pray to our Father—one of the closest family relationships possible—who is in heaven, indicating He is sovereign and capable of answering our needs, One who wants to bless us beyond our imagination. We see this in many examples: giving twelve baskets of leftovers after the Lord had fed more than 5000 people from five loaves and two small fish; opening the windows of heaven to feed a starving city; closing the heavens so that it did not rain for three and a half years but then did rain after there had been restoration of the people; raising the dead son of a widow; raising a friend from the dead even though the two sisters doubted; and giving us a Gift beyond words, an indescribable Gift.

But this then gives us a challenge. We are admonished to ask, seek, and knock. To ask is relatively simple, to seek needs more effort, and to knock is to persist, to show intensity. We are admonished to ask, but to be careful of our motives so as not to ask amiss. We are to be persistent in our asking but balanced so that our persistence is not insistence, not self-will. Paul implored thrice concerning his thorn in the flesh, but when he received the answer of "no" he submitted to God. The Lord Jesus also asked three times that the cup should pass by Him, but always concluded with, "not My will, but Yours, be done."

We are admonished to "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Do we come?

Albert Blok