{"id":213,"date":"2017-04-19T15:17:01","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T15:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/?p=213"},"modified":"2017-04-21T13:22:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T13:22:56","slug":"benefits-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Benefits of Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Man-Praying,
\nPray. Even when it’s hard to pray for the things you want and even the things you need. Pray even when you can’t find the right words. Let God know that you can\u2019t find the words, come to Him in prayer,\u00a0and He will literally fill the words in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Pray even when it’s the last thing you want to do in that moment. When things get difficult or you think too much about a certain subject, the negativity can affect you and others around you. Your negativity about anything such as not being able to find a job right away, not having enough money yet, thinking about what you could have done differently in your past, will only make things worse for you.\u00a0 It\u2019ll cause you to not only doubt yourself more and more. It will also\u00a0cause you to question and doubt God and His ability to provide for you as well.<\/div>\n
Doubting your own abilities is a scary thing. When\u00a0you start to doubt yourself, even more negative thoughts easily creep into your mind such as what if\u00a0I’m\u00a0not good enough to get the job\u00a0I want, what if\u00a0I never get married, what if everything\u00a0I have done up to this point in life has been a mistake? The good news is that everything that you\u2019ve gone through isn\u2019t a mistake and God is using it for His good, in some way that only He can explain.
\nPrayer is a gateway to God that no one can ever take away from you, because\u00a0you can pray at any time no matter where\u00a0you are.
\n2 Chronicles 6:21 says: 21 “Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.\u201d<\/div>\n
Once\u00a0you start thinking of the what ifs in life,\u00a0you can get down on\u00a0yourself easily when things don’t go exactly the way\u00a0you expect\u00a0them to.\u00a0You can unintentionally bring others down with your own self- involved negativity. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions in your life, and there’s nothing wrong with asking God for help in life either. But when\u00a0you dwell on the negative what ifs, and don’t even think of praying about the situations\u00a0you are in,\u00a0you lose faith in\u00a0yourself and\u00a0you lose faith in the one who can, will and is working behind the scenes of your life for your good. God didn\u2019t give\u00a0you a hotline to reach through prayer to reach Him at any time, day or night, twenty four hours, seven days a week, for no reason. He wants\u00a0you to come to Him, especially instead of complaining, about how bad things are. It is not a bad thing to ask why or how things happen to you. It is important to figure out how you can, should and will react to things that transpire in your life.
\nNot everything will go according to your plan. Some might see this as unfortunate that things don\u2019t go the way\u00a0you think they\u2019re supposed to, but the good news is, God knows what will happen in your life already and has already lined them up at the exact right times. Even though\u00a0you may not like what always happens in life, at least\u00a0you can turn to the one who knows what has happened, will happen and is happening in comfort knowing that He is with you.
\nYou can pray for others and for yourself out loud, or in the silence of your own heart. It doesn\u2019t matter how or where you are when you pray. It can be in the middle of a grocery store out loud, or in your office at work in private. No matter where you pray or how you pray, God will always hear you. God doesn\u2019t care about what you look like or how stained your heart is with sin, when you come to Him in prayer. He wants to hear the desires of your heart, no matter what you may have done. If your heart hurts for any reason, tell Him.
\nPsalm 107:28-30 says 28 \u201cThen they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.29 He stilled the storm to a whisper. The waves of the sea were hushed. 30 They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.\u201d
\nMatthew 21:22 says, 22″ And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.\u201d This verse indicates that\u00a0you must keep the faith in God to receive what\u00a0you want in prayer. If\u00a0you believe what\u00a0you pray for is already going to happen and that\u00a0you have already received it and are going to receive it, God will grant it, if it is in your best interest and will better\u00a0you as an\u00a0individual. But, there are also times when God allows things\u00a0you pray for to happen, in order to teach you valuable\u00a0lessons.\u00a0He knows what and who\u00a0belongs in your life and what and who doesn\u2019t.
\nOne verse that has always stood out for me is Romans 8:26, \u201c26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. \u201c27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God\u2019s people in accordance with the will of God.\u201d I found this verse when I couldn\u2019t figure out what to pray for. Nor did I know how to put my prayer into words. Out of the blue I turned to this verse and it has helped me through many hard times and brought comfort that God knows what is on my heart even when I don\u2019t.
\nPrayer can move mountains. Prayer can be the gateway between chaos and peace.\u00a0 God can use your prayers to help rescue you, your family and others in ways you can\u2019t even fathom.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pray. Even when it’s hard to pray for the things you want and even the things you need. Pray even when you can’t find the right words. Let God know that you can\u2019t find the words, come to Him in prayer,\u00a0and He will literally fill the words in your heart by the power of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":611,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,2,41,96,135,32,71,48,47,4,86,107,87],"tags":[137,61,42,6,5,8,22,34,38,7],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choices","category-faith","category-god","category-gods-prescense","category-gods-love","category-joy","category-love","category-patience","category-praise","category-prayer","category-promises","category-riding-through-the-storms-of-life","category-scripture","tag-benefits-of-prayer","tag-choices","tag-christian-values","tag-christianity","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-holy-spirit","tag-love","tag-praise","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nBenefits of Prayer - We Wait He Works<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"when it is hard to pray let God know that you can\u2019t figure out what to say. He will literally fill the words in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benefits of Prayer - We Wait He Works\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"when it is hard to pray let God know that you can\u2019t figure out what to say. He will literally fill the words in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"We Wait He Works\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arwohler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-19T15:17:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-21T13:22:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/files\/2017\/04\/Man-Praying-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alexis Wohler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexisWohler\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Benefits of Prayer - We Wait He Works","description":"when it is hard to pray let God know that you can\u2019t figure out what to say. He will literally fill the words in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Benefits of Prayer - We Wait He Works","og_description":"when it is hard to pray let God know that you can\u2019t figure out what to say. He will literally fill the words in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html","og_site_name":"We Wait He Works","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arwohler","article_published_time":"2017-04-19T15:17:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-04-21T13:22:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/files\/2017\/04\/Man-Praying-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Alexis Wohler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexisWohler","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html","name":"Benefits of Prayer - We Wait He Works","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/files\/2017\/04\/Man-Praying-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2017-04-19T15:17:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-21T13:22:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/#\/schema\/person\/85ca32d2d91efb3ab3f33b702e2b1d19"},"description":"when it is hard to pray let God know that you can\u2019t figure out what to say. He will literally fill the words in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/files\/2017\/04\/Man-Praying-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/files\/2017\/04\/Man-Praying-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2017\/04\/benefits-of-prayer.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Benefits of Prayer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/","name":"We Wait He Works","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Alex Wohler","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/#\/schema\/person\/85ca32d2d91efb3ab3f33b702e2b1d19","name":"Alexis Wohler","description":"We Wait, He Works is all about telling people about how God can change their lives, their perspectives about life and how He is always working in any situation. The author, Alexis Wohler, is a freelance writer from Ohio. Contact her at arwohler@gmail.com.","sameAs":["https:\/\/arwohler.wixsite.com\/portfolio","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arwohler","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexisWohler"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/author\/awohler"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}