Congratulations soul-jah
Hear is something that I wrote before the forum crashed and it is lost to the wind but I saved it and thought it would be applicable for you.
Prayer is the guts and pinnacle of our faith. it's were we see god, its were we come into his presence. worship and thanks giving are a main part of prayer. it should be the start of any prayer unless there is sin waying us down. thanks giving and worship always bring us into the presence of god. once we come into the presence of god , our faith is amplified and we can commune with god. these are the times were our faith is built and our awareness of who and what god is becomes a reality. this is were we are filled with his holiness and holiness brings righteousness. from there we can walk with god and in god in a spirit of supplication and consistent interaction all day. We can remain in the presence of god as long as we walk in his grace. we walk in thanks giving and humble reliance and never take credit were credit isnt due and we offer all we do up to the lord and through that, we remain in his presence through his grace , all day long. It feels like he gives you favour to all who we speak to, he makes everything we do easy and accurate, he covers us from offence and gives us patience and longsuffering. we can walk in a state of prayer and be in prayer all day long.
we must walk by his grace. if we winged and wine full of complaining, that will cut across his grace because it is the opposite to the spirit of thanks giving and if we take credit were credit is not due, that will also cut across his grace because it is not in the spirit of thanks giving either. to walk by the grace of god we must be in a spirit of thanks giving and a spirit of thanks giving is in permanent contact with god at all times. this is prayer without seising that Paul speaks of I believe.
there is so much that can be looked at and from so many different angles and it would have to be "THE MOST IMPORTANT " subject in any Christians life. it never comes down to how well we understand scripture or how high up in the church we are or how good a preacher we are or any of that, it all comes down to weather we spend time with god and how much time we spend with him. he waits at the door for us to open it and ask him in, he waits by the curb when we go into work, he waits by our bed hoping to commune with us, he is forever watching over us but if we come to him, and walk and live in him, he will willingly go before us and prepare the way before us and we will follow him and go after him and wait for him. If we all knew how much god loves us we would come to him always and live in him daily.
We go to church to try to get right with god.
We read our bible to try to be right with god.
we formally pray as though he doesn't hear.
we keep our Christian friends.
Non of this means anything without knowing the spirit of god through being in the presence of god. when we want to get right with god, the only way is to seek him and consult him and submit to him. all these other things can only encourage us to do this. It is the prayer and supplication that is were a personal relationship and strong faith come from. in the presence of the lord is the only true freedom we have. I believe that a lot of the church is missing this kind of interaction with god. When you ask a Christian if god speaks to them or shows them things and they look at you strange and say, "No" of course not. Well, they are lacking this kind of relationship even though they go to church, read there bible, have there formal prayers and have all Christian friends. they have managed to do all this and managed to stay away from god in it all. We have to be open to god and able to believe that he is real. It is something we first have to believe. Nothing in god can be done without faith.