Prayer
"The gospel makes prayer possible and desirable."
Paramount Church is utterly committed to the priority of prayer. A prayerless church is a powerless church. God has ordained prayer as the means to accomplish His will. Walter Marshall writes, "Prayer is such an important responsibility that if it is done, everything else will be done well. In fact, nothing can be done without prayer,” (The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, p. 209).
When we look in Scripture, we find that God requires His people to be devoted to prayer, to remain alert and to pray frequently (Matt. 26:41; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17).
However, no believer or church will be motivated to a life of prayer out of guilt, constant exhortations, manipulation, selfish appeals (e.g., sow your seed of faith), or disturbing events (e.g., bad turbulence on an airplane). Testimonies concerning answered prayer are certainly desired and edifying but even they are not sufficient to create and sustain a life of committed prayer.
The gospel makes prayer possible and desirable. It proclaims to the guilty sinner, "Access granted" (Rom. 5:2; Eph. 3:12; Heb. 4:16). Without the gospel, true prayer is impossible. Our prayers are heard by and acceptable to God only because they are mediated through Christ (1 Peter 2:5). Apart from Christ our prayers are not even heard (Ps. 66:18; Jn. 9:31) and are no different from the hypocrite and pagan (Matt. 6:5-8). Thus, the Psalmist, in Psalm 66 confesses,
“19 But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. 20 Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His lovingkindness from me.”
God’s lovingkindness given to us in the gospel makes true prayer possible and desirable. God does not turn away our prayers because He does not turn away His lovingkindness from us. Therefore, our hearts are drawn to our Heavenly Father.
Additional Information
Join us sunday mornings at 10:00 before the service for prayer.
If you have a prayer request or would like more information concerning our prayer ministry, please send an e-mail to .
