Looking at how people pray when they are in tight spots of life helps me model my own thoughts and attitudes of prayer. King Asa was in such a spot when in the tenth year of his leadership the Ethiopians came against Judah. A million men against six hundred thousand. Here is King Asa’s prayer …

Asa prayed to the Lord his God, “O Lord, you can help a weak army as easily as a powerful one. Help us now, O Lord our God, because we are relying on you, and in your name we have come out to fight against this huge army. Lord, you are our God; no one can hope to defeat you.” – 2 Chronicles 14:11 GNT

Help – the only word used to describe the ask. Being prone to pray and worry, or pray and work it out or devise a program followed by prayer for God’s blessing, we miss the purpose of prayer – not to get my will done, but rather God’s.

This is another example of that expression – this prayer fills my soul with strength.

The four living creatures sing songs of glory and honor and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever. When they do so, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever. They throw their crowns down in front of the throne and say,

“Our Lord and God! You are worthy
    to receive glory, honor, and power.
For you created all things,
    and by your will they were given existence and life.” – Revelation 4:9-11 GNT

If prayer ever gets dull, or I become easily distracted, not focused, I quiet my soul in this type of prayer and I find God personal and alive.

When I am praying, I am talking to God. The words above scream out that I am accessing my powerful God. My God who is worthy of all the glory is spending time with me. It is in recognizing who I am spending time with that creates my focus. Prayer becomes the most important part of my life.

There is power in UNITED PRAYER. Of course there is power in the prayer of an individual, but there is vastly increased power in united prayer. God delights in the unity of His people, and seeks to emphasize it in every way, and so He pronounces a special blessing upon united prayer. We read in Matt. 18:19, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven.” This unity, however, must be real. The passage just quoted does not say that if two shall agree in asking, but if two shall agree AS TOUCHING anything they shall ask. Two persons might agree to ask for the same thing, and yet there be no real agreement as touching the thing they asked. One might ask it because he really desired it, the other might ask it simply to please his friend. But where there is real agreement, where the Spirit of God brings two believers into perfect harmony as concerning that which they may ask of God, where the Spirit lays the same burden on two hearts; in all such prayer there is absolutely irresistible
power. – R.A. Torrey