Holding to Truth

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8 Benefits of Prayer You Can’t Afford to Miss

How is your prayer life with the Lord?  If you’ve been a believer for some time, you may have realized the difficulty of building up a prayer life… and possibly even given up. And that’s really a loss because the benefits of prayer are so tremendous.

Benefits of prayer

“Let us come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” – Heb. 4:16

Since it’s so easy to get discouraged and give up on prayer, it’s worth considering some of the awesome benefits of prayer that make pursuing a prayer life worthwhile.

So let’s consider eight benefits of prayer that will encourage you to build up a persevering prayer life.

 Eight benefits of prayer

1. Prayer enables you to set your mind on the things above.

Colossians 3:2 says,

 “Set your mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth.”

How could we fulfill God’s word in this verse except by prayer?

Prayer is the  way to have our mind set on the things above. That’s because proper prayer elevates our mind from our earthly concerns to God’s heavenly interests.

 2. Prayer enables Christ to carry out His heavenly administration. 

The Lord’s instruction in Matthew 6:9-13 is not just a prayer to recite, but a pattern of prayer that carries out God’s administration,

 “Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth…”

When our minds are set on the things above, as we just mentioned, we’re able to respond to God’s heavenly interests and express them through our prayer.

During such times of prayer, we become a reflection of Christ’s ministry in the heavens (Rom. 8:34). What a benefit!

 3. Prayer ushers you into the Holy of Holies to receive grace. 

Another benefit of prayer is to touch the “throne of grace” to find grace for your timely help.

Hebrews 4:16 says,

“Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.”

What is grace? It is more than God’s unmerited favor.

Grace is “God in Christ as our supply and enjoyment, conveyed to us and realized through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19)”—Phil. 4:23, note 1 in the Recovery Version.

When we pray, we enter into the Holy of Holies and touch the throne of grace to enjoy the hidden Christ in our spirit.

In fact, enjoying the flowing of God’s grace in our prayer is more important than having our prayers answered.

The primary thing is that grace like a river flows from the throne and into our being. Here is a refreshing hymn that expresses this benefit. You may even want to sing or declare the lyrics as a part of your prayer.

4. Prayer charges your “spiritual battery” to live the Christian life.

The Christian life is like a tool or toy with a battery. Without being regularly charged, our “spiritual battery” will lack the power needed to carry out its intended functions. Our prayer is our connection to the “charging station.”

When we pray, our “spiritual battery” is charged with the heavenly current. This heavenly current, this divine electricity, is the Triune God Himself as grace flowing from the throne—the “heavenly power plant”—into us.

Revelation 22:1 says,

“And He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb…”

This divine, flowing river proceeding from God’s throne supplies the power to charge us whenever we pray.

5. Prayer brings you into fellowship with the Lord. 

Prayer is the contact of our spirit with God’s spirit.  John 4:24 says,

 “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit…”

It’s by such God-contacting prayer that we enter into fellowship with the Lord and become conscious of the fact that we are really one spirit with Him and that He is actually one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17). This also is a tremendous benefit!

Here is a post with practical points on how to pray to fellowship with the Lord and an enriching hymn to strengthen this point.

6. Prayer renews you for the new man.

Ephesians 4:23-24 says,

“And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man…”

This means that whenever we contact the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit through prayer, this spirit spreads into our mind for our renewing. In such a way we are being renewed for the new man.

This new man is Christ’s Body today and will become the New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:2). How wonderful that we can be renewed for the new man by our prayer. What a benefit!

7. Prayer lets the peace of Christ arbitrate in your heart.

Colossians 3:15 says,

“And let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, to which also you were called in one Body, and be thankful.”

This kind of peace isn’t just freedom from worry, but the peace between different peoples. How can we, as believers, let the peace of Christ arbitrate in all our relationships with people, especially other believers that are different from us. It’s only by our prayer.

When we pray, Christ will become the real umpire, ruler, and decider in everything. The main “call” our “Umpire” makes is “you’re wrong! Repent. Confess and say you’re sorry.”

Such prayer preserves the peace in our marriage life, family life, Christian life and church life. This arbitrating peace is a great benefit of prayer!

8. Prayer allows the word of Christ to dwell in you richly.

Colossians  3:16 says,

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom…”

But how?  One of the greatest discoveries of my Christian life was learning how to receive God’s word in the Bible by means of prayer, that is, pray-reading it.

By pray-reading, you not only gain some mental understanding from the Bible, but you’re nourished with life element in God’s Word. God’s words become “spirit and life” to you (John 6:63).

Don’t just take my word for it. Here are 12 tips on how to pray-read the Word of God to be spiritually nourished.

Try it! See if you don’t say with the prophet Jeremiah, “Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart”  (Jer. 15:16). This is a most wonderful benefit of prayer!

Have you been encouraged by these eight benefits of prayer? If so, please take a moment share the post, add a comment, or join the conversation on the Holding to Truth Facebook Page.

References and Further Reading:

About Tom Smith

Hi. My name is Tom Smith. I'm the writer behind Holding to Truth in Love, and I love the Lord Jesus and His life-giving Word. Please feel free to send me an e-mail through the contact page if you have any questions. I hope you'd take a moment to subscribe to the Holding to Truth blog. Then you'll be sure not to miss a post. Thanks!

63 Replies

  1. melikt

    Thank you! Blessings!

    1. Tom Smith

      Glad you were helped by the post. May your prayer life be full of these eight benefits and bring you much blessing.

      1. Tina ben

        God bless you sir.this message just exposed my life to prayers….

        1. Tom Smith

          I’m glad this post was helpful to you. You may also enjoy reading, 10 Short Morning Prayers We Can Pray to the Lord and applying these points to uplift your prayer and make it more effective. Thank you for your comment.

          1. Stella Lukumba

            Thank you so much sir,I have been blessed by your post,I have a group of prayer members I remind to pray every morning and I will use these benefits to encourage them continue praying everyday. May God increase your territory.

          2. Tom Smith

            Glad you found the post helpful. It really uplifts our view of prayer to realize that prayer is more than asking God to do things for us. The primary things is that grace like a river from the throne of God flows into our being. In prayer, we also must learn to having fellowship with the Lord in which He is able to anoint Himself into our being. FOr this I would recommend a prayerful reading and singing of the following hymn on prayer to fellowship with Jesus. Click here to listen to it being sung

      2. Wilson Ezekiel. O.

        Amen, greatly encouraged by your post sir. God bless you.

        1. Tom Smith

          Glad you enjoyed the post. It is a great help to see that prayer is our contacting God, who is Spirit, with our spirit (John 4:24). In such a contact, God infuses His life-giving element, His very being, into us (2 Cor. 13:14). In this infusion is the grace, the love and fellowship we need to live a normal Christian life and church life. It is not merely a matter of getting God to do things for us, but of opening our entire being to Him to allow Him to operate within us and fill us. Through God’s divine operation, we are enabled to do His will (Phil 2:13). We need to keep coming to Him each day whether we feel like it or not, trusting in His little by little, moment by moment dispensing. Thank you for your comment. Please comment often.

      3. Ayodele Wellington

        Amen thank you

      4. Emmanuel

        Hi,
        I am so so grateful, this post on prayers really open my eyes to see so many things I really don’t know about prayers. I even share this new information with family and friends around. God bless you.

        1. Tom Smith

          Glad you enjoyed the post on 8 Benefits of Prayer You Can’t Afford to Miss. It’s really sad that our natural concept of prayer focuses mostly on asking God to do things for us. We miss the more crucial matter in prayer, that is, that we become with God and enter into His heart. In this higher prayer, on the one hand, we’re elevated into the heavenly realm of His intercession. On the other, He transfuses Himself with His divine supply into us to live the the normal Christian life. Even if we don’t think we have any burden to pray, we still need to be connected to Him all the time, even more often than connecting our phone to the charging station. Thanks for sharing your comment.

  2. Plus, prayer works when we seek God’s will as Jesus shared! Amen

    1. Tom Smith

      That’s so true. In another post, “5 principles for effective prayers of intercession” I mentioned that our prayers are effective (as you said,”prayer works”) when they are initiated by God’s revelation and according to His heart (or “seeking God’s will”). Our genuine prayer should be “Your kingdom come and your will be done.”

      1. katusha Henry

        I cannot begin the day without prayer. Prayer is my daily connection with God. When I put him first, my day goes perfectly well. I practice praying about everything. I “gossip with God” every day. Oh how I love him.

        1. Tom Smith

          Amen. I also cannot begin the day without prayer. It would be like trying to go to work without having any nourishing food or without having gas in your car. It would be hard to get very far. Prayer connects us to God as the divine source of supply to live the Christian life. Also, when we mingle prayer with reading God’s Word our prayer is uplifted and the Word is enlivened.
          Good to pray about everything and keep a continual conversation with the Lord. Glad you enjoyed the post. Here are two other posts that you might like to read if you haven’t already done so:
          10 Short Morning Prayers We Can Pray to the Lord
          12 Tips on How to Pray-read the Word of God to be Spiritually Nourished

  3. Thank you, brother, for such a truth-rich post. I am encouraged to practice my prayer life to “get hold of Him”, to become full of God.

    1. Tom Smith

      Amen. It’s good to see that we don’t just pray to get God to do what we want. We pray to cooperate with Him so He can fulfill His plan in and through us. When we pray our wonderful Triune God flows into us, through us and out of us. Such prayer affords Him the way to carry out His administration on this earth, to fill us with grace, and to renew us for the new man. What benefits! What a blessing! May we all be encouraged to persevere in prayer. Make sure to read the follow on post 7 steps to build up a personal prayer life.

  4. Jerry

    Thanks for this post…… Now I can teach my fellowship the benefit of prayer with a perfect understanding.. . Remain blessed sir!

  5. jane

    Notify me of any new posts by email. effective prayer does wonders

    1. Tom Smith

      Jane,

      I have to agree that effective prayers does wonders. The greatest of these wonders is that it imparts God into us as our life and life supply so that we may live a life that expresses God and fulfills His eternal purpose. When we pray, we should make contacting God in our spirit and absorbing God our primary concern. If you haven’t already done so, I would encourage you to explore the Prayer Life page of the Holding to Truth blog and progressively read through the twelve posts listed there. For a deeper coverage on this subject I’d also recommend Lessons on Prayer by Witness Lee. You can read it for free at ministrybooks.org.

      I have added you to the Holding to Truth email list so you should be receiving posts as soon as they are published.

  6. olivet

    am really glad of this post,may God bless you richly in all things,notify me on any post thank you.

    1. Tom Smith

      Glad you enjoyed the post. I have added you to the Holding to Truth email list so you’ll be automatically notified of any new posts. Thanks for sharing your appreciation.

  7. priscillia precious

    Prayer really does wonders. Am so happy knowing that prayer can also help me fulfill purpose. Please I really want to get more posts

    1. Tom Smith

      It is a wonder that the all powerful God has restricted Himself to our prayer. He has many things He desires to do, yet, He will wait until He has some people on this earth that agree with and will echo His hearts desire. May we see the great importance of prayer and lay the “train tracks” so our all-powerful God has the cooperation He is seeking to fulfill His purpose in this age.

  8. I realize now, more than before, the need of prayer, rather than our doing, as a way to be infused with the Lord, so as to then be used of Him, by His nourishing of us and supplying us with Himself, as the grace of God to us. Hallelujah! I do want to make a note of these eight points, so as to enjoy them deeply, so as to enjoy Christ, as the Word of God, to dwell in us richly. Thank You Lord Jesus! Amen. … Thank You brother Tom for your sharing. “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” (2 Timothy 4:22) Amen.

  9. katusha Henry

    I look forward to receiving posts from you. Love the Lord.

  10. Evangelist John

    Prayer is the master key for everything you need from God

    1. Tom Smith

      Prayer is a believer’s spiritual breathing. It is the means for us to contact God in our spirit and absorb Him into our being. May we learn to pray prayers that mingle our spirit with His Spirit. Thanks for the comment.

  11. Thank you Tom for this superb post!
    May God bless you.

    1. Tom Smith

      Adronico, I am glad you found the post on the benefits of prayer helpful. Often we consider prayer a difficult matter. That is because we miss the secret of coming first to contact the Lord and absorb all that He is into our being. When we open ourselves to the Lord and use our spirit to pray especially with God’s Word we receive the divine supply we need to live the Christian life. I find it helpful to call on the Lord Jesus from deep within, confess anything that separates me from Him, pray over a few Bible verses with thanks, praise to Him. This kind of prayer fills and supplies us to live the Christian life. Thanks for sharing your comment.

    2. Sunday

      Am blessed and transformed by the word of God blessed you more

      1. Tom Smith

        So glad you were blessed and transformed by the Word. From the light in God’s word we can’t help but see that proper prayer joins us to the heavenly transmission from the ascended and enthroned Christ, our heavenly High Priest and Minister who is also in our human spirit (Rom. 8:34, 10; 2 Tim. 4:22). When we turn to our spirit, where Christ is, we switch on this divine transmission by means of prayer. Then we receive the mercy and grace we need for timely help (Heb. 4:16). This is a tremendous benefit of prayer! May this vision encourage us to come to Him often and remain in the spirit of prayer during our daily life (1 Thes. 5:16-18). Thanks for sharing your appreciation in a comment.

  12. Princess Jackey Wesley

    Thanks.. needed to know about the benefits of prayer and I bumped into this blog. Am so thankful for the insight. May God bless you

    1. Tom Smith

      To many, prayer is merely about asking God to do things for them. However, Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” To me a great benefit of prayer is to contact God to receive grace, the very God who comes to us in Christ and as the Spirit to be our enjoyment and supply. Such a grace is our daily need to live the Christian life. Thanks for your comment.

  13. Onagha odwong

    Am so glad for the word,and for the deep awareness on the benefits of living a prayerful life,it’s indeed a very nice and motivating post thanks sire.

    1. Tom Smith

      Prayer is much more than petitioning God to do things for us. Proper prayer elevates us to where He is; it brings us in our spirit into the heavenlies in Christ. Prayer brings us to Christ at the Throne of grace to receive the mercy and find the grace we need for timely help (Heb. 4:16). May we see the importance of spending time with the Lord simply to contact our God and enjoy Him as our “I AM”–the One who is whatever we need. Thanks for the confirming comment.

  14. Oluwafemi Timothy Ayodeji

    I am so much blessed with this wonderful eight benefits of prayer and I hope this will help build a Prayerful life than ever before.Thanks.

    1. Tom Smith

      It is so helpful to realize that the significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and absorb God into our being. He is real food, drink and breath (John 6:57; 7:37-39; 20:22). So we should not come just to ask God for things but receive Him as our life and life supply through prayer. I especially like Heb. 4:16 which says, “Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” What a benefit! By coming to the throne of grace through prayer we receive the mercy and grace we need for our timely help. Praise Him!

  15. Stephen Osei

    I’m very excited about this massage of prayer thank you.

    1. Tom Smith

      Glad you found the post helpful. I’d love to hear what you found most helpful. Thanks for the comment.

  16. Lazarus Oduma

    So insightful,I’m deeply blessed going through these benefits, may the Lord bless you richly in Jesus name Amen.

    1. Tom Smith

      Lazarus, may these benefits of prayer bring you into a deeper fellowship with Christ as you realize God’s intention to dispense all His riches into you through your prayer. “Let us come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” (Heb. 4:16) To enjoy God Himself as our daily supply of grace is surely a top blessing of prayer. Thanks for your comment.

  17. Watta A. Kerkula

    I am grateful by those benefits. I am also using some to teach Sunday school at my church, in Liberia, West Africa.

    1. Tom Smith

      I am so glad that you found help in our post on “8 Benefits of Prayer You Can’t Afford to Miss.” May all those you share this word with realize that prayer is first that we might contact God who is Spirit with our spirit (John 4:24; Eph. 6:18) that we might absorb Him into our being. This breathing prayer is as vital to our spiritual life as physical breathing to our human life. Calling on the name of Jesus is an excellent to breathe in the Lord as our rich supply (1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:12-13). Thank you for your comment.

  18. Ronnie

    I sensed the wind of the Holy Spirit as I read the benefit titles, in other words, I sensed a stirring in my spirit and my great need.

    1. Tom Smith

      One of my favorite benefits of prayer is that of coming to the Lord, at the throne of grace in our spirit to receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16). Whether recognize answers to our prayers is secondary. Contacting the Lord to receive His mercy and grace are primary. Just contacting the Lord is such a benefit! Thanks for the comment.

  19. Iheari Esther

    I have been tremendously blessed.

    1. Tom Smith

      Glad you received blessing from the post It is really a blessing to be able to contact God and absorb Him through prayer. Today the practical Holy of Holies where we can contact the Lord is our human spirit indwelt by the Lord as the life-giving Spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). It is very good to take time each day, especially in the morning, just to breathe in the Lord by means of prayer. Simply by calling from deep within, “Lord Jesus!” you’ll discover how rich and supplying He is (Rom. 10:12-13). Then just continue to thank Him, praise Him and open every matter to Him. Praying with a Scripture verse or two is also a a most beneficial way to be spiritually nourished. Thanks for sharing your appreciation in a comment.

  20. It’s great in the article when you talk about the Christian life being like a tool with a battery, and that that battery needs to be recharged. In my view, another benefit of prayer is that you can help others recharge their spiritual batteries as well! I will have to look for more opportunities to pray with people.

    1. Tom Smith

      Yes, to pray is not merely to ask God to do things for us. It is mainly to contact Him and be infused with all that He is. In this way our spiritual battery is recharged. The Lord Jesus wants to be everything to us in our Christian life, but we need to come forward to contact Him as the Spirit with our spirit (John 4:24). Then as you say, our prayer with others is to help them touch the Lord also. In this way they are recharged and experience Him as the real solution to their problems. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

  21. Helen Attah

    I love these benefits of prayers. Thanks and God bless you.

    1. Tom Smith

      Glad you enjoyed these benefits of prayer. One of my favorites is from Hebrews 4:16, that is, mercy and grace for timely help. So prayer isn’t just to get God to do things for us. It is to come to the divine “filling station.” Whenever we come forward to our kingly, High Priest, Jesus, at the “throne of grace,” we receive Him as our timely supply to live the Christian life. Thanks for taking a moment to leave a comment.

  22. Ola abimbola

    Thanks sir I really appreciate this teaching of prayer it gives me more light than how I understood before May the good God continue shower u his unlimited grace in Jesus name Amen

    1. Tom Smith

      I’m glad you enjoyed the post on the 8 Benefits of Prayer. It is wonderful to realize that the Lord Jesus is our real “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16) and He is now with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). So when ever we pray from deep within, coming to Him in our spirit , we receive the mercy and find the grace we need for timely help. This is a great benefit of prayer, one which I hope every believer would enjoy daily. Thank you for your encouraging comment.

  23. Lucy Oulo

    I have personally experienced the eight benefits of prayer particularly touching the throne of God’s grace. Let’s keep on praying and pushing even harder and God through the holy spirit shall reveal more benefits to us. Thanks and may God bless you abundantly sir!

    1. Tom Smith

      Glad you enjoyed the post. Surely there is more benefits to prayer than what we could cover in such a post. It is definitely good to explore the benefits of prayer in our personal experience with the Lord. In my post on praying to fellowship with Jesus you may find some further aspects to explore. Thanks for sharing your appreciation in a comment.

  24. Friday Eni

    The eight benefits are awesome.

    1. Tom Smith

      Amen. I agree. I especially enjoy that by our contact with the Lord in prayer we not only receive outward answers but we receive more of Him as mercy and grace for our timely help (Heb. 4:16). Just come to the Lord Jesus to contact Him with your spirit (John 4:24; 2 Tim. 4:22). I hope you will enjoy praying over this hymn to enrich your prayer. If you would like to sing it, here is the tune. Keep enjoying the Lord in prayer every day.

  25. Joseph

    Am happy for your teachings am able to teach other through this

    1. Tom Smith

      I am so glad that you are happy for these teachings that enable you to teach others. Thanks for sharing your appreciation in a comment.

  26. Francis

    Thanks for this message, I have been encouraged and uplifted, I will share with others about this. 8 benefits of praying. Pray that you may not enter into temptation. Be blessed am very excited with this message.

    1. Tom Smith

      It is good to realize that prayer is not first a matter of asking the Lord for things, but of contacting Him with our spirit which is of the same nature as His (John 4:24) and of breathing and absorbing His life-giving essence (John 20:22) by means of calling on His name (Rom. 10:12) and praying to Him (Eph. 6:18). To me, the top benefit of such prayer is receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16). Thanks for sharing your enjoyment in a comment.

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