The Principles of Prayer XL

 If the recent spiritual state of the modern-day church has proven anything, it’s that the old path, which it has chosen to discard in lieu of more exciting, newly forged goat tracks, isn’t just superior to anything our contemporary luminaries can come up with, but it still remains the only true path that will lead to our desired destination. Jesus said He is the way, and it remains as true today as it was two thousand years ago when He uttered the words.

My purpose in this writing isn’t to reimagine one’s relationship with God or bring new revelation, but to bring to mind what the Word of God says regarding such indispensable practices as prayer, so that we might endeavor to return to the purity, simplicity, and functionality of true worship.

Nothing I write should be new to anyone who’s been walking with the Lord for any length of time, but a refresher, a reminder, that doing the simple things consistently is what has worked since the early church and beyond.

A life of prayer isn’t bombastic or showy, but the inner strength that consistent prayer produces is so vast and deep that one can tap into it whenever the need arises without having to wonder if it’s available.

We must be able to distinguish between genuine strength and chemically enhanced show muscle. The two are not the same, and when true strength is required, the show muscles will fall short every time. We’ve gone from men and women of God walking in His authority, whom the enemy knows by name and is weary of, to a gaggle of entertainers trying to outdo each other with ever more elaborate stage productions that do nothing to fuel the spiritual man to greater heights of power.

If entertainment is what you’re after, then by all means, seek out the closest guy prancing on stage, throwing his coat at people, and punching cancer patients in the gut. If true strength is what you seek, then there is no alternative to spending time with God, in prayer, consistently and unwaveringly.

By nature of being in fellowship with God, prayer is a transformative experience. Prayer changes you. It transforms you. If you are earnestly carving out time to be in His presence, with every encounter, your spiritual man becomes all the stronger, your perception becomes all the clearer, and your ability to know His voice becomes all the more refined.

The more you press in and beseech God with prayers and supplications, the more time you will want to spend with Him. Back in the day, before the kids, when I still had what some call downtime and actually turned on the television once in a while, there was a commercial for a potato chip making the rounds, and its tagline was that you couldn’t eat just one. Once you pop, you can’t stop, and the way they spun the narrative, it was supposed to be a good thing. It was for their bottom line, but likely not so for anyone’s waistline. The same can be said for the pursuit of a life of prayer, although when it comes to spending time in prayer, there is no downside. Once you begin to seek the face of God in earnest and desire to have fellowship with Him, the desire for more of it will only grow, becoming near to compulsory, having known what it is to feel His presence, and know that He is there.  

As such, qualitative prayer will inevitably stir within us a desire for more quantitative ones. There is no muscle fatigue associated with prayer. If you have no clue what I’m referring to, muscle fatigue is the principle that you can overwork a muscle to the point that the exercise is no longer beneficial but detrimental to one’s development. There’s no such thing as praying too much or too long. There’s no hard stop at thirty minutes or three hours from which point you get diminishing rates of return for the time you put in.

Lamentations 3:22-24, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’”

God’s mercies do not run out. He is not Santa Claus, discovering he’s reached the bottom of his goody bag, and there’s nothing left but a pair of socks that look suspiciously similar to the ones your mom bought for your dad on his birthday. They are new every morning, and every time you come before Him, you will know the refreshing that comes with spending time in His presence, a refreshing that does not grow stale or diminish over time, but that is vibrant and full of life with each iteration.

When I first bought it, my cell phone would hold a charge for a couple of days. I don’t use it much to begin with, nor have I increased my screen time, yet a few years in, if I don’t charge it every couple of hours, the battery dies. It is not so when it comes to what we experience in prayer. You don’t feel less of God with each passing day; you feel more of Him. Your strength is not more readily depleted, but grows exponentially as you continue building the bond of faith, trust, obedience, and submission.

Prayer is not a fad. It’s not something that’s here today and gone tomorrow. It is the foundation and support structure for both faith and the relationship we, as His children, must have with God, our Father. While the Scriptures are how He speaks to us corporately, prayer is how we communicate with Him and how He communicates with us on a personal, one-on-one level.

There is one caveat that needs mentioning, given the recent spate of unbiblical revelation by individuals who insist we should trust them over the written Word, and that is that God will never contradict His Word. He is not double-minded, He is not flighty, and He will never give an individual message that contravenes, or stands in stark opposition to Scripture itself.

Yes, there are those who speak when God has not spoken. There are those who go that God has not sent. Whenever you encounter an individual who places themselves above the authority of Scripture, insisting they should be believed over what the Bible says, they are not to be placated, indulged, or humored, but wholly rejected and given a wide berth.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Posted on 4 June 2025 | 11:13 am