by Maureen Totterer

Created on: March 11, 2010   Last Updated: June 24, 2010

Prayer is a natural and integral part of the daily Christian walk.  For the Christian prayer is as natural as breathing.  We thank God for every breath we take.  We thank him for everything but most of all for our salvation.  The power of prayer is demonstrated in three areas of the Christian life beginning with:

- the sinner's prayer

- intercessory prayer during our journey through life

- the prayer before death

The sinner's prayer begins our new life in Christ.  The Holy Spirit will draw a person to Christ by convicting the sinner of personal sin.  What is the sinner's prayer?  The sinner's prayer is a personal prayer of heartfelt remorse for personal sin and a readiness for change through repentance.  The sinner asks forgiveness from God.  Jesus tells us in John 6:  "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."  The sinner's prayer leads to personal salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This powerful miracle of prayer begins the born-again life of any person who steps out in faith and cries out to God.  God says in his word:  "But on this one I will look: on him who is [spiritually] poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my Word."  John MacArthur notes, "God is looking for a heart to dwell in, a heart that is tender and broken, not one concerned with the externalities of religion.  God is looking to dwell in the heart of a person who takes his word seriously."

The powerful prayer of salvation is a preview of coming attractions which promises future miracles through the power of prayer.  Newly born-again Christians enter a honeymoon stage of wonderful intimacy with God.  We realize and bask in the warm glow of God's wonderful love for us demonstrated through the cross of Christ.  We no longer fear death because our God has conquered sin and death through his cross and glorious resurrection from death.  We have a peace that "passes all understanding" because we know that we too shall rise again just like Jesus. 

Jesus said, "the truth shall set you free."  Indeed, our new found freedom in Christ breaks out in glorious exaltation as we seek to find the words worthy enough to describe our newly bestowed salvation.  We might borrow the beautiful words of Isaiah the Prophet from the Old Testament:  "O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt you, I will praise

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