Prayer Is Not an Option It’s a Command

We pray because God is sovereign and he answers prayer. Refusing to pray is a deliberate act of disobedience. When we don't pray, we are only saying to God, "I can handle my business for today." if we are not walking in the principles of his word and obeying his command, it is not a guarantee that he will answer our prayers. Many of us wonder how we can have a better prayer life or how we can pray like other people, not realizing that prayer is just talking with Jesus. Under any circumstances, prayer formulates our thoughts and causes us to make wise decisions. Prayer is not an option; whether we want to or not, it is the answer to humans' dilemmas. You don't have to pray in a fancy way, and you don’t have to pray politically correctly, but prayer has to be authentic because you are praying to a holy God. Prayer is not just for people with a title because sometimes titles replace the relationship one has with God, so keep in mind that nothing and no one should take the place of our prayer time with God. Prayer is mandatory, and it must become the driving force of everything that we do in our personal walk with God. Because prayer causes us to build on our relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it should be the foundation of a believer's walk.
What is prayer? Prayer is the sincerity of the heart articulating one's speech to our heavenly Father who is listening, and we must patiently wait for him to respond. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you (Jeremiah 29:12 NIV). People gather in churches, synagogues, and even their homes and pray day and night. Sadly, some of them are praying to a deity whom we don't know or a being whom we cannot relate to because they have no relationship with Jesus.
What people need today is your love and not your judgment. Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, or criticize their faults unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. (Matthew 7:1–3 MSG)
Self-examination is crucial to our spiritual walk with God. We will not be able to have a lifestyle of prayer and have the power of God operating in our lives by walking in our flesh and being carnal. Carnality will diminish your prayer life and cause the light of Christ in you to be dim. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Hebrews 12:1 NLT) Notice that the Scripture says “weight” and “sin.” That means some things we do are not necessarily sins but add to sin weight. Thus, we have to be able to differentiate what we are carrying in our spirit because if we are not careful, people’s burdens will become weight. And if we go around discussing other people’s business instead of praying, that weight will become a sin. This will then cause us to be distracted when praying, and our prayer will have no value or meaning. We will feel as if our prayers are bouncing off the wall.
One of the disadvantages many believers have when praying is that they do not wait for God to speak back to them in prayer. Though God might not always talk back to you right away, which can be somewhat frustrating, but the more you practice waiting in his presence, the more you become familiar with his voice. There are no traffic jams in heaven, so there's no need for you to rush out of his presence. Rushing out of God's presence can cause you significant delay on your spiritual journey with him. Selah in his presence, because prayer will cause you to use wisdom and make a wise decision, especially when faced with difficult circumstances
Most people want their relationship to work, but sadly, many quit during the dating process. As believers, we are the bride of Christ, and a bride does not act as if she is dating her husband because she is now committed to him. When you are dating, it is easy to change partners. We can see a relationship as casual while looking for the "right" person we are compatible with. As believers, our prayer life with God cannot be casual as if we are dating him. God does not want to date; He wants commitment. And if we are going to be committed to God, we must get personal with Him. Prayer will move us from being familiar with God to a place of oneness with him. When you are in love with someone, you feel the urgency and the longing to be with him or her.
Prayer is a part of the study tool you would need to pass the test of life. While Jesus was on earth, he was able to pass every test because he was in constant communication with his daddy. Jesus used the tool of prayer that the Father had given him. Prayer will connect you to the Father and cause your inner man to gain strength. So, if you are at a place in your life where you feel as if you are drained, take the time to pray and let the Holy Ghost take over so you can build up yourself in it (Jude 1:20 KJV). There is a place where you can get engrossed in prayer. It may not happen overnight, but if you continue to build on your relationship with the Father, I assure you that you will reach the place where there is no limit, Prayer is like having a diary you write in daily; the difference between the two is that one you record on paper and the other you record in heaven.