Prayer Is the Key to the Kingdom

Dr. Mary Evans

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781098046903
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Prayer

Prayer is the Key to the Kingdom opens up the history of prayer. It focuses on what prayer is, on who God is, the names of God, and why we need to pray. It explains the importance of prayer, why you should pray, and how and when you should pray.

It gives clear, concise, and helpful examples of the types and forms of prayer. The benefits of prayer are real. God does answer prayer in his time.

God's answers are for our good, not always what we pray for.

Chapter 4

History of Prayer

Prayer is not a new concept or behavior. Starting in the Old Testament, prayer began in the garden of Eden. In the garden, Adam and Eve walked and talked with God. This was called the Patriarchal Period, when men begin to call upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 4:26 says,

And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos;

Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-Sheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. (Genesis 21:33)

Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of Heaven. (Nehemiah 2:4)

Daniel proved how large a place prayer came to hold in the individual life.

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being opened in his chambers toward Jerusalem, he kneeled on his knees three times a day and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. (Daniel 6:10)

As an illustration of the prominence now given to confession of sin:

And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and them that keep his commandments. (Daniel 9:4)

In the New Testament, prayer is revealed in the gospels, where Jesus’s own habits of prayer is revealed. His general teaching on prayer in parables. The New Testament teaches us to approach God as our Father. Jesus raised prayer to its highest plane. In the Lord’s prayer, He summed up his ordinary teaching on the subject in a concrete example which serves as a model and breviary of prayer in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4.

In the Acts and Epistles, we see the apostolic church giving effect to Christ’s teaching on prayer. I...