Mandate to Pray

Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

Luke 18:1

We don’t have to think that our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. The living Christ is sitting at the right hand of God the Father. God the Son retains the same humanity He took to save us and is now living in a body that still has nail prints in its hands. He is our great High Priest, interceding for us with God the Father.

The resurrection presence of Christ gives us power to live our lives day by day and to serve Him. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these will he do; because I go to My Father” (John 14:12 NKJV).

The resurrected body of Jesus is the design for our bodies when we are raised from the dead also. No matter what afflictions, pain, or distortions we have in our earthly bodies, we will be given new bodies. What a glorious promise of things to come! “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform our lowly body to be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself ” (Philippians 3:20–21 NKJV).

Our Father and our God, I come to You in the name of the resurrected Jesus to praise and glorify You for Your mighty works. I am excited to claim my citizenship in heaven, Lord, and to be with You forever. Keep me walking with Jesus every day of my life, for He is the only Way to You, and through Him I pray. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).