Our theme this year is God First. This quarter’s focus is on God and you. As children of God, we can’t talk about our relationship with God without focusing on prayer. Prayer is vital to our faith, spiritual health, and for building our relationship with God. Without prayer, we have no communication with God. Jesus showed the importance of prayer in the garden when he said to Peter, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41 ESV).
When God established the Temple as his house, he told Solomon that he will tune his ear to the people who humbly pray and seek his face: “. . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). God promises that “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place” (vs. 15).
Over and over God is calling his people to repent, pray, and seek him. God always says that he heals them when they seek and pray. A case-in-point is when Hezekiah prayed for the Israelites when they repented but celebrated the Passover in a way that was not commanded. Hezekiah poured over the people in prayer “And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people” (2 Chronicles 30:20).