Prayer As A Tool For Personal Development

Personal development means different things to different people. Many see it as a process through which they develop themselves to achieve their dreams and set goals. It could also be seen as developing the capacity to handle a variety of situations and circumstances.

For a Christian, personal development is a process of equipping oneself with the power to carry out the plans and purposes of God on earth. It is to build the capacity to listen and hear God, to fight temptations, and ultimately to become like Christ. In other words, the ultimate goal of personal development is to begin to mirror the personality of Christ in character and in exploits.

Prayer is first seen as a tool of communication with God. However, the definition of prayer can be extended to include not just communication, but communion with God, a time for intimate fellowship where we consistently engage God’s spirit and draw strength from him.

Prayer can positively impact personal development in the following ways;

1. Direction:

Life can sometimes be dicey and unpredictable. Some lines of action always look like the best but maybe the worst considering unforeseen occurrences. In those situations, it takes an entity that sees the end from the beginning to direct a person.
Some situations can defy all human wisdom and logic and it would take supernatural insight to decide the next move. One of the benefits of being a child of God is that through prayer, you can build yourself up to be easily and effectively able to make decisions guided by the one who is wiser than the wisest. The Bible states that as many as are guided By the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

2. Strength:

Jesus, our perfect example of personal development had a tradition of retiring to a solitary place before dawn to fellowship with God in the place of prayer(Mark 1:35). The demands of the ministry of Jesus were very extensive and required a very disciplined lifestyle. Jesus however excelled in his ministry because he had a tradition of habitually visiting the place of prayer every day. The Bible also says Jesus was in every way tempted as we are but without sin. Many imagine that Jesus did not feel the urges we feel but that notion is very far from the truth. Jesus is qualified to be our high priest because he has been in our place. He was tempted many times like us but prevailed due to his habit of prayer.
A key takeaway is how he stuck to a regimented timing before dawn. The disciples in Acts seemed to also follow in his footsteps, carving out a regimented hour of the payer, which was the ninth hour(Acts 3:1).

3. Excellence:

The Bible says that Daniel was better than all the other dignitaries in his time(Daniel 6:3) This was because of the excellent spirit that was in him. Daniel was committed to many practices geared towards self-development e.g. reading( Daniel 9:2).

However, the most important and outstanding of his self-development practices was prayer. Daniel took prayer as important as eating and refused to quit even When it became outlawed to pray. He built and maintained a relationship with God through prayers that helped him conquer some influential enemies he had. The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, and wickedness in high places( Ephesians 6:12) prayer is a vital aspect of the armour of God we need to put on to wage war against the devil and his cohorts.

4. Power:

Miraculous happenings are a feature in the life of a person given to prayer. The Bible mentions a man like Elijah despite having “like passions” i.e. being the same as every other human, functioned powerfully through building a life of prayer. He shut the heavens and there was no rain nor dew on the earth for three years and six months. The Bible says he prayed again and the rain was restored.

Conclusion

Prayer is a very important aspect of personal development because it helps our connection to our source. I.e God. This helps us stay in his plans and gives us strength, increases our excellence to a supernatural level, and equips us with power for the supernatural manifestation that should be a visible part of our lives as Christians.