A Message to Other Christians – Why I Believe in Prayer’s Centrality in Christianity (By Jack McGuane)

It truly does not matter how much you are called a “good person” by others. It does not matter that you go to Church every Sunday, that you are charitable, selfless, or any other positive adjective you choose to ascribe to yourself. In the Christian faith, it is understood that one cannot get into the kingdom of God without prayer. You need that connection to God. To showcase the importance of praying, I have an analogy: imagine you invite your friend over because you need their support. Life has been difficult lately, and you want to open up, share a meal, and cheer up with your buddy. When the doorbell rings, you open the door and see your friend with a complete stranger. How are you feeling? Your friend says he is an amazing person, a true man of Christ. However, you have never met him before in your life. Are you going to let this complete stranger into your home, into your conversation, into your personal life, simply because your friend claims he is a great guy? If your answer is no, how do you expect God will react to a stranger on Judgment Day? Will He let you into His kingdom, His home, if you are the kindest person in the world, yet you have never spoken to Him? Prayer is how you speak to God. The individuals we commonly agree represent the best of humanity – those remarkable humans like Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman – would be turned away on Judgement Day if their lives were absent of prayer. In this confusing, ironic way, God knows everything about you but he doesn’t truly know you until you speak to him routinely. This does not mean that a Christian should stop living like a person of Christ and just focus on prayer, it just that your actions stand for nothing unless you pray (in the Christian faith).

In my personal experience as a Catholic, I don’t believe that I pray enough. I try to every night, but I push it off and push it off as I let all of the other thoughts rush through my head. I end up getting too tired, and nine times out of ten, I fall asleep before I pray. However, I can simply share those thoughts with God as I pray. Praying doesn’t have to have a structure to it, you just have to indicate that you are praying to God with your mind, and by signing the cross. So, the next time that you don’t feel like praying because you think that it is exhausting and rigid (which is how I sometimes see it), try to remember that prayer is one of the most important parts of being any denomination of Christian, and it can be whatever you want it to be. If you are Christian, I challenge you to grow closer to God through your prayer, so that, according to our shared faith, we can all live in peace and prosperity in God’s kingdom. I certainly know I will be trying to take my own advice.