“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.”  
Colossians 4:2

The Amplified Bible opens this verse up for us as follows,
“Be earnest and unwearied and steadfast in your prayer [life], being [both] alert and intent in [your praying] with thanksgiving.” 

There is a universal need for prayer as Psalm 65:2 reveals,
“O Thou who dost hear prayer,
 To Thee all men come.”

We are living in a time when there is much need for diligent prayer.  As a part of our fellowship’s prayer chain, I find that even people who do not claim to know Jesus, ask for prayer.  What a blessing to see how God works in all circumstances.  And what a privilege to be called to the prayer ministry.  It is a ministry that all can participate in as we embrace the call and conform to the conditions of a prayer warrior.

And what are the conditions?  Scripture tells us:
*A contrite and humble heart, the kind of spirit or heart, that is devoted to and is pleasing and acceptable to God:
God Himself gives an example in 2 Chronicles 7:14,
“If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”  The Amplified Bible

*Whole-heartedness:
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when your search for Me with all your heart, and I will be found by you, ‘declares the LORD…’”  
Jeremiah 29:13-14

*With faith:
“Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.”  Mark 11:24
(We need to be careful here, God does not give us all we want, but He does give us what we need.)  
It is the Holy Spirit who is our great help here as we see in Romans 8:26-27, we are to pray according to God’s will,
“And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words; 
And He who searches the hearts know what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

*Another condition is righteousness:
“…The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  
James 5:16 

*And Obedience:
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”  
1 John 3:21-22

God answers prayer, but not always as we desire.  The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 is an example of this very thing,
“…to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me--to keep me from exalting myself!
Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness…’”

Sometimes prayer is refused because it is not in accord with the Divine Will.
2 Corinthians 12:9b goes on to give Paul’s response.  It was the joining of Paul’s will and desire to God’s will and purpose for his life,
“…most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weakness, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” 
(Read Vs. 10 to see Paul’s heart.)

I encourage you to seek the Lord for the privilege of becoming a prayer warrior. 

And we thank you Lord that we can come before your throne of grace on behalf of others that You may be glorified and that they may be blessed.  Amen