Prayer and Praying (1)

"God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (I Corinthians 1:9 NKJV)

The first thing about prayer is fellowship - fellowship with God. Prayer is neither a tool nor a weapon of malice, it is a communion between God the father and the redeemed. Salvation is a call to fellowship with God and with His son Jesus.

"that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (I John 1:3 NKJV)

The believer is in a privileged position of communion/fellowship (Koinonia in the Greek) with God; he being a child of God is in association, communion, & joint participation with God the father. 

Our fellowship with God evinces the fatherhood of God in that he blotted-out our history of unworthiness and by the blood and righteousness of His first begotten son, He brought us into CLOSE communion with Himself.

This is the foundation for prayer - God the father by the blood of Jesus has brought us to Himself in close communion. This is what makes prayer effective and it is what makes faith work. If you don't start from the point of fellowship you won't get any where in prayer. 

So what do we do when we pray? We do not try to create or establish fellowship with God in prayer because Jesus has done that by His blood; rather, we are cultivating the already  established fellowship. Therefore, in prayer, what we do is to communicate, share, and partner with God. 

Prayer is purely fellowship with God. We don't pray to win His acceptance, we pray because He has accepted us in the beloved (Eph. 1:6); we don't pray so that we can enter His presence, we pray because He has brought into His presence by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 2:13, Hebrews 12:22-24).