Learning to Love Part 1: Prayer
By Amberlin Salas

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Now that we have established the need to fall in love with God and to build an intimate relationship with Him, the question is “how?” What do I do on a daily basis to build that kind of relationship? The next three chapters will show you basic elements: prayer, praise, and Bible study. This will lead you to that relationship that both you and God crave. These elements are not suggestions; they are, according to His word, necessities. Your spiritual survival depends upon them.

I remember several instances when I would seek after God in order to deepen my relationship with Him. It normally happened, for me, during the summer months. In the summer, there are all sorts of camps, conferences, and special services. I would get a lot of Word, prayer, and praise in a short period of time. The more I experienced the amazing presence of God, the more that my hunger for Him would grow.
It was in those camps and conferences when God began to show me where He wanted to take me in my life. He placed burdens in my heart and gave me purpose. It would invigorate me, inspire me, and cause me to make commitments. Sadly, most of the time, I would go home at the end of the summer and quickly fall back into my same routine and get discouraged. I could never seem to reach the potential in God that He had ordained.

This went on for a while — years, in fact. While I would experience little victories occasionally, there was always a thought somewhere in the back of my mind that I could be better. There were places God wanted to take me that I had yet to reach. Refusing to settle for an ordinary life, I asked God to show me what was missing. It did not take much searching for me to realize the missing piece. I did not have a consistent life of prayer and praise, nor did I have a constant diet of His word. I lacked the discipline necessary for being as victorious at home as I was in the altar at youth camp.

I did not always understand prayer. When I was younger and my mind was on other things, I did not pay attention to the sermons on prayer. “I know that already” was my attitude, which was wrong. However, the older I got and the more I longed to communicate with God, I started searching for the Biblical way to pray and how to develop a disciplined prayer life. I looked at the giants of the Gospel and wanted to be like them. Whenever I would ask what their secret was, prayer was always the answer. After I began looking for instruction on prayer, I noticed more sermons being preached about it. I began to soak up every word and instruction that I heard. I learned that no matter how anointed you think you are or how talented you are, a life without prayer results in nothing but struggle. The men and women who have paved the way for us in the truth first paved the way with prayer. God will not bless a life that is prayer-less, no matter how many times you go to an altar and no matter how many tears you cry at a conference. If you do not have the same sensitivity and the same level of commitment to a personal prayer closet, you will continue to live in a cycle of frustration, always coming back to the same struggles……..

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The above article Learning to Love: Part 1, is the sixth chapter from the book “#RealTalk”, by Amberlin Salas.

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