As Christians, most (if not all) of us know that we should pray. But….did you know that its not really only that we should pray, but that we’re commanded to pray? And indeed not only that but it can be sinful not to! Don’t believe me?

Nowhere does the duty of intercessory prayer stand forward so prominently as in 1 Samuel 12:23, where Samuel tells the Israelites, “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you.” He tells this to them after they realize they have sinned against God by asking him for a king and they in turn beseech him to pray for them. He knew it was his duty to do so and not doing it for any reason would have been sinful.

Another example can be found in Daniel 9:13 "All this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God." As Daniel confessed his sin and the sin of Israel, he remembered the sin of prayerlessness. Even when they faced great trial and calamity, Israel still did not make their prayer before the LORD. When we sense trial or difficulty, it should drive us immediately to prayer – when we are not so driven, it should be a wake-up call to the coldness of our heart.

Just to clarify in no way am I saying that it’s sinful to not spend every minute of free time in prayer. Rather, I’m trying to convey the idea that intercessory prayer isn't just something nice we can or should do but rather something more of a non-negotiable responsibility we have towards our brothers and sisters in Christ 2. And the New Testament tells us as much in Luke 18:1, “And [Jesus] spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray…”

In the original Greek verse, the translated word “ought” comes from the word deó, which means to tie, bind, impel, compel. In other words, Christ wasn’t “suggesting” we pray. He was telling us it’s necessary (for many reasons) to pray; in other words, the relationship we are to have with prayer is that of a bound one.

Prayer is a solemn service due to God, an adoration, a worship, an approach to God for some request, the presenting of some desire, the expression of some need to Him, who supplies all need, and who satisfied all desires; who, as a fath, finds his greatest pleasure in relieving the wants and granting the desires of his children.

Do we pray as much as we could or should? Our we fulfilling the duty we have to pray? That question takes on even greater significance if we consider the quote from the great Theologian A.W. Tozer: “Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will be judged not by how much I have done but by how much I could have done.”

Let this moment of reflection also be one of renewal for us and renew our duty to pray.