There must be thousands of reasons why we need prayer power.  I think Jesus has summed them all up for us in Matthew 6:9-13.

1.  We need prayer power to pray (v. 9). When Jesus told His disciples, “In this manner, therefore pray: Our Father in heaven…” He assumed that they already wanted to pray, that they had a great desire to pray. And they did.  God was working in them the desire and the power to pray.  But so often we don’t have the desire to pray.  This I think is the greatest failure in prayer.  We just don’t want to pray.  And so we don’t.  The first kind of power we need is the power to get ourselves to prayer, the power to love and desire prayer.

 2.  We need prayer power to do God’s work (v. 10). The work of God’s kingdom is both the work of prayer and the “hands on” work of ministry—that is, the work of bringing others to Christ and caring for them and helping them grow in Christ. In order to pray with a true heart, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and likewise to actually be involved with doing that work, we need the power of prayer working for us. Anytime we set out to do His work, the devil and his followers will always come against us and try to stop us.  This makes the work extremely hard, quite impossible without His help.  But with His help through prayer all things are possible.

 3.  We need prayer power to receive daily provisions (v. 11). It doesn’t take much power to merely receive from God our daily bread. The power we need is in the attitude of our receiving it. We need His power to be dependent on Him and to receive everything with humility.  We also need His power to be thankful—to pray and receive His gifts with thanksgiving.

 4.  We need prayer power to maintain loving and forgiving relationships (v. 12). It’s easy to hold a grudge against someone that has wronged you. It’s hard to forgive them and show love to them. This is why we need a special prayer power from God.  He will give you that power if you humble yourself before Him and ask Him for it, saying, “Lord, I have no strength in me to forgive this person.  Show me how to forgive him as You forgave me.”

By this humble prayer God will give you the power to forgive the one who has offended you.  But more than that, when we forgive our debtors He forgives us of our debt of sin to Him.  This restored fellowship we have with the Lord makes prayer possible.  In fact, when we are faithful to always forgive our offenders, so as to stay in fellowship with God, He will make our prayers effective and powerful for every need of life.

 5.  We need prayer power to overcome evil (v. 13). Make no mistake about it, the devil is strong and powerful and he may cause you much pain and suffering. And if you are not on your guard he will deceive you, lead you astray, entice you to sin, put you in bondage, and even destroy you. Therefore, we need God’s power to help us in temptations and to give us victory.  God will help us if we put our trust in Him.  Moreover, He will give us great prayer power over the enemy if we resist him and stand firm in our faith (1 Pt. 5:7-9).