Welcome to this weekend's In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley. When problems arise is your first

instinct to turn to social media, popular opinion, or friends instead of God. Let's break that cycle

and discover the power of a life of prayer. So what I want to talk about in this message is simply

this, I want to answer this question.

And that is, why should prayer be the priority in your life and mind?

Why should it be?

We've talked about the fact that the extraordinary life is a masterpiece of God's creation.

That's what we are.

That it is a life, of faith, of discipline,

of intimacy, of service. It is a life also of prayer. And I want you to turn, if you will,

to Mark chapter one. And I just want to read a few verses here. Jesus had been very, very busy,

all during the day, preaching and teaching

and talking to people about different things, I'm sure. And if you'll notice beginning in verse

32, when evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill and those

who were demon possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door.

And he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he was not

permitting the demons to speak because they knew who he was. That's what he'd been doing all day long,

dealing with people and all kinds of sickness and disease. Look at this next verse. In the early morning,

while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, went away to a secluded place,

and was praying there. Simon and his companions searched for him, couldn't find him anywhere.

They found him and said to him,

everyone's looking for you. He said to them, let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I may preach there also, but that's what I came for. So here he was getting the father's instruction for the day, God's energy for the day,

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