section_path: Abrahamic religions/New Testament
section_name: New Testament
paragraph_text: New Testament
  
  In the New Testament prayer is presented as a positive command. The People of God are challenged to include Christian prayer in their everyday life, even in the busy struggles of marriage as it brings people closer to God.
  
  Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray in secret in their private rooms, using the Lord's Prayer, as a humble response to the prayer of the Pharisees, whose practices in prayer were regarded as impious by the New Testament writers.
  
  For evangelists and other Christian sects, prayer is shown to be God's appointed method by which we obtain what He has to bestow. Further, the Book of James says that the lack of blessings in life results from a failure to pray. Jesus healed through prayer and expected his followers to do so also. The apostle Paul wrote to the churches of Thessalonica to "Pray continually."