I am not an expert on prayer. In fact, you’ll find me to be a member of the PWA. (You’ll find out about that later) But you know, it’s not hard to open the Bible and find pretty clear instructions on how we should pray.
God created prayer as a means for His people to connect with Him. It is literally just talking with him. Sometimes it’s just connecting with him spirit to spirit. It is a means to form relationship with God.
The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. – Psalms 145:18
To have a relationship with Christ, we have to pray. To praise him, thank him, ask for his forgiveness, ask for guidance, and to intercede for others. It would be practically impossible to walk with God and not pray to him.
It’s mentioned over and over in the Bible that we are to pray. It’s obviously very important to God!
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. – Colossians 4:2
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.- Romans 12:12
If you’re thinking what the heck is she talking about, think bowing your head or kneeling. It most certainly helps us to be humble and to show respect to the Lord. The fact of the matter is, prayer is not physical, it is spiritual.
Jesus hung from the cross and was unable to be in the perfect posture for praying. He called out to his Father and the Lord heard him. How we are standing or holding our head will not make our prayers more righteous if we are truly connecting with the spirit of God. While those things can often help reflect our inner thoughts and humble us before Him, they are not requirements for praying to the Father.
You don’t have to be a poet or a scholar of the King James Version of the Bible to pray. For many years I was discouraged from praying because I never knew “the right words” to pray. I lacked biblical language (still do) and I thought it made my prayers less important. The Bible says that we aren’t to worry about fancy words or long sentences. Whew, that’s a relief! I’m not good at that anyways!
When you pray, don’t pour out a flood of empty words, as the Gentiles do. They think that by saying many words they’ll be heard. – Matthew 6:7
The Bible says that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Hallelujah! Have you ever been in a situation where a situation was so bad that you didn’t even know where to start to pray? Like your head might explode! According to the Lord’s will, the Spirit prays for us!
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. – Romans 8:26
When our prayer life dies out, so does our relationship with God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 clearly states- Never stop praying. That seems pretty clear enough. I love this by C H Spurgeon.
As we breathe without ceasing, so must we pray without ceasing. As there is no attainment in life, of health, or of strength, or of muscular vigor which can place a man beyond the necessity of breathing, so no condition of spiritual growth or advance in grace will allow a man to dispense with prayer. – Charles Spurgeon, 1872 Sermon no. 1039
Even when we don’t see results, know that God always hears your prayers.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. – 1 John 5:14
The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” – Psalm 145:18-19
The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. – Proverbs 15:29
One of the most powerful tools that we have as children of God is prayer. We are ordinary people who serve and extraordinary God. We cannot do the things that He can. Because we submit our sins, needs, and requests to Him, we turn them over to His mighty power. Prayer is HUGE!
The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. – James 5:16
God has never called us to be perfect. In fact, God Loves Imperfection. If you are communicating with God spirit to spirit, praising, repenting, requesting, you are doing it right. The more that you do it, the better that you’ll get at it. It brings God such great joy when his children humble themselves with their imperfect prayers to talk with him.
I got the opportunity to read a GREAT resource on prayer. I wanted to share with you about it. It’s from my favorite Christian author, Max Lucado. It’s all in the video below. I edited the very living daylights out of it because I have come to realize that every other word that I say is “um”.
Please forgive me if you feel like you’re going nuts. 🙂 And PLEASE leave a comment below with anything that YOU would add to the list above.
I was provided with a copy of Before Amen by Family Christian. All opinions expressed at 100% my own!
This is excellent. It is so easy to understand. I have shared it with my grandson. He is just learning to pray. Thank you.
Thanks so much for these tips. I have been reading Mark Batterson’s – Draw The Circle in my prayer time and I must say, he highlights the tips as well. God has given us full access to him via his son Jesus….All even a whisper of Help is sufficient for Him to heed my cry.
Kim recently posted…He Writes My Story – A Testimony
I love this. Such valuable information layed out so succinctly!
Agreed! Prayer doesn’t have to be any more complicated than talking to a friend!
Brittany at Equipping Godly Women recently posted…6 Easy and Heartfelt Ways to Bless Your Neighbors
One of my favorite parts of the day is laying my head down on my pillow and speaking to God. I love connecting with Him during this time, but I have also been praying “on the fly” more frequently. Sometimes I will just stop what I am doing and have a quick word with God. I find it makes my hard days so much more tolerable. Great list, girl!
LAura recently posted…Jesus Freak
These are timely reminders for me. One of the things I want to work on this year is my prayer life work. I’ll have tto look into that book.
Rebekah @Surviving Toddlerhood recently posted…Dear Momma, Don’t Feel Guilty