Today I want to share some thoughts with you about prayer. there is so much I want to say about it that it will probably end up being more than one study.
Prayer is, very simply, talking to god. When my dad was alive and I wanted to ask him for something or even just to spend time with him I didn't drag myself into his room on my knees and grovel at his feet and say something like "O most noble father I beseech thee that in thy mercy I may make a request of thee, unworthy wretch that I am,..." I would walk into his room and say "Hey dad can I talk to you about something?" Now it is true that god is absolutely worthy of respect and we should thank him for the privilege of prayer, but because of what Jesus has done for us we have every right to come into the presence of our Heavenly Father as i had the right to come into my earthly father's room and talk to him. The bible says:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[Hebrews 4:16]
We are god's children, the bible says;
Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this
[Ephesians 1:5 GWT]
god chose to make us his children and he wants us to come and spend time with him, just like earthly parents are happy when their children just want to spend time with them. It is true that we are sinners and we don't deserve the kindness and mercy god has lavished on us, it is true that we do so many things that god does not approve of, yet he doesn't' turn away from us. He forgives us and cleanses us and restores us to fellowship with him.
So prayer is spending time with god; sometimes talking to him, sometimes listening to him, sometimes just being silent in his presence. God wants us to pray to him, he wants to fellowship with us.
If I had a child who came to me every day and repeated the same words and phrases each and every day, i would get frustrated after a while. god wants us to pray to him from our heart, telling him the things that are on our minds. We have seen already that we can talk to God like we would talk to an earthly father, respectfully but naturally. god knows our needs before we voice them so we don't need to repeat prayers or even use the same words every day when we pray. If someone wants to pray but doesn't know what to say to god then they might benefit from saying a prayer that some other Christian has written, it might give them a place to start from and give them ideas to pray about. I have some prayers written by others that on occasion I use to guide my praying but on the whole I think it's best to pray from our hearts.
I would also encourage those who don't know how to pray or what to pray for to turn to the book of Psalms which is basically the bible's prayer book as well as being the songbook of the scriptures. there are other prayers in the bible such as the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, or Paul's prayers scattered throughout his writings. These prayers are divinely inspired as all the word of god is divinely inspired. I plan to do a study on using the Lord's prayer as a prayer guide but that's for another time.
Also I think we should try to avoid using the same words whenever we pray for something. sometimes we find words that express so well the things we feel that we put those words in our minds and the next time we pray we use the same words to pray for the same thing. Our prayers can become just something we say by rote if we do that. If we make the effort to find new ways to pray for the same things each time we pray then we are more involved in our praying.
For an example, a person might say grace every time using these words:
"Father thank you for this food, bless it to me in Jesus' name amen." After a while it becomes just a routine to say those words before eating. those words are fine but if the person made an effort and used different words such as
"Lord I'm so blessed that I have this good food to eat, thank you for giving it to me lord and thank you for the good it is going to do to me. I pray in the name of Jesus, amen."
then he or she would be more involved in their praying and it would remind them to be truly grateful to god for the blessings they have received.
There are formulas for prayer such as STAR [Sorry, thanks, adoration and requests] which might help some people in their praying but they need to be careful it doesn't become just a routine of repeated words.
When we pray we pray in the name of Jesus. What that means is that we know on our own merits we don't have the right to pray or expect god to hear us, but because of what Jesus has done for us we are able confidently to enter god's presence and we know our prayers are heard and will be answered in his way and timing. The bible says:
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever
we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
[1 John 5:14-15].
Let's talk for a bit about answered prayer. Sometimes we can pray and pray about something and nothing happens. It can be discouraging but we must never give up.
When we pray, god will give us one of 3 answers: yes, no or wait.
sometimes he will say "yes" and we will receive the thing we asked for. sometimes he will say "No" and we need to accept that he has good and sufficient reasons for saying that. Other times he will tell us to wait. Waiting on God produces patience and trust in him and also produces perseverance which is important.
We don't know how to pray as we ought, sometimes all we can do is tell god what's on our hearts and ask his help. The bible says;
And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will.
[Romans 8:27]
so if you have a situation and you find it hard to pray about, remember that the Holy spirit is praying to God for you.
It can be nice having friends or Church Members praying for you if there is some need in your life. there is power in united prayer. The bible says
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
[Matthew 18:19-20]
I meet every week with a little group of people and we have a prayer meeting. I'm always inspired by them. They pray for anything from world governments to members of the website who are unwell or anything else.
I think something like that is a real blessing because we agree with each other's prayers and pray for each other. It might be beneficial for you to find a little group and make a time to pray together online or offline.
The bible says:
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
the Pastor at my church makes time in our prayer times during the Church service to pray for those who are ill or need surgery. He and one or two deacons will come and lay their hand on the person and the pastor will anoint them with oil, just a little cross on the forehead, and they will pray for the person. This doesn't mean that the Pastor's prayers are more effective than the sick person's prayer, god is not a respecter of persons, it's just that they are praying for the sick person in agreement with what James says in the bible passage above.
We can pray to god anywhere at any time but it's a good idea to have a special place and time set aside for prayer. I pray in my room, when I first wake up in the morning, at some point in the afternoon and just whenever throughout the day.
Prayer Problems:
1. The biggest pitfall to prayer is our lack of faith. The bible says:
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
[James 1:6-8]
and Jesus has this to say:
And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
[Mark 11:22-24]
And the writer of the book of Hebrews warns us:
And without faith it is impossible to please him [god], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
[Hebrews 11:6]\
2. I don't know about you but whenever I go to pray my mind comes up with a whole stack of things I need to do now and if i persist in prayer all kinds of stray thoughts cross my mind to distract me. We can get around that by asking god's help to control our straying thoughts. He will help us if we sincerely ask him.
3. sometimes when things happen we think "O, I need to pray about this." but when we get to our prayer time we have forgotten what we wanted to pray for. We need to keep a list of things and people we are praying for. I have a file on my computer and I've divided the things I'm praying for into groups like financial needs, healing, missionaries and ministries, prayer needs from my friends, prayer needs for me, etc. During my prayer time I might say "Right I"m going to pray for financial needs today" so I will go down the list and pray over each need. It really helps me to have that file and know what I need to pray for. We need to be guided by God about what things he wants us to pray about. We might be praying for one thing and God will tell us we nee to pray for something else, then we need to drop what we are doing and pray for what God has revealed to us.
I'm sure I will have more to say about prayer at a later time but I'm going to finish this for now.
Questions:
These are just questions to ponder or talk about with God.
1. Why do you think prayer is so important in the Christian life?
2. What are the problems you have in praying ?
3. Have you created a prayer list with all the things you are praying for. If yes, do you find it helpful.
4. what are the problems in prayer that you have experienced?
No comments:
Post a Comment