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Tell me about Prayer.
Prayer is simply talking to God, and because God is all about RELATIONSHIP, the more natural and honest we are when we pray, the better. We can ask God to help us with our problems and we can ask Him to do good to those we are concerned about. But there's a whole lot more we should include. First steps Whenever you speak to anyone, you base your words on who they are. If you speak to a child, you speak differently from how you would address a world leader. So when we talk to God, we need to start by remembering who He is. When Jesus's disciples asked Him to teach them to pray (Matthew 6:9), Jesus said they should begin by remembering that God is
So as we begin to pray, we should think of God in these terms. We should also remember that God is all-powerful, perfectly loving, always good and just; He knows absolutely EVERYTHING. WORSHIP As we acknowledge, appreciate and declare the greatness of God, it is called WORSHIP. So that should always be the first part of prayer. You can spend some considerable time praising and worshipping God for who He is, and asking Him to reveal more of Himself to you. CONFESSION As you worship you may well start to think of things in your life that God is not happy with - selfish attitudes, wrong words, wrong feelings, wrong actions. These you can confess to God - that is, admit them and say sorry, so that God can forgive you. The Bible says: 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' (1 John 1:9) A simple confession to God of sins from a truly sorrowful heart is all it needs to be cleansed. THANKSGIVING Another important part of prayer is giving thanks to God. He has done and continues to do so much for us - loving us, forgiving us, saving us, dying for us, protecting us, helping us - that we should remember to thank Him. Jesus once healed ten men from leprosy but 9 went away and didn't say thank you - only one came back and gave thanks. We should always say thank you. SUPPLICATION (or shopping list!) This means asking for things. We will always have so many things to ask for, perhaps starting by praying for closest family members, through to asking for God to change us and help us, deal with our problems, give us wisdom etc. We will want to pray for people we know who are not yet Christians that they would come to know God. We should pray for our church leaders and fellow church members. We should pray for those in power in our nation. We should pray that we would know God more and that He would work out His purposes in us and through us. Underlying principles Communion As we pray, it's important to remember that we are not speaking into thin air. Whether we are praying out loud or in our heads, we are speaking to a person. When we come in the right way with a humble and a worshipful heart, God draws near to us and we should start to feel His presence. This may not happen immediately but as we continue to pray and draw our hearts near to God, we should usually feel He is there. The Bible says, 'Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.'(James 4:8) Sometimes we want to finish praying too quickly and go and get busy with something. Getting into the presence of God can take that extra bit of time. Spending time with God when you can feel He is there is called communion. This communion with God is the essence of building your relationship with Him and it is in these times of communion and closeness to God that you may feel Him speaking to you - perhaps through the Bible, or through your own thoughts, or a strong feeling or conviction about something. Communion is what feeds you spiritually, and it is something that is learned through practice and experience. Those who enjoy communion with God can really say that they know God, and it leads to effectiveness in serving God, a changed character and so much more. Practicalities Everyone's life is different, but at some point in your day you need to be disciplined to set aside time to pray, however busy you are. Ideally this should be first thing in the morning, which may require getting up extra early; if that's impossible, pray briefly at the beginning of the day and find another time later. Jesus said, 'When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.'(Matthew 6:6 ESV) That is, get away from distractions and get alone with God in order really to meet with Him. Of course we can pray at other times throughout the day - when we're walking, driving etc. We can take ten minutes here and there throughout the day. We should also pray at least briefly before sleeping. As we said at the start, prayer should come out of our relationship with Him - and so it should be a thing of pleasure. See also Praying with Others in the Church section. |