All religions have Prayer, they are in many forms, some prayers are action filled and some are not. The definition of prayer in Oxford dictionary is – “a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity”. Jesus often prayed every day in spite of his work, he often chose a secluded place to pray. He being God, why did he pray often, he prayed to understand the will of the Father so that he can walk according to that. We read in the garden of Gethsemane he prayed where his sweat turned to Blood.
If Jesus himself has prayed so earnestly and sincere, we should do more than what he did to get the attention of Jesus to have our prayers to become action filled prayers
So how should you Pray ?
Jesus guides how we should pray - 'But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ' Matthew 6:6-7
Go to a room – close the door and pray to your God who is unseen, if you don’t have a personal room go to a place that’s secluded / quite where you can pray.
The emphasis is to create an environment where the praying moment is between you and God and not being distracted by other things that go around you.
Prayer is done in secret between you and God. You don’t need that for others to know.
So why should you Pray?
We Christians may say, I read the Bible daily, hear many sermons / pastor’s messages and I have the knowledge in Bible to a great extent, may be prayer is important, but not important like how you call out
Remember Bible knowledge is of no use unless God turns the Bible knowledge to Wisdom. The wisdom makes you realize which areas you need to change etc. Prayer is not only about telling our problems to God, but to gain wisdom of God to do things right ,in our life.
It’s the gateway to talking to father, understanding his will for our life and he will guide us how we should walk day by day.
' “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ' Matthew 7:7,24
So how should you pray?
We have Jesus teach us how we should pray
'And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. ' Matthew 6:7-15
Don’t keep babbling like pagans (He refers pagans as people who are not his children)
Don’t pray with many words, start praying with always calling him Father in your prayers, it builds the intimacy of your relationship with God as Father / Daddy who can care for you.
Start with thanking him and start expressing all the emotions when you pray.
If you have mediated the word, talk to him, and explain what you understood, many times he will guide you to give his wisdom to correct many things
Lord’s prayer ' Matthew 6:9-15 forms the blueprint for our daily prayer, understand what he is asking us to do and pray like that.
So when should you Pray?
Book of James teaches when you should pray and how your prayers can turn to be a action filled prayer. So when should you pray to God?
1. When you are in Trouble – This is no-surprise guidance for many of us, we reach to God only when we have trouble.
'Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. ' James 5:9-11
Accept the fact that Christian life is filled with troubles, but that does not mean God will abandon you and let you suffer, the reason we are put thru trials is to make us have a better relationship with God and to increase our Faith and dependence on him. Always remember our Jesus is bigger and mightier than your problems and trials. he can get a way out of them that we may have never imagined.
Many times, we murmur / grumble saying, “Why God only for me these troubles come etc..”. the word says “Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged”
The word says in times of trouble God will give you the perseverance like how he gave to Prophets in Old Testament, when you read the book of Job. There is no man on earth who had gone thru such troubles more than he did. If God was with job to get him out, he will surely get us out, we need to have perseverance against the troubles that come our way. ‘You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. '
2. When you are Happy – This is a surprise for many of us, we don’t pray to God when we are happy as we feel Happiness and God’s prayer are two opposite sides. We don’t express our happiness to God
'Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ' James 5:13
The word says ‘Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ' if you look at the life of David he is the best example we can follow in our life, Book of Psalms is based on his praise to God
Many of us are happy once we receive the blessings from God, in that times surrender to God and thank him for his blessings and tell him the blessing you got is not by your might, but thru his mercies.
Thank him for everything that you see small or Big, Many times we take life for granted, remember the breath you have is a blessing from God. God has given you one more day in this world by his mercies. There can be many things in your life that God has blessed you. Count your blessings with a humble heart, Always make a point to come to God
Make it a practice to keep a journal of all the things you receive from God every month and on the last day of month, Thank him for all the blessings you received. You will be surprised to see many things he has done for you, many time we assume we got on our own. God honours these prayers and values them.
3. When you are Sick – This is not a surprise as many of us pray to God when we are sick, many of us pray with our pastors and elders / family / relatives when we are sick.
'Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ' James 5:14-15
The Bible teaches us if anyone is sick should invite the elders of the church, pray for one another, and anoint them with oil and pray. Anointing with oil has been interpreted as either seeking the best medical attention possible for the afflicted (oil massages were considered medicinal in those days)
If you are praying for someone who is Sick, pray with the faith that God will heal the sickness, don’t pray for the sake of praying this is the reason many prayers are not answered when we pray for sick.
We should pray for others in faith, expecting that God will heal them, then leave the matter in God’s hands.
4. Confess your sins – Some of us follow this and many of us do this confession of Sins only when we are in trouble. We feel the sins we committed has caused the trouble, so we confess our sins and pray. But the Bible says we must confess our sins daily and not only when we are in troubled times.
'Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ' James 5:16
Some sins are Public, and some sins are secret sins. Confess to God and to the one person whom you sinned.
Confessing of sins to one another and praying for one another will lead to healing. Confession can free us from the heavy burdens (physically and spiritually) of unresolved sin and removes hindrances to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Confession should be made to the one sinned against. Most Christians display a preference for confession in secret before God, even concerning matters which involve other people.
Confession should often be public. It’s not that God does not know that, doing that public you acknowledge the sin and make effort to get rid of that
Confession should be appropriately specific. Don’t be generic, be specific on the person and confess.
Confession must have honesty and integrity. If we take this lightly, we are mocking God.
5. Pray Passionately – Much of our prayer is not effective simply because it is not passionate. It is offered with a lukewarm attitude that virtually asks God to care about something that we care little about. Effective prayer must be passionate, not because we must emotionally persuade a reluctant God, but because we must gain God’s heart by being fervent for the things, He is fervent for. We have passion only when we care for the situation or problem.
6. Pray Earnestly - pray with sincerity / seriousness and faith that God will do that.
'Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. ' James 5:17-18
Prayer of Elijah was powerful it did not rain for 3yrs 6months and once prayed it rained again read that in 1 Kings 18, things that impossible with us, is made possible with God. Can any one stop rain and make it rain.? But Elijah made it thru his earnest prayers.
7. Pray to understand the will – many times we wander around with our own desires and think that God will give us the blessing, in true sense many of what we ask may not be his will, pray to understand his will
'This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. ' 1 John 5:14-15
The word says if we ask Anything according to his will; he will hear us and provide that. that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
If you want your prayers to be action filled prayers follow these 7 steps to make your prayer effective and improve your spiritual life.
Comments