Prayer: Most of the time when we pray our words are predictable and rushed and the time actually spent in prayer is much too small. God has been showing me a great deal about prayer lately and how significant it is to a growing relationship with Him. The Bible study I’ve been doing has really pointed out many of the things we do wrong when we pray. I never realized it before and I guess I never even understood how great of an impact prayer can have in your life as a Christian. I mean, think about it. We pray before we eat our meals, before bed, sometimes when we’re driving and nothing worth listening to is on the radio…oh, and don’t forget on Sundays. Just like I mentioned before, when we do pray, we often find ourselves rushing through our words, going from talking about how stressed we were at school, to praying for our friends to have a blessed day and do well on any exams that day, to thinking about what we’re going to wear the next day, to how many days till Christmas…what’s for breakfast???....the list goes on. And if you’re honest, that’s how you pray a lot of the time. (I didn’t say all the time…) A few things to think about: (Self Confrontation WB) When we pray, we should purely be asking according to God’s will. No, we don’t always know what exactly His will is, but we should have a desire and consent within our Spirit and our mind to seek what God does want. And when He shows you what it is, accept it, whether it’s what you “wanted” or not. We should be specific when we pray. Pray so that God may be glorified. You are to be ALERT and DEVOTED to prayer. This absolutely hit me in the head and knocked me to the floor. So often I begin to pray and without even realizing it, my mind has wandered and I’m thinking about the wonderful donut I had to eat or the things on my “to-do” list for the next day. At times, Jesus prayed all day and night…and I can’t even give Him 10 minutes. We are to pray without ceasing. We are to praise God for His character, His love, His mercy through Jesus Christ, His power in our lives. We are to pray for everything and everyone. We are to pray for more LABORERS to enter the harvest and that the Word of God would spread rapidly and that He would be glorified. Yeah, read that again. We don’t find that request in Sunday school or our personal lists too often. (It should be.) We are to lay our ANXIOUS concerns before Him when we pray and also for others in specific situations. I’ll be the first one to admit that my prayer life does not look like this…it should. And with God’s grace and mercy it will. I’m almost finished, I promise. Have you ever been in what seemed like a hopeless situation and prayed that God would be with you (Matthew 28:20) or that He would free you from the power of sin (Romans 6:1-14). Hate to break it to you, you’re asking the wrong questions. If you claim to be a follower of Christ, He is with you always; He has already freed you from the power of sin. Something to think about…Also, be careful when you pray of what your expectations are. “We may often fail to recognize God’s answer to our prayers because they don’t fit our expectations. We miss God’s answers to prayers because we are looking for our own preconceived answers.” I simply challenge you to look into your prayer life and truly seek to become intimate with God in your prayers and to desire a prayer life modeled after Christ’s.
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