How is Your Prayer-Life?
How is Your Prayer Life?
The Lord Jesus Christ taught us how we should pray. Let’s read about it in Luke.
Luke 11:1-10 KJV
“And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
In this rather short and to-the-point prayer, I think we sometimes miss some of its very salient aspects.
Aspect 1: It recognizes the recipient of the prayer is God the Father.
Aspect 2: It recognizes that He is holy and we should approach Him in awe and wonderment.
We can go into our prayer listing all our desires, wants, and needs and He will grant our needs according to His word.
If you are a parent, you know the difference when your child makes a nuisance of himself/herself by always coming to you with I want, I want, I want…, as opposed to coming to you and wanting a hug, hold hands, cuddle, or just be in your presence.
That is the way our Father in Heaven is. His word tells us that he covets our love. Let’s look at Mark.
Mark 12:30
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Wow! That is some love; wouldn’t you agree? But, how does my love for Him compare to His love for me in that He gave His only begotten son so that I might have life and have it more abundantly?
It is our choice: we can enter into prayer with our lists of wants, desires, and needs. He will grant our needs according to His word. But what a blessing we will miss. If we enter into prayer with praise and thanks and worship, we will receive a blessing that might even be better than what we were going to ask for. This of course must be true, heartfelt, praise and worship. We know the difference between when our kids are trying to butter us up to get their way and when they just want to spend time in our presence. If we, as mankind, can tell the difference, guess what: God can too.
Let’s take a look at a boy/man of God who knew how to pray. We will find him in the book of Daniel. Let’s go there.
Commitment Makes the Difference:
If you are not familiar with the book of Daniel, it records the life of a young Hebrew boy who grew up in a foreign land. He grew into a devoted man of God who was hated and loved by the enemy. He was a committed prayer warrior.
What does God’s word tell us about when we should pray?
Thessalonians 5:16-17 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances…”
So, when should we pray? We should pray all the time. If we should pray all the time, where should we pray? If we are praying all the time, we are praying everywhere we go.
How do we do this? Isn’t this boring? How can we do all the other things we need to do if we are on our knees praying all the time?
Good questions: we just replace our other thoughts with prayers. No matter where you are, no matter what you are doing, you are thinking about something. Just train your mind to always be seeking God’s presence. To be in His presence most of the time requires a lot of praising, thanking and adoring Him. Try this: ask God to place more love for Him into your heart with each breath He grants you. Love Him more each day, each hour, each minute, each second: and, your love for Him will grow but it will never match His love for you.
When things don’t go our way, remember the last part of the above verse: “give thanks in all circumstances.” Does this mean we thank God for not being able to pay our rent this month?
No, that is not what it means. It means Give God thanks because He will meet all your needs. If you are holding up your end: you tithe as the Lord tells you to, that rent will get paid. A fellow congregant came to me one day and was talking about not being able to pay some of his bills. I asked him if he was tithing. He said he paid what he could. I told him that was not tithing. You pay God first. He did not say if you have a little left over, give it to me. He tells us if we don’t tithe, we are robbing Him. Read about it here. If you tithe and respect the stewardship He has placed you in, you will have all your needs met and more. Let’s read Malichi 3:10
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Wow! That is some promise. This is the only place in the bible where God says test Him.
Thank Him for His word. Thank Him for His promises. His word tells us; “He is not man that He should lie. He is not man that He should repent.”
I assume Daniel prayed all the time as he went about his business. However, there were three times a day that he said formal prayers and did not hide that fact. He prayed three times a day even when it was not convenient.
His inconveniences were:
Being thrown into a lion’s den
Being thrown into a fiery furnace
Just a little inconvenience like that. And we can’t pray on our drive to work because we are too busy cussing others for darting in front of us. Oh yeah, I’ve been there. I’ve done that.