Prayer life

Prayer is such a very important part of the life of the Christian. It is vital in our lives for spiritual growth and maturity. I am convinced that most Christians do not have an adequate or fulfilling prayer life. We must learn to pray and communicate to God who stands ready to assist us any way that we need if we will only ask. We have discussed living in the word that’s God talking to us. Now lets discuss prayer life – that’s us talking to God.

Let us begin by getting a firm understanding of what exactly prayer is. To pray is to petition, entreat, make supplication, ask, beseech, etc. It has a non-religious application. When we make a request of a judge, our boss, even our wife or husband, that can be said to be a prayer. While our study will deal with the application of prayer to God, the word is not strictly one of spiritual application. Remember that as we continue this part of our discussion.

Prayer, in its spiritual application, is approaching God with our side of things. It is expressing how we feel and what we hope will be. Sometimes it is simply to “get things off our chest and let God worry about them because we cannot do anything about them. It is not some mystical, magical process that puts me into some special psychic contact with some great cosmic being we call God. It is simply the act of talking with God about life, talking to God in the same way that I would talk to you.

God wants us to depend on Him and accept Him as our spiritual Father. He wants our relationship to Him to be deeply personal and fulfilling. Whenever someone prays with some special voice tones and sprinkles his petition with “thee” and “thou” and “thine”, it may very well be that he has missed the whole point of prayer. I am not saying that old English is sinful in prayer, but it certainly is not any more spiritual than modern language. The nature of the prayer is in the heart of the petitioner, not in the form of the presentation. Jesus prayed in the common language of His time, even using personal expressions, familiar expressions, as He taught His disciples to pray. Prayer, then, is our deeply personal conversations with God. It is simply a matter of keeping contact with our Father on a continuous basis.

One of the things that we should understand about prayer is what should be included in our prayers. We will discuss some things here, but we do well to remember that this list is not nearly exhaustive.

Praise of the Father.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He taught them to praise the Father and demonstrate deep respect for Him (Matthew 6:9,13). We should always acknowledge who and what God is as we begin to talk with Him about the things we are facing in life.

Pray for the Church.

In that model prayer given by Jesus we are taught to pray for the church (Matthew 8:10). This prayer was for the church to come. Today we pray for the church which was established and will continue until the return of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Pray for the necessities of life.

It is from God that we receive the needs of this world. This does not mean that if we should lack the necessities of life that God has abandoned us. He did not abandon Job even though Job went without and even lost all that he had. Neither did He abandon Paul and other Christians that are recorded as suffering in the early church. Our relationship is based on the final spiritual outcome in eternity and not on this world.

Sometimes it happens that chance causes us to have less than we need. This is not really or ultimately important as long as it does not effect our eternal destiny. But by and large, I have never personally seen one of God’s children go hungry or without in this world. If I should see such, then as a brother in Christ, I should correct the problem. It may be that I am God’s answer to the prayer of the brother or sister that needs help.

Pray for forgiveness and deliverance.

We do not or at least should not expect God to provide us with a life without temptation. He simply doesn’t work that way. But He does provide us with a way of escape whenever temptation does enter our lives (I Cor. 10:13). Because of this, Jesus taught His disciples to pray for these two things in the model prayer (Matthew 6:12, 13).

Pray the Father’s will be done.

Jesus prayed in this manner (Matthew 26:39,42) and taught His disciples to do the same (Matthew 6:10). The reason is because God’s will is based on an overall plan and since He has all the facts and is all wise, His decisions are better than ours. Our prayers should be to move God in some particular direction as long as that direction does not come into conflict with His will. We must be careful that we do not try to manipulate God in a direction that is contrary to His will. God cannot be manipulated and we fall into condemnation when we get into such a frame of mind as to believe we can trick God.

Pray for Christian workers.

The world is lost and it is our responsibility to gain as many from sin as possible for the kingdom of Christ. We are taught that we should pray for ample workers to be sent to accomplish this task (Matthew 9:36-38).

Pray for the forgiveness of others.

Most of us pray for our own forgiveness. But to be truly Christlike we must pray for the forgiveness of others that have wronged us. Jesus did this on the cross (Luke 23:34), Stephen did this at his death (Acts 7:60), and many other examples abound throughout the scriptures concerning this principle (Acts 8:22,24). Often we don’t want to forgive because we want to be vindicated when we are wronged. This attitude must be dissipated and a true heart of forgiveness must replace it if we are to have a good prayer life and be proper disciples of our Lord. God will attend to vindication in eternity.

Pray for the strength of others.

Just before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail him (Luke 22:31,32). Even in Jesus’ darkest time, He did not forget the ones He loved. We must pray for others even when our own lives seem to be turned upside down. The unselfish prayer of a humble Christian touches deeply the heart of our God.

Pray for the sick.

God teaches us that prayer for the sick is effective (James 5:14-16), as are all our prayers. Often the sick are forgotten because they are not present at our regular assembly on the Lord’s day. We don’t think about them because we don’t see them. Often it is the case that the ones that need our prayers the most are the ones we think about the least. We must train ourselves to be aware of those around us that need our prayers and then act on this awareness.

Pray for our enemies.

This is the really hard one. Sometimes we fail to pray because we are not aware of the need. This may be caused by carelessness or inattentiveness. But in the case of our enemies we are often aware of the need but don’t have the desire to offer the prayer. Jesus instructs us to offer such a prayer (Matthew 5:44) and it is not optional.

In truth, such a prayer is often therapeutic on our own behalf. If we can begin to pray for our enemies, we can often remove the bitterness we are holding towards them that is hurting our spiritual lives for Christ. We can truly begin to heal our feelings if we will only begin to pray on behalf of our enemies.

Many other things should be included in our prayer list. These are just a sampling. But as we grow, our prayers should grow also.

We should now consider the time and place of prayer. Many Christians only exposure to prayer is at worship and at the dinner table. But prayer should be a large part of our lives. Let’s consider just a few times that prayer is appropriate.

Secret prayer.

In Matthew 6:5,6 Jesus teaches His disciples to pray in private. This does not mean that we should never pray in public. But it does mean that we should never pray in order to be seen. Our prayer should be for the proper reasons and done in the proper attitude or they will be worthless. We will discuss this more in a few minutes. But right now I am more concerned that we understand the importance of private prayers.

Private prayers are truly personal between the Father and us. It gives us an opportunity to pray about private matters which are often best kept private. We can be ourselves without concern about the reaction of others because there are no others. Most importantly, we can talk to God about anything because there are no secrets. He already knows what we have done, said, and felt. We don’t have to be artificial with Him or be afraid we will reveal to Him that which we don’t want Him to know. He already knows; Now we can discuss it openly and honestly and allow Him to act in our lives.

Private prayers allow for more time spent in prayer. There have been times in my life when I thought that I just couldn’t go on and without private and personal prayer I would not have made it. Sometimes I would walk out into the night, sit down under the heavens, and just talk to God about things for hours. I felt better and it helped me to understand that, although God did not remove the pain in my life, He did care and He did understand. These were some of the most important times in my life in terms of spiritual growth. Never allow your private prayer life to diminish!

Collective prayer.

There are a number of examples of collective prayer or group prayer recorded in the scriptures. In the first chapter of Acts the disciples are gathered for prayer (verse 14) and this practice seems to become rather commonplace (Acts 12:12, Acts 16:25, and other places). Although the disciples did not understand everything that was happening to them, they did understand the comfort and solace found in prayer. They knew that prayer was related to their hope and they prayed constantly. Prayer was their salvation from despair in a cruel world that hated them and their Savior. The same is true today.

Public prayer.

The church practiced public prayer in their assemblies from the very beginning (Acts 2:41,42). Prayer with each other and on behalf of each other was commonplace. The same is true today. But public prayer service, the coming together for the specific purpose of prayer, has largely been abandoned today. I cannot help but wonder if it is a sign of the times that we have begun to enter a time when the church believes less in prayer and more in self.

That being a possibility, let us consider the power of prayer. Certainly one of the greatest examples in the scriptures is the prayer life of Elijah. In James 5:17,18 we read the following: “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”

This brief statement doesn’t give the full value of the time period under consideration. Lets go back to the book of I Kings and do a little review.

In I Kings 17:1 we find the beginning of this three and one half years of drought. This prayer of Elijah was certainly an opportunity for God to demonstrate His willingness to answer prayer. But what about during this time period?

In I Kings 17:17-24 we read how it was that Elijah was living with a widow and her son. Time came when the son became sick and died. But Elijah prayed for the son and God, answering his prayer, restored the life of the young man.

In I Kings 18: we have recorded the battle between the prophets of Baal and Elijah which took place on Mount Carmel before the people of Israel. We remember how it was that the prophets of Baal made an alter to their god and called on him to provide the fire, but to no avail. We remember then how Elijah sought God in prayer to provide fire for his offering and the fire came, consuming the sacrifice, the alter, the water, and even the dust which surrounded it. Then, in the same chapter, Elijah prays for and receives the much-needed rain. That’s the power prayer can have. Though God does not answer as dramatically today as He did in times past, He still does answer and commands as much power today as He ever did.

The Bible is full of stories that vividly demonstrate the power of prayer. We see it in the life of Moses, Hezekiah, Daniel, and many, many others. We must never sell the power of prayer short because prayer is answered by the greatest of all powers, the Creator of all that is!

We should always be watchful when it comes to prayer. While prayer should be a regular part of our lives, we must ensure that our prayers are proper or they will be worthless. There are several things that can void the effectiveness of our prayers.

Prayer to be seen.

In Matthew 6:5 we learn that prayers that are offered so that we might be seen are worthless. Their only reward is that we are seen and, of course, that has no eternal value.

Prayer of pretence.

In Matthew 23:14 we find that the scribes and Pharisees prayed, pretending to mean what they prayed, but really being unconcerned whether their prayers were heard and answered or not. In that text they are called hypocrites.

Prayer of vain repetition.

In Matthew 6:7,8 Jesus warns about vain repetitions. Even though their prayers were to God, they felt that they could pester God into answering their way. Again, they tried to manipulate God to their own advantage. This does not work and Christ warns against such a practice.

Prayer to wrong one.

We read in I Kings how the prophets of Baal prayed to the wrong god. In Luke 18:9-14 a Pharisee prayed to himself. Whenever the object of our prayer is someone such as a dead saint, Mary, or anyone other than the Godhead, then our prayer is worthless.

The center of our prayer life must be in relationship to the Trinity. Each serves a part in our prayers so that our petition might be received and considered.

In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus taught His disciples to direct their prayers to the Father in heaven. It is the business of the Father to hear and respond to our prayers.

While it is true that God receives our prayers, we find that Jesus is not absent from our prayers. In Hebrews 8:1,6 we find that He is our high priest and it is through Him that we approach the throne of God with our petition. We cannot approach God any other way than through Christ. We find in Colossians 3:17 that all that we do must be done in the name of the Lord. That simply means by His authority. This authority is granted only to the new covenant priesthood. This priesthood is the church and we must be a member of that body (the church) in order to offer daily prayers to the Father through Christ (I Peter 2:1-10). While it is true that Cornelius offered prayers that went before God, they were responded to only to the extent that someone was sent to teach Cornelius how to become a member of the body of Christ. Until this occurred, the prayer life of Cornelius could not obtain any spiritual blessings for him because spiritual blessings are found only in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

The Holy Spirit also plays a vital part in our prayer life. In Romans 8:16,26,27 we find that the Spirit offers prayers with our spirit for the things we should pray of which we are not aware. He completes our fragmented prayers so that nothing will be missed. God, knowing the mind of the Spirit, receives the completed prayers that we began to offer and which the Spirit finished.

What a beautiful picture. As we pray to God, the Spirit completes our prayer so that it will be perfect. Jesus, as our high priest, takes those prayers before the throne of God and presents them on our behalf. God accepts these prayers and acts on them as He wills. What a glorious realization it is that all of the Godhead is active in my life during prayer.

It seems proper to close this section of our study with some suggestions on how to improve our prayer life. While we must realize from earlier examples that a prayer life in and of itself does not make us righteous, the absence of it does make us unrighteous. This being true, for our prayer life to improve and help us grow spiritually it must be:

Active.

I Thessalonians 5:17 teaches us to pray without ceasing. We must have a life filled with prayer in order to get its full blessings.

Believing.

In 1 Timothy 2:8 Paul not only encourages an active prayer life, he points out that it should not contain any doubt when it is offered.

Righteous.

James 5:16 tells us that the prayers of a righteous man avails much. This eliminates the unrighteous mans prayers. We must be right with God in order to enjoy an audience before Him when we pray.

Selfless.

It is not wrong to pray for ourselves. But whenever our prayer is amiss because it is to satisfy our lusts then it will not be answered (James 4:3).

Honest.

Luke 18: gave us the prayer of the Pharisee that prayed to himself. His prayer was not heard because it was not truly an honest prayer. He did not seek the help of God; He wanted an opportunity to uplift himself rather than to humble himself before his Creator.

Planned.

Purposeful prayer is suggested by the culmination of the scriptures we have studied. Prayer is not designed to be fitted in or to fill empty moments but to bring us into contact with our God and His blessings.

Personal to God.

In Matthew 6:9 we learn: “Our Father, which art in heaven…”

Let us conclude by realizing that our prayer is validated by our attitude, not our form. Our prayers are times when we talk to God about the things that are on our mind with which we need help and guidance. I have heard some say that they were so burdened by life that they doubted their prayers ascended above the ceiling. Well, that’s all right. If they go that high they will reach God because He is there to receive them.