How To Pray

In order to be of any use, prayer itself makes certain assumptions. In this list we assume that:

1. God exists
2. God is a person who listens and speaks
3. We need or want to talk to God
4. God WANTS us to speak with Him
5. God hears and answers our prayers.
6. Prayer accomplishes something.
7. Holy Scripture is a good resource for prayer.
8. God accepts our prayers on behalf of others (known as intercessory prayer).
9. Each Christian denomination has made a contribution to prayer, and we can examine them all here.
10. Forms of prayer from the ancient Church are valid today and have something to say to us.

When we ask, why did God make us, the ancient answer is: To know, to love and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him in the next.

These aren't just pretty words, and the way to accomplish that is through, primarily, prayer.

"1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification."

Throughout the history of the Bible, from its beginning until today, the Church has prayed morning and evening prayers. Here are a few scriptural references for this practice:

Finding biblical clues

It may be instructive to count the number of times the psalms speak of praying in the morning and evening. But the psalm writers do not mean to propose that believers limit their praying to those times of day. Rather, praying at certain times fosters being prayerful all the time. Consider the repeated phrase in the first chapter of Genesis, "And there was evening and there was morning . . ." With this shorthand, the writer denotes not just evening and morning but the passage of the whole day. The psalmist longs for perpetual prayer: "From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is to be praised" (Ps. 113.3).

Jesus made a comparable recommendation. Aspects of his parable about the persistent widow may puzzle us, but his point is clear: the parable is about his followers' need "to pray always and not to lose heart" (Luke 18.1).

The New Testament epistles pick up this theme. Paul urges believers to "rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thess. 5.16-18a). We are told, "Pray in the Spirit at all times" (Eph. 6.18); "Devote yourselves to prayer" (Col. 4.2); "Persevere in prayer" (Rom. 12.12).

While the priority of constant prayer is clear, how people are to pray without ceasing is not apparent and has even been a subject of controversy throughout church history. Arthur Paul Boers