The Spiritual Discipline of Prayer

If God is all knowing and all present then why should we need to pray? If he know the beginning from the end and has preordained what will happen, why should we pray? Well the simple answer in that we are commanded to. In Matthew 6 Jesus says, "When you pray." he doesn't assume that we are not going to he assumes we will pray. Look a little further down in verse He says, "...your Father knows what you need before you ask him." He knows that God already knows what we need but he still tells us how to pray. So why should we pray? Because God uses us to bring about His will in this world. He strokes our heart and gives us the burden so that we will pray to him and ask that his will be done. So the next time you feel burdened don't hesitate to pray you just might change the world.

Another reason we pray is that it changes us. In 2 Corinthians 12 we see this at work in Paul:

7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul got a "no" for the answer to this prayer. But it changed him forever. His no lead him to an even deeper relationship with God, because he knew he had to rely on God even more when this problem came up.

God hears all of our prayers. He knows what we need and gives us what we need accordingly. James tells us that we have not because we ask not or because we ask for the wrong motives. Don't get discouraged just pray and listen.

While many examples of prayer have been given over time I want to focus on what can be called the overall skeleton or pattern for our prayers. This is found in Luke 11:1-4 and Matthew 6:5-13; we know it as the Lord's Prayer. I will use the shorter of the two here from Luke.

2He said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3Give us each day our daily bread.
4Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.' "

While the word Father was used in the Old Testament 15 times it was never used in a prayer. In the gospels the word Father is used over 165 times. So something had changed during this time. This actually means "daddy." We can be protected and cared for and helped and loved and not be lost anymore. We are allowed to approach the God of the universe and he wants us to call him daddy.

Hallowed be thy name, While we can come to him for all we need we also need to realize He is the Holy God of the universe and we need to respect that. This helps us to not sentimentalize, Father. Yes we are drawn into love but we are in awe of His presence.

your kingdom come. We acknowledge that God is sovereign over our lives and all the world. Do whatever is needed to advance your kingdom for the advance of the gospel.

Give us each day our daily bread. This is supplication. He knows we have needs but we want Him to be exalted first.

Forgive us our sins,for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. This is not corporate please forgive our sins. This is soul bearing confession of our sins. When we begin to name the sins in our lives we begin to find healing in Christ and forgiveness from God.

And lead us not into temptation, God may allow trials but he allows them only to strengthen us in our faith. James 1 says He does not tempt us but our evil desires tempt us. This part of the prayer is for protection from those temptations.

In our life with Christ our one avenue to the heart of God is through prayer. Many Christians today will say they have no real relationship with Christ in prayer. They do not want either to take the time, or use the excuse of not having enough time to pray. You see them every day. They want more out of their Christian life. They want to overcome this world and its desires. But they do not want to take the time to build a relationship, so they are still powerless to the addictions of this world.

1st John two says this, "4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."

We can not walk as Jesus did if we have no relationship to him. If we say we are Christians and still fall pray to repeated and perpetual sins we are not really Christians. (Read the entire book of 1st John, it explains this in detail and it only takes about 15 minutes to read)

At some point in our Christian life we may have been told that we are free and salvation is only for the afterlife. Maybe you heard this, "I curse and yell because God made me this way." Those excuses are just not true, refer back to first John. We can not overcome this world by ourselves, but Christ can and did, and he expects us to trust him and let him change us so that we can open up his light to others. I fell into both of these traps myself and spent the first 6 years as a Christian struggling with terrible sin. I am still letting Christ work in me to make me more and more like him knowing full well I will not be perfected until the end.

It does not matter how long you have known Christ. If you have spent all this time putting him on a shelf only to take him off when you needed help it is time to stop. This process starts where our Christian life started, with prayer. Tell him you want him to be the Lord of your life and let him in to change you. Remember you have spent your life up until now living this way. So some things you may have to work on but some he may remove instantly. Remember, "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4B)

I listed the Lord's Prayer earlier before as the skeleton for our prayer life. Some other examples we can use are:

1. The Acts Model. Adoration, Confession, Supplication, and Thanksgiving.

2. Start a Prayer Journal. This lets you see where you came from and where you are going.

3. Praying the scriptures. If you are looking for help in this area Beth Moore has a book that lists many scripture you can pray Praying God's Word: Breaking Free From Spiritual Strongholds

4. Just Pray. Do something whether it is screaming at the ceiling or crying on the floor, (both of which I have done) just do something