I’ve wanted to talk about prayer for such a long time, and I am so excited to finally be writing about it! Prayer is an extremely important part of our faith, because it is how we can directly speak to the Creator and communicate with him (how cool is that?!). Prayer is how we spend time alone with God, confess our sins, praise the Lord for all that he is, and bring our requests to him. However, I also believe that prayer is something that we misuse on an almost daily basis. Even though prayer is an amazing gift that God has given us to grow closer to him, it can be overlooked and taken for granted. Personally, I have had many days where I only pray when I want something from God, pray with a selfish attitude, or don’t pray at all because it’s “not that important”.
Today, I want to take time to go in-depth into prayer: why we do it, how we do it, and how it is a crucial part of our relationship with Jesus. I hope that you can leave this having learned about a new perspective of prayer, and that it gives you the desire to strengthen your prayer life.
How do we pray?
The Bible makes it clear that in prayer, we are called to praise God (Matthew 6:9-10), confess our sins (Psalm 139:23-24), and ask for supplication (John 14:13-14). In my personal experience, this is the threefold plan to pray. This isn’t the only one, though. I have seen prayer displayed anywhere from two to twelve steps. While it is amazing to have ways to be guided through prayer, especially when you are an early believer, it matters less on how many steps there are to prayer and more on the focus of your heart. When Jesus covers the topic of prayer in his Sermon on the Mount, he says this about it:
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:5-8).
Notice that before Jesus tells us how to pray, he tells us how not to pray. Why? Because your heart is the most important part of prayer. No matter what structure you follow when you pray, or how long your prayers are, if your heart is not right, God compares the people of these prayers to hypocrites. When we pray, we are told to do it in secret, and with genuine words. This should come from a heart that longs to be closer to God. All of prayer begins to come together once your heart behind it is sincere and focused on God.
Jesus continues talking about prayer through a passage commonly known as “The Lord’s Prayer”. Many Christians know it, and even have it memorized, because it is such a great example of what prayer should look like in our day-to-day life.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9-13).
The Lord’s Prayer is often divided into two parts: praise and supplication. Praise is the part of prayer we overlook often, while supplication is the part of prayer that people like more, because it benefits us.
Praise in prayer is something that I struggle with, because I often view it to be just a step I have to complete before asking God for what I want instead of recognizing that it is giving God the glory that he rightfully deserves. We should be excited to give God the recognition that he deserves, but it can be really easy to view it as a boring chore. However, there are so many examples in Scripture where praise in prayer is displayed in a beautiful way. The book of Psalms is the best example, because there are countless psalms in which the author is displaying praise to God before anything else (Psalm 9:1-2, 36:5-9, 52:9, 63:2-4). These are only a few of the dozens of examples in the book of Psalms alone. If you struggle with showing God praise, and have trouble figuring out exactly what it looks like in prayer, I would encourage you to spend time in the book of Psalms this week. Your words do not have to be as elegant or extravagant as what you read in those psalms, but if your heart is in the right place and you are learning to recognize the ways that God has been good in your life, then that praise is acceptable and loved by God.
The next section of the Lord’s prayer is supplication, which just means humbly asking for something. When someone asks if you have a prayer request, that is so they can bring this to God in supplication.
One thing that a lot of people get wrong about supplication is that when we ask God for something, then He will give it to us no matter what. This isn’t true, and a lot of people use this as an excuse to say that God isn’t good, because they see it as God not giving us what we need. However, asking God for something doesn’t mean that we are going to automatically get it. If your heart is in the right place, and the thing that you are praying for is part of God’s plan for you, then God will give it to you. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16). However, requests that come from a wrong heart attitude, or even ones that God knows you should not be given, will not be answered in the way you want.
When you ask God for something, there are three things God can say: “yes”, “no”, or “not yet”. We always want a “yes”, so it can hurt if we don’t get that. This is the hard part of supplication. The beautiful part of it, though, is that you can look back on the times where God didn’t give you what you asked for, and it turned out to be better than if you got what you wanted when you got it. This is surely a testament to God’s goodness and perfect timing.
No prayer has to follow a perfect guide or instruction manual to be “good”, but these are some of the examples we are given in the Bible of how we can pray.
Why do we pray?
This is sooo big! Our motive for prayer totally changes everything about our prayer life.
Prayer is how we communicate with God: it allows us to speak directly to our Creator and Savior. How amazing is that?!
Our motive for prayer should come out of a desire to get closer to God, and to give Him the praise He has earned. If you pray simply out of routine, then your “why” is very off track. If the only time you pray for God is before a meal or when you need something, then you limit your time with God, and don’t show a longing to get to know Him.
Think of this like a friendship: if you only talk to somebody every once in a while, they would not think of you as a close friend. No matter how much you say about how close you two are, if you never talk to them, you are not close. Similarly, if you only pray to God every once in a while, you are not investing in this friendship. God is our father, but should also be our friend. Neglecting spending time with Him is really going to stand out to people, because they can see that you don’t really have a desire to be with the Lord. However, it can also be a huge testament to your faith if people see that you truly want to take time out of your day to talk to your Savior.
In addition, prayer strengthens us and helps our will for our life to become more and more like God’s will for our life. When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane before his crucifixion, he said this to Peter: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41). Routine prayer keeps you Christ-centered, and strengthens us for what God has in store for us. Those that “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) have nothing to fear, because they are constantly placing their trust in the Lord.
What now?
Start practicing! If prayer isn’t your strong suit, start out small and figure out what works best for you. Maybe when you wake up, it is best for you to put your phone on the other side of the room and pray for a few minutes before you do anything. Try praying on your daily commute, or while getting ready for the day. Find little spaces all throughout your day to be speaking to God, to give Him praise and ask Him to guide you through the day. Focus less on the grandeur of your prayers, and instead make sure that your prayers are sincere and coming from a good heart attitude.
Learning what prayer looks like for you takes time, and I am still not great at making time for prayer throughout my day, but giving time to God every day to pray is a great sacrifice to show God that you are willing to be an instrument of God’s will.
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