If there was a way to up your prayer life – would you take it? I like that God is so loving and will take whatever we can give to Him. Starting to pray and talk to God is awesome and something we sometimes take for granted. Here are some keys to help us enlarge our walk with God through prayer.
We know what prayer is and what it isn’t. For the most part. And that’s what I want to think about here. Remember this (intimidating) verse from James:
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
— James 5:16b
Yeah, is that me? It’s an intimidating verse for sure. I want to be that righteous person praying. I want to be the one whose prayers are powerful and effective. So, how do I get there?
I like perspective, because the implications of the right attitude can change everything. Really.
Having the right perspective about prayer is a good starting place. Prayer shouldn’t be most of your time spent telling God about your needs. Read that again – prayer shouldn’t be mostly time spent telling God about your needs. God says we are supposed to do, even though He knows them – we still need to ask:
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
— Matthew 6:8
“Before you ask…” meaning there is a time element. Before means there can be an after. You still need to ask:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
— Matthew 7:7
Isn’t that awesome?
God knows what we need, before we even ask. But then He also commands us to ask. So, that’s part of our time in prayer. What’s the rest of the time in prayer used for?
God stuff.
Meaning, thinking about God, praising God, getting close to God, etc., etc.
Do you get it? It’s about spending time with God. Building your Faith. Thinking about how big God is and how small your problems are. Even how small our needs are. Remember Jesus saying this?
If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
— Matthew 17:20
Prayer shouldn’t be filled with you telling God about your mountain – He already knows about it..
All that time we have left over, once we realize God knows our problems already, is time we can use giving God praise and magnifying our God. When we get around to actually asking God for something, we’ve achieved (hopefully) the proper perspective and have also grown our faith.
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
— James 5:15
It’s a Prayer of FAITH that will move mountains. (Read between the lines – is it possible then to pray prayers of “religion”… or of “fear”… or of “pride”…? Interesting, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s more of a wake-up call.)
I’m trying to pray like this more and more. It is hard. I pray to God because I have real needs to be met and not always because I want to praise Him. But maybe that’s because we’ve gotten to close to The World. Maybe that has to do with how we’ve grown up asking for things.
But we can learn a new way to pray. I want to be more aware of God – even before I start rattling off my list. God knows about them; I know about them; we’ll get to them. But first, let me spend time with my God. After a few minutes of that – your list of “high priority” soon becomes a list of “not as important” items.
Let’s get there together.
