Know Biblical Prayer
Throughout the ages, men and women have sought God in prayer. We can go all the way back to the book of Genesis and find examples of people “who called upon the Name of the Lord” in prayer. Genesis 4:26 says, “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.”
What is Prayer? –
Prayer is a gift of communication, by which we listen to God and are able to talk to Him. Notice that prayer is a gift. No other place is better than with God. It is a gift of His grace that we are even able to communicate with Him. This gift comes as we receive Christ into our hearts and lives. Christ by the Holy Spirit, then comes to reside and be with us. Romans 8:9 says, “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” As followers and believers of Jesus Christ, His Spirit living within us, then communicates with our spirit. As this happens, we are able to talk to God, and listen to Him, with our spirit. Jesus said in John 14:16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.” One reason that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit was so that we could know and hear from God through this gift of prayer.
As we spend more and more time with God in prayer we can begin to discern His voice. Jesus said in John 10:3-4, “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.” Jesus is the gatekeeper here, and as we pray to Him we will learn what His voice sounds like.
Prayer is also our communicating to God. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” God wants us to bring our needs to Him in prayer. I love this verse because it says that we can pray about everything. Whatever your need is, God cares about it. Jesus encourages us to pray in John 18:1. “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.” The phrase “never give up” here means to not faint or grow weary. There are times in my life when I want to give up, but Jesus says, in those times we can come to Him in prayer and put our trust in Him.
Prayer is simply talking to God and letting Him talk to you. Life without prayer is like having no breath. We would be choking and gasping for air all the time. We at PeoplePray.com want to encourage you to take some time to begin to develop a life of prayer. Start with a little at a time and build up to more time as you grow. Begin now to enjoy the conversation with God.
How to pray –
Last, we want to address the question of how to pray. First, let’s look at this whole thing about praying in Jesus’ name. Jesus said in John 16:24, “You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.” So what does it mean to pray in Jesus’ name?
1 John 5:14 really helps us to see what God is talking about here though. Look at what it says, “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.” Praying in Jesus’ name doesn’t mean that we pray for what we want, and then tag the name of Jesus at the end of our prayer for emphasis, in hopes that will gain some magical access for our own stuff. It means that we are seeking the heart of God, looking to what He says in the Bible and praying and asking based upon what He already wants to do in our lives, or in the situation that we are praying about. Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” Our take on this whole deal is that God’s plans and desires for our lives are much better than anything that we could ever dream of or cook up. We also find that as we spend time “delighting in God,” that our desires seem to line up more and more with what He wants for me. Go figure?
The key to praying in Jesus’ name is to ask for what God wants in the situation. If we don’t know, we pray something like this, “God, I’m not sure how You want to handle this situation, so I pray that Your will would be done.” As we read the Bible and listen to God’s voice, we begin to get a better sense of what His will is.
We pray that PeoplePray.com enhances your prayer life. God bless!
PeoplePray.com Staff