STEPS TO FAITH WHY PRAY?

Pray To Know Who God Is

Prayer is a means to help us love God with all of our heart. When we pray, we are spending time communing with God. We all know that time is important in our relationships. Our initial impression of a person may not be very accurate. However, the more we are with him/her, we will find out how accurate that first impression was. Just as spending time with a friend will help us to understand what that person is all about, spending time communing with God will help us to understand God better. We may think we know the character of God, but unless we have spent time with Him, we may easily be deceived. Being alone with God will help us to love and appreciate Him more as we see more of the glory and perfection of His character and ways.

Pray To Become Like God

Another truth to consider is that the people we spend time with will "rub off on us." If we spend more time with God, whether it’s in prayer, Bible study, or quietly listening to Him, we will begin to acquire some godly traits. Now, that is time well spent!! As you practice prayer, you will find greater and greater joy in being in the presence of God. Your love for Him will grow and you will find yourself becoming more like Him.

List some people you spend a lot of time with:

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What traits have you or could you pick up from them?

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In relation to others, how much time do you spend alone with God?

What traits would you like to pick up from God?

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Pray That God’s Will May be Done

Thirdly, prayer will help us to see the needs of the world around us. It is so easy to get tunnel vision as a Christian and only see the needs that we, personally, have. As we spend more time in prayer, we will experience a greater love for God’s creation around us. As we begin to build this bridge to God’s will, we will find that God Himself will begin to share with us His vision and His needs.   God, too, has concerns and prayer burdens that are far beyond our imaginations. The sky is NOT the limit... We know that God is not limited, and the adventure in prayer is as the scripture says, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (I Corinthians 2:9).

You may say, "The Lord knows more about the troubles of this world than I do, why do I need to tell Him about them?" Good question. For some mysterious reason, God has limited Himself to work within the realm of our prayers. There is no doubt that He is able to take care of these needs without us if He so chooses. But, we see over and over again in scripture how God waited until prayer was made by His people. James 5:15 says "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up..." We have to ask in prayer! In Mark 11:24, Jesus says, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." This scripture indicates that these things are given to us as we believe in prayer. What troubles are facing you? Don’t miss the help you need because you did not ask. This puts the responsibility back on us, doesn’t it? There may be problems in your church or family. There is likely immorality in your school or workplace. There are souls that are lost and dying. Begin to spend time with God. As you spend time with Him, He will help you to know what prayers are the key to unlock the strongholds to the enemy’s camp! He wants to and can use your prayers to change the world - one prayer at a time. He is waiting to hear from you.

God answers prayer.  Please list below the prayers that were answered for these Bible characters.

Jonah (Jonah 2:1)

 

Hannah (I Samuel. 1:27)

 

Peter (Acts 12:5)

 

How do you think things would have been different if they had lost hope with their situations and prayer in faith had not been made?

 

 

Commit yourself to seek God’s will in prayer for the needs that you see in your everyday life - not just telling God what you think He should do, but spending time seeking His will in prayer.

 

HOW TO PRAY

"Dear Lord, help Mom and Dad, my dog, Fido, and please help me pass my history test tomorrow because you know I didn’t have much time to study and help Marge’s aunt who has cancer. Help her to be healed ....and, uh, ...to feel better. Amen."

Prayer is a great thing. After all, it is talking to the God of the Universe. How can you beat that? But, does it sometimes seem like there should be...well...a little more to it than the prayer written above? How can we pray and really know that we are connecting with heaven? A Christian without prayer is like a car without wheels...you can’t go anywhere! That is probably why God commanded us to "Pray without ceasing," (I Thessalonians 5:17). The Word tells us that true Christianity is to love the Lord our God with all our heart...and our neighbor as ourself. (Matthew. 22:37-39). Getting to this place takes prayer!

There is also something special about a "place of prayer." We know that David prayed by the hillsides and along the valley's, Daniel prayed three times before his open window. (Daniel. 6:10) Peter prayed on the rooftop. (Acts. 10:9) Jesus prayed in a garden and on a mountain tops. Notice that each one of these people found the time to pray and that they also found a place to pray in.

Of course we can pray almost anywhere and the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing, but Jesus said: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Matthew 6:6

GO TO YOUR PRAYER CLOSET

Prayer Closet: Let’s continue by finding a prayer closet. Go find a prayer closet - a place where you will begin to read, pray and worship God. Make sure this place is pleasing to Jesus!

The most important thing to look for in the room is that everything there is helping you to focus on prayer. That means a minimum of distractions. If your brother has to keep coming in and out of the room, you won’t have the focus you need. Choose somewhere where you can be alone. If you have a house full of people, your place of prayer may need to literally be a closet. You can have some great prayer times in closets and even hotel bathrooms!

Distractions can also come in the form of things in the room. Look around at the room you chose. What pictures/posters are on the walls? Do they help you to have a spirit of prayer? What furniture is in the room? Is there a too-comfortable chair that will bring temptation to get sleepy in? Are there magazines laying around that you will want to pick up and read?

Even though most of us don’t have a ‘perfect’ place to pray, the point is to make the changes you can. There is no need to have distractions that you can do something about.

Praying Is Time Well Spent: How much time should you spend in prayer? The best answer is probably however much you can. If you are just beginning in prayer, ten minutes may be plenty at first. Gradually increase the time as the Lord lays more petitions on your heart. You may want to start out with a list of things - it is easy for our minds to go blank! Once you have been praying for a year or two, you may be able to easily fill 30 minutes, an hour, or more in prayer! But, don’t worry about that at the beginning. Remember, we need to practice prayer to make it become a part of us.

Prayer Postures: In what position should I pray? Should I keep my eyes closed? The answer to these questions is similar to how we find a place to pray: whatever helps you focus on prayer the most important. If your mind wanders more when your eyes are shut, then open them and pray. And vice versa. As for your posture, look at these scriptures for examples to how others prayed: Nehemiah 9:5 - Standing, Ezra 9:5 - Kneeling, I Chronicles. 17:16-27 - Sitting, Ex. 34:8 - Bowing, I Tim. 2:8 - Raised Hands.

 

Yes, You Can Pray

To learn to pray takes practice. The following steps 1-21 consists of a daily devotion and prayer exercises.  Take a step at a time.   Don't skip the steps or run, but walk through them each day a step at a time.   Let's go… to step 1 and enter into thy prayer closet.

CLICK TO: GO TO STEP 1
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