Prayers

Our God is knowable and wants us to know Him. We know Him by the great beauty of His creation and through reading His word. He knows us because He knows all and will do many things for us.

He gives us the opportunity to speak directly to Him and desires that we do through our prayer. Prayer is an act of worship with the focus on Him. Prayer is not easy but must become an on-going, continual action. To neglect prayer is to burden ourselves with worry and shut ourselves out from His promised blessings. Without prayer we weaken the heart of our love and service of spiritual strength. Jesus said; “men ought always to pray and not give up”, Luke 18:1.

It is important that we pray and know how to pray. John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done”. Does this mean that through prayer God will help us win the lottery? Absolutely not! Therefore we must know God’s will because He will not answer a prayer that would not be pleasing to His will. 1 John 5:14-15, “and this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him”.

It is God’s will for us to know how to pray. His disciples came to Jesus to ask how to pray, Luke 11:1 and he gave them a model prayer, that we often call the Lord ’s Prayer. In Matthew 6:7, He said “pray, then, in this manner”, and “when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition”. He was teaching His disciples by giving them brief sentences each suggesting a topic of our prayer not a memorized statement.

Prayer is a personal audience with God. It enables us to enjoy certain rights that we have as a part of the family of God. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16. Matthew points out in 6:6, “Go into your room and lock the door and pray to your Father” and in verse 7, “do not babble like the pagans”. Remember God knows what you need, not what you want before you even ask.

As we approach God in prayer we must make ourselves ready. David tells us in Psalm 24:3-4 that we must approach God having “clean hands and a pure heart”. We are to be occupied with God and not ourselves. True prayer is the will of God and not the wants of man. Praying in Jesus’ name requires us to yield all desires to the will of God and to ask for that which Jesus would ask for.

Is the model prayer a guide for your prayers? I would like to know your thoughts.

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