How to Pray

I believe prayer to be essential to the Christian life. I would compare it to water: extremely vital to our Christian walk. Jesus said, “man ought to always pray and not faint.” (Luke 18:1). It’s of the utmost important that we pray and that we do it constantly. But what is prayer? Is it just asking for a bunch of things? Why is prayer necessary to our Christian walk? How do you pray? Do I stand, sit, lean? I think if we are instructed to pray it’s even more important for us to understand why and how to do it.

Prayer can be defined as communication with God. Enough said right? Who wouldn’t want to talk with God? God is so caring that He has created a way for us to communicate with Him and for Him to communicate with us. Before I go further let me say that meditation is not prayer. Meditating is not God focused so it does not take place of prayer. John Calvin stated that prayer is “the soul of faith”. Prayer is the lifeline of your faith. Show me someone who has strong faith, and I will show you someone who has a strong prayer life. Prayer is conversations with God. Our soul connecting and communing with God. It is the pouring out of our soul before God, and nothing can take the place of prayer.

After seeing Jesus pray on several occasions, one of the disciples ask “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1-4). Jesus then lays out a model prayer. He begins the prayer with “Our Father which art in heaven”. This is to show we should always begin our prayers with worship. He is our heavenly father who watches over us and cares for us. Next, he moves to reverence, by showing that God’s name is hallowed or holy. God’s name is holy and for that alone he should be adored by men. Next, he lets us know that we should not be praying for selfish reasons, but it should all point to God. We should not be looking for our will to be done in heaven, but rather we are praying that God’s will be done in earth. Lastly when he tells us to say lead us not into temptation, He is not saying God tempts us but rather that we should pray for God to lead us according to His will.

Therefore, with this model of prayer that Jesus gave, we see the purpose of prayer is for us to glorify God and ask for his will to be done. True prayer is not based on my posture naturally but more so my spiritual posture. True prayer is based in the spirit of God and cannot be boxed into anything other that the manner God gave. No need to be well spoken because the spirit will help in this area (Romans 8:26). But we should pray from the soul and with sincerity.

Scriptures:

1 Samuel 1:15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.

Psalms 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.

Psalms 88:1-2 O lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: 2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

Psalms 130:1-2 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.2 Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

Phillipians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.