kellym40 General

Creating and Sustaining a Life of Prayer, Part 4

This is part four of my prayer series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and have been able to take away helpful information about your own prayer life. This series was built on the foundation of learning about prayer, how to use it in your daily life, and, today, learn to create and sustain a life of prayer.

A helpful way to do that is to break down the way in which you pray. Let’s take the word PRAY and make an acronym. By doing this, it makes praying more meaningful.

The first letter in our acronym (P) stands for PRAISE. Let praise begin your prayer. Be thankful. Psalm 100:1-4 says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name!”

For the third letter (A) we ASK. Ask God for good things. Matthew 7:7-11 tells us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for brad will give hi a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” And remember, God wants you to ask. He will answer, but remember to give thanks to God, glorify Him. (John 14:13). Whatever you ask should be consistent with His word. (John 15:7). And what you ask of the Lord, should bring you joy. (John 16:23-24).

The second letter is (R) and stands for REPENT. Be sorrowful for whatever wrong you have done, even if you don’t know if what you did was wrong. Ask God to help you see whatever wrongdoing you may have done and be sorrowful and show remorse. Repent. Ask for forgiveness. Refer to Psalm 19:12, 14, where it says, “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

The final letter (Y) represents a time to be still. It means to YIELD. This is when you pause and stop talking, and you wait, listen, and seek to hear from God. How do you practice yielding to God when you pray? Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

So use PRAY when you pray. Let it help you continue your prayer life and you may see the goodness and wonders of God. Romans 12:12 tells us, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

One of my favorite passages in the bible is from Psalm 63. In verses 1-4 it says, “O God, your are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirst for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.” This also refers to another Psalm, as in Psalm 141:1-2, “O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!”

Again, I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. I will pray that you may keep that focus to Christ Jesus and the heavenly Father. Remember also that God hears us and knows what may be in the silence of our hearts. So take comfort in knowing that, as it says in Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

Take care and God bless you!

kellym40 General

Creating and Sustaining a Life of Prayer

Throughout this month, I am going to do a series on prayer and cover such topics as what prayer is, how we use prayer, how to create a consistent prayer life and more. This will be a four-part series.

In today’s lesson, I will touch on what prayer is and how important it is to us as Christians to have some kind of prayer life.

First of all, the definition(s) found in the dictionary are put as “A devout petition to God or an object of worship,” “A spiritual communion with God or an object of worship,” or “The act or practice of praying to God or an object of worship.”

Simply put, “Prayer is simply two-way conversation between you and God.” – Billy Graham.
It is the “most important conversation of your day. Take it to God before you take it to anyone else.” – Anonymous

You can also look at prayer as getting to know God, communicating our desires to God, listening to God speak truths to our spirit, voicing our needs for God to help us, observing God in creation and praising Him, sitting with God in our pain and asking Him to comfort us, and expressing our gratitude by thanking God. And you can simply do this by keeping prayer as an open-ended conversation with God.

Here are some questions to reflect on:
– What is your earliest memory of prayer/praying?
– What is a time when you might have been surprised because God answered your prayer?

Psalm 55:1 says, “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!”
Prayer is vital to our growth as Christians. The Gospels are filled with moments with Jesus in prayer – when he was alone and with others, before and after healing someone, before meals, and even after being nailed to the cross and as he was dying. Prayer is connecting with and growing with God. Treat prayer as a close relationship you might have with another person. Prayer can be filled with moments of gratitude, praying for others, or just sharing our needs, fear, or insecurities. Just open up a conversation and go to God about everything.
“Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God.” – Mother Theresa

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Paul writes about prayer, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”