Pray, pray, and pray some more!

The worst advice I’ve ever received was to not to pray for certain things because “God has bigger issues to deal with”.  At the time, the advice came from someone who was perfectly following all of the human rules of religion, but she didn’t really KNOW God. She may have had her heart in the right place, but this scolding made me shy away from talking to God for a while.  At that time, I didn’t know the Bible verses that said:  “pray continually” 1 Thessalonians 5:17, NIV.  1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”  Ephesians 6:18 says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests…”  I have since learned that the Bible does not say to only talk to God about important things, but to talk to God about ALL things.  When I realized this after reading the Bible, it strengthened my relationship with God in so many ways.  God’s Holy Spirit lives within us when we have faith in Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is our helper and guide.  He knows our every thought already.  We need to talk to Him about everything in life.  This is how He leads and guides us. We need to totally rely on Him for everything.  In fact, when we don’t talk to God, (pray) constantly, it’s easy to forget about Him.  It’s easy to see things from a worldly perspective and not a Godly one.  It’s easy to forget about eternity, but instead think about trivial, day-to-day matters.

We are to pray at all times.  God is not Santa Claus or a magic genie. We shouldn’t treat Him as such.  We shouldn’t just go about our lives, and when we want things we send Him a list and expect Him to deliver.  Looking back on my life, I realized that many times in the past my prayers were just a wish list sent to Santa.  I would pray for a list of things that I wanted or wanted God to fix.  Other than that, I wasn’t praying.  We don’t just pray when we need help or when we are scared.  We should pray in thanksgiving of all of our blessings, pray when we are joyful, pray to praise God for who He is, pray for others, pray to grow closer to God, pray when we’re tempted, pray when we are stressed, and the list goes on and on.  In other words, don’t be the friend that just calls when they need something.  Prayer is talking to God, and we should do that all the time throughout the day, not just when we need something.

A friend taught me the acronym, “PRAY”.  It stands for “Praise”, “Repent”, “Ask” and “Yield”.  Instead of immediately asking for things when we pray, think of the blessings God has given us first.  It’s AMAZING how it changes our perspective so quickly.  Once, on my commute to work, my minivan started driving funny.  I started to pray, but remembered to praise first.  As I started to think about my blessings, I was so overcome that I had a great job to drive to, that I owned 3 vehicles, and that I was fortunate enough to have my daughter join me daily on our commute to school.  There was so much to be thankful for, perhaps one more car bill wasn’t that bad. By the time I had finished the “praise” portion of my prayer, I actually felt bad asking God for anything.  I was overcome with how much I actually had.  

“Repent” also brings you before God with a humble heart.  If you think first of your sins and what you need God to help you with and forgive you for, you are prone to ask for things with a humble heart, not making demands that we feel we deserve or have earned.  It’s a reminder of how much we need a savior and how much we need God. 

“Ask” is the easy part.  I’ve never had any problem asking!  The last one though, is tough:  “Yield”.  This means that whatever God’s answer is, we will trust Him – “yield” to his decision.  His decision is always the right one.  Even if his answer is “no”, we have to be willing to accept that because it will be what’s best for us.  This is the hard part.  It’s often difficult to see how an answer of “no” will be best for us, but if we think like a parent, we know that sometimes “no” is the best answer for our children.  They don’t see it at the time, but we have more life experience and wisdom than they do.  We know what’s best.  As limited as we are as humans, how much more does God know best?  It’s an infinitely greater amount! 

Practice praying continually.  Tomorrow, start your day with prayer.  Then, as you go through your day, be deliberate in talking to God about EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING.  It’s very easy to get busy and forget about God.  Make an effort to see everything that happens tomorrow with God.  Talk to Him about everything you do tomorrow.  End your day talking to God about how the day went.  Share with God your fears, your failures, and your praise.  After you’ve tried this, journal about how it went.  Make it a practice in your life and see how it changes you!

Why read the Bible?