Prayer

Today’s post is a collaborative effort with a friend of mine, Sophia Arul. We dove into prayer and covered the surface of most of the major points. I will be going into more depth on these categories later as I have more time, if we covered them all fully this would have been far longer than any of you wanted to sit down and read in a sitting. ;) enjoy.

What is prayer?

Prayer is intentional[y] conveying a message to God – John Piper

It is not just communication because God doesn’t speak back to us through his prayer to us.

Communication meaning: The imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions or information by speech, writing, or signs.

How do we pray?

In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus said:

“This, then, is how you should pray:
 “‘Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name, 
your kingdom come, 
your will be done, 
   on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us today our daily bread. 
And forgive us our debts, 
   as we also have forgiven our debtors. 
And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.
 Jesus didn’t say to repeat this prayer every day. He said pray like this. We have to understand the meaning behind these words and use our own words to exalt and acknowledge our Father in heaven with humility and adoration, seek ye first the Kingdom of God(Matthew 6: 33)
Surrender completely to his will and relinquish control over our lives and letting him guide us in the right direction.
Present our request for our daily needs, Our God is our provider. Remember our wants and needs are two different things.
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14&15)
Ask for protection over our lives – protection from unseen and visible temptations & dangers.
We ask for all these in the name of Jesus since no one reaches Father except through Jesus.
“Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. (John 14:6 NIV)
“Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence”. (Ephesians 3:12 NLT)
What if we don’t have words to pray?
Prayer doesn’t come easy for most of us. Some of us struggle with not having the right words to express our true needs. It is not unusual for the bible teaches us clearly in Romans 8, it is a weakness.
 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Romans 8:26 NASB)

It means that the Holy Spirit greatly assists or aids us; not by praying for us, but in our prayers and infirmities.

With groanings - With sighs, or that deep feeling and intense anxiety which exists in the oppressed and burdened heart of the Christian.

IF God knows what we need already then why do we pray?
Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him (Matthew 6:8 ASV)
God is sovereign over all and governs all. No one can manipulate the mind of God, but we can join in through prayer with God in all his doing… We are children of God. Prayer is a part of His great plan.
Prayer causes things to happen that wouldn’t happen if you didn’t pray. Prayer is our privilege of engaging with God to bringing to pass events into universe. Our request would bring into existence of events which otherwise would not come into being.
 "So I say to you, 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 he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. (Luke 11: 9-10 NIV)

We need to take time away from our busy world to spend time with him and get to know our creator. Just like in life in any relationship the more you talk to one person the more you feel closer to them. The more you get to know them. We should get to know our heavenly Father in the same way; through his word and quiet time and understand his will for our lives which will enables us pray in submission to His Will and plan for our lives. Jesus himself took time away from his disciples to have time alone with Father. (Mark 1:35)

Should I ask more than once?
Absolutely yes, In fact, God tells us to, more than once.
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, [which] shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.(Isaiah 62:6,7)
In these verses God is telling His people that He is going to lift Jerusalem up to be a praise for all the earth, He tells them to keep calling on Him for this to happen and to continue praising until it does.
Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him. And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
    “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
   “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”(Luke 11:5-13 NIV)
In this verse Jesus tells his disciples that the man didn’t get what he needed from his neighbor just because he asked. He receives he continued to ask and didn’t give up.
Word of Caution:
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 6:7-8 NIV)
Yes we are to pray for things more than once, but do this at different times. Repeating the same thing over and over in a prayer is useless. Give God time to answer before you ask again, as in this parable:
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!” (Luke 18: 1-5 NIV)
Where do we pray?
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6: 5-6 NIV)
Jesus puts emphasis on praying in private, just you and God. He did this in His own life, see these verses:
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, (Matthew 14:23 NIV)
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”(Matthew 26:36 NIV)
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1 NIV)
In all of these cases Jesus left His disciples and prayed alone. He is our example, we should do the same.