“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” Colossians 4:2
The beauty of prayer is that there is no right or wrong way to pray. God knows our hearts and He knows what we will do before we even do it. As long as we seek God with 100% of our mind, body and soul, than God will reveal himself. Below, you will find information about how to pray, where to pray and what to say while praying.
- The first step in praying, is believing. It is the most important part, because without faith, prayer is useless. We know how crucial it is because Matthew (22:37), Mark (12:30) and Luke (10:27) all tell us this “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” We must first believe that there is a higher power listening to us, because if we don’t then how could we expect for our prayers to be answered? Faith the size of a mustard seed is all you need.
- We don’t need to be isolated and in complete silence to pray. We can be in the super market, driving to work or cooking. God is always with us, which means He can always hear us. Praying is a conversation between you and God. Just like we will call our parent or friend to see how things are going, the same goes for God. We can pray just to check in with God. We should not only pray when we need something, but pray even when things are going well. We can pray anywhere or anytime. We can pray sitting down, standing up or upside down (for all my yoga lovers lol). Most people pray while kneeling on the ground because it shows humility to God. We kneel before God because we are aware of His supernatural powers and give him glory and honor. I encourage you all to pray throughout the day and give acknowledgement daily.
- When I first began praying, I felt awkward. I didn’t know what to say or where to start. Luke 11:1 talks about Jesus teaching people how to pray. Jesus told his disciples to pray by saying “Father, hallowed by your name, your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is heaven. Give us each day our daily bread, Forgive our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil“. Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray and said “Ask and it will be given to you; Seek and you will find; knock and the door will opened to you.” Jesus let’s us know that prayer actually works. When we pray to God, He is listening and will always answer our prayers.
- As we grow in faith, our prayers will grow also. The more comfortable we feel the easier it will be to pray. We may not want to recite the prayer Jesus said every time, but there are key concepts that must be in every prayer. Every prayer should give Thanks to God, acknowledge and repent for sins, Ask for forgiveness, pray for others and than pray for self. Because of the sacrifice Jesus made to give us salvation and a life of hope, we should also Thank Jesus in every prayer.
- “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” – Hebrews 4:13 This means honesty is the best policy. God knows our deepest secrets. He knows everything! Our prayers need to reflect this. We have to come to God open and honest and be willing to receive His love and grace. We don’t need to hold anything back because there is nothing that He won’t already know. Allow God to release you from your burdens, suffering or pain. We don’t need to feel shame when speaking to God, because He loves us no matter what. God doesn’t want to punish us, He wants to protect us. The closer we are to God, the safer we are. He wants to lift us up and give us the life that He created specifically for us. If you are holding on to anything, it is time to Let Go and Let God.
- Some of the things we can ask God for could be patience, clarity, humility, wisdom, healing, protection or compassion. There is no limit to what God is capable of doing, so there is no limit to what you can ask God for. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” – Ephesians 3:20-21
The more we pray, the more natural it will feel. God is with us always, at all times. There is never a moment where God will turn away from us which means there will never be a bad time to pray. We must make sure that we pray everyday because we need God to guide our steps daily. Without prayer, we are stepping into the world with a blindfold. Prayer removes the blindfold from our eyes so that we can see where we are walking. Through prayer, God gives us visions and helps us stay on His path that he has destined us to be on. We may slip and walk in other directions but the moment we come to God, He will bring us back to where we need to be. It is never to late to pray. There is nothing in this world that can separate God’s love from us.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” – Romans 8:38-39