You can buy many books on the subject prayer. A lot of these are excellent books to read and many will improve your prayer life tremendously, but lets start at the beginning.
What did Jesus have to say about praying? Lets find out. You might call this back to the basics.
Lets read the following scripture:
MT 6:5 "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. 6 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. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
The first thing you probably noticed is that you should never pray for show. If you do, that is all the reward you will get.
Does this mean to not pray in public? NO
There are examples in the Bible of praying in public. The motive behind the prayer is the determining factor. You may be praying for someone or even a group of people. You may also just be asking for a blessing on a meal, etc. There should be a reason to pray in public, otherwise you should go to your room (seek privacy) to pray.
Also repetition is not necessary, God knows what we need before we even ask for it. We don't need to repeat ourselves over and over.
This is not the same thing as praying for someone or about something on say a daily basis. You may be praying for a loved ones salvation and it has not happened yet. You would continue to pray for them. This is talking about just saying words to be saying them, in other words babbling.
When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, here is what he said:
MT 6:9 This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
MT 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
MT 6:11 Give us today our daily bread.
MT 6:12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
MT 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. '
Let's break this down to see what it means.
First thing we should do is glorify God. Even his name should be treated as holy. His name is a reflection of who he is.
Second we pray for his kingdom to come. This does not mean we want the end of the world right now. It means that we should want his Kingdom influence here now AND then the end. We want his influence to help us live our lives for his glory and to bring glory to his name.
Third since God knows what is best we should want his will here and now just like it is in heaven. Many times we think we know what is best and later figure out we made a mistake. God does not make mistakes.
Fourth we should pray for our needs. Don't just sit and wait for God to meet your needs. You pray for your needs and in doing the best you can, God will meet your needs. This is one of his promises. We should pray for each other, if you notice, it says: "us" not "me" in verse 6:11. We should always pray for each other.
Fifth we should forgive each other. Being saved should make us want to forgive others, if it doesn't we need to evaluate ourselves. Unforgiveness creates a bitter heart in a person and this will effect our spiritual walk. It is important that we forgive others so our relationship with God can be what it should be. We have to have an attitude that makes forgiveness possible, you don't earn forgiveness.
Sixth we ask to be delivered from temptation and the evil one. God is not the one that tempts, but he is the one that allows it to happen. Temptation comes from Satan. He always uses the things we have trouble with the most. There are several reasons why God allows us to be tempted that I don't want to go into right here, but he promises we will never be tempted beyond what we can handle and he always provides a way out (1 Cor. 10:13). We ask to be delivered from the evil one, because he is the cause of it.
So in closing what did we learn:
Anytime we pray our prayer needs to be sincere, it does not need fancy words, it does not need to be long, it just has to come from the heart. The Model prayer Jesus gave to his disciples, we are also disciples, has the following main points:
1. We should always give God the deserved recognition.
2. We tell God about our needs, he wants to know about them.
3. We ask for his protection, because on our own we will fail, but with his strength we will succeed.
I hope this will help you get grounded in your prayer life. I also hope that this shows you that you don't have to have any special education to pray. God is listening to what we have to say and wants to hear from us.
Just remember it starts with believing that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, he is the key to the whole thing. This is what makes you a son or daughter of God. Fathers, unless they are messed up, which God isn't, want the best for their children.
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