How to Pray to God

May 19

“But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”

—Luke 5:16, AMP

Prayer is one of the most powerful weapons God has given us, and looking ahead at 2021

Here are eight keys to develop a more powerful and effective prayer life:

1. Know to whom you are speaking.

Prayer is a conversation with God, and every conversation begins by addressing the person to whom you are speaking by name. Jesus begins with “Our Father in heaven.” He focuses on a distinct person — the Heavenly Father with whom he has a personal relationship. We share the same right to call God “Father,” and there are times when we need to talk with our Abba Father, Daddy God. But God is three distinct persons in One: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

2. Thank him.

A heartfelt thank you is always a great conversation starter. Like any parent, God loves to see that we have grateful hearts. But more importantly, as we take the time to praise God for all He has done in the past — the answered prayers, the impossible situations overcome, the healings and grace — our faith to believe for even greater answers to prayer grows stronger and more confident. Praise opens the gates of heaven and should always be part of our alone time with God.

3. Ask for God’s will.

The Lord’s Prayer is not the only place where Jesus role-modeled a heart of obedience and submission to the will of God over his own desires and needs.

In a world where right and wrong are frequently confused and the future is so uncertain, it can be hard to know how to pray or what to ask for when difficult circumstances arise. But the one thing we can know with absolute certainty is that God’s plan for those who love him is good, and the safest place we can be is in the center of his divine will.

4. Say what you need.

In Jesus’ time, bread was a staple — one of the most basic needs of life — and he did not hesitate to ask God to provide it. But we often hesitate to bother God with the little things we need, thinking he shouldn’t be bothered. And when the big problems come, we try everything we can to solve the problem before we think to pray.

The Bible says, “You do not have because you do not ask God.” So never hesitate to ask God for what you need in 2021. Your Father in heaven delights to give you good gifts.

5. Ask for forgiveness.

James 5:16 reminds us that if we want our prayers to be heard, our hearts need to be right with God and with one another. If you feel your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, take some time to check your heart.

6. Pray with a friend.

There is power in agreement when we pray in Jesus’ name. When I have an urgent need to take before the throne of God, I will often call a friend to pray with me. If you don’t already have one, make finding a trusted prayer partner one of your goals in 2021.

7. Pray the Word.

“The Word of God has power and is our great spiritual weapon,”

Jesus was the Son of God, but he did not use his divine authority. Instead, he used the authority of the Scriptures.

8. Memorize Scripture.

The most important key to a vibrant prayer life is to understand our spiritual authority in Christ as explained in the Scriptures. The only way to do that is to become intimately familiar with the Bible. Even a few minutes a day in the Word of God will add strength and authority to your prayers in 2021.

Read the full article here:

https://www.worldvision.org/christian-faith-news-stories/keys-powerful-prayer-life-2021

Prayer 101: How do I talk to God?

Prayer is simply talking to God—and the most important thing is that God wants you to talk to Him! He loves us and He has promised to hear us when we pray. How can you learn to pray? First, understand why prayer is possible.

Prayer is possible because Jesus Christ has removed the barrier between us and God—a barrier caused by our sins. You see, sin separates us from God, and because of that we have no right to come before Him. But by His death on the cross, Christ paid the penalty for our sins and removed the barrier. God then gives us the privilege of coming into His presence when we commit our lives to Christ.

Does God only hear us when we pray out loud or does He hear silent prayers also? Please forgive me if this is a dumb question, but I didn’t grow up in a religious home and have just become a Christian.

Don’t be embarrassed to ask questions when you don’t understand something about the Christian life; after all, God wants you to come to know Him more and more each day. Jesus’ disciples repeatedly asked for His help, and so should we. On one occasion they said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).

Yes, God hears our prayers on all occasions, whether we’re praying out loud or praying silently in our hearts and minds. After all, He knows all about us and knows what is going on inside us—both good and bad. The Bible says that God “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The Bible also says, “The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but those of the pure are pleasing to him” (Proverbs 15:26).

God even hears our prayers when we can’t even put them into words—times. One of God’s greatest gifts to us is the privilege of prayer—a privilege that is possible because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Thank God for the privilege of prayer and learn daily to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Does God really answer prayers?

Prayer is one of our greatest privileges as God’s children, and even if God doesn’t seem to answer your prayers at first, don’t stop praying. God loves you, and no prayer goes unanswered.

In a far greater way, Jesus said, God (who is righteous and does care for us) hears the prayers of His people, and we must never give up. God is actually answering our prayers when we don’t realize it—and the reason is because His answer may be “No” or “Wait.” Yes, we think we know what’s best for us—but God sees the whole picture, and sometimes He lovingly refuses to give us what we request, because He knows it isn’t according to His perfect plan.

Read the full article here: https://billygraham.org/story/prayer-101-how-do-i-talk-to-god/

How to Pray: 5 Practical Tips

Tip 1: Pray Simply

We might think we have to pray passionate, persuasive words for God to hear us, but in reality He listens even to our shortest “SOS” prayers.

“The fewer the words, the better the prayer,” said Martin Luther. Isn’t that reassuring? We can talk to God in everyday language, just like we talk to a friend. We don’t have to pray long. God delights in a simple word of praise, like “Lord, I love you.” He treasures the anguished prayer of a mother when she calls, “Heal my child.” He answers the simplest request: “Lord, give me strength for today.”

Tip 2: Read the Bible and Pray Over Verses

Have you ever had a one-sided conversation with someone who talked continually without listening to you? The conversation didn’t go very far, did it? We do the same thing to God when we pray without reading the Bible, His eternal letter of love and wisdom to each one of us on earth. Reading Scripture helps us get to know God. It brings life to our prayers.

If you want to have a more effective conversation with God, read Scripture. Let David’s words in the Psalms enliven your prayers. Stop in the Gospels to pray over a verse that strikes you, asking God to work that truth into your heart. Let the words of Paul’s letters give you specific prayer requests for yourself and the people you love.

Tip 3: Make Prayer Active and Multi-Sensory

Prayer grows dull when we turn it into a purely mental exercise. God made us creative beings, so why don’t we bring creativity to our prayer lives? Lighting a fragrant candle can send a signal to our brains: “It’s time to pray.” It can bring a sacred sense of awe to a few minutes of prayer. Listening to music can help us focus on God. Many people enjoy doodling, drawing, or painting while they pray. Remember you don’t have to sit quietly to pray.

Tip 4: Make Prayer an Integral Part of Your Day

This verse baffles me: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances;” (1 Thess. 5:16-17) Is it really possible to pray without ceasing?

How about trying an experiment? Start and end your day with prayer. Lift up short prayers to God as often as you can throughout your day. Pray over your schedule. Ask God to help you with your to-do list.

When you hear a troubling news report, lift the situation up to God. Say a prayer for your spouse or child as you give him or her a hug. Pray for the person you’re talking to. Look for prayer moments that work for your life.

Tip 5: Pray Expectantly

Prayer becomes a lifeless exercise when we’re not looking for answers. Jesus invites us to expect God to work. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)

How much more exciting prayer becomes when we keep our eyes open to watch for God’s answers. Sometimes I wonder how many answers we miss because we don’t really expect God to respond.

Remember Colossians 4:2: “Devote Yourselves to Prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

How about getting started today? Don’t get discouraged if you get distracted like I do. Just get back on track. Pray and watch for God’s answers, so you can thank Him. He might answer differently than you expect, but His answer will always be better than what you had in mind.

Read the fill article here: https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/prayer/how-to-pray.html

How to Pray: the Beginner's Guide

To pray means to communicate with God. That can mean thanking Him, praising Him, confessing something you’ve done wrong, or expressing a need you have. It can even mean just talking to Him as you would to a friend.

Learning how to pray is really about developing a relationship with God. Prayer is a supernatural activity. What does that mean? Think about it for a moment. You are talking with a God who is unlike anyone else you could ever talk with. He has a personality and qualities you can understand and relate to, but you cannot expect to relate to God in exactly the way you might to a close friend or family member. He’s so much bigger and more incredible than that. He is beyond what you can understand in the natural everyday world. He is supernatural.

What Is Prayer?

People often say that prayer is just talking to God as you would to anyone else. It’s true that a relationship with God contains many of the same ingredients as our other relationships. But there is at least one unique factor: we can’t rely on the senses of sight, sound or touch to connect with God.

So talking to God is just like relating to anyone else except in the ways it is completely different.

Perhaps the best place to begin is by making clear that prayer is more about talking with God than just talking to Him. What you believe about God and your relationship with Him is fundamental to how you will learn to talk with Him.

Faith is the essential ingredient if you want your prayer life to never lose its flavor.

God is ready and willing to listen because He knows you and wants to be known by you. If you believe that, or you want to believe that, you’re ready to learn how to pray.

Why Should You Pray?

People pray for all sorts of reasons. Some pray to comfort themselves in troubling times and to acknowledge there is a spiritual dimension to life. But Christians pray for very specific reasons.

Becoming a Christian is about much more than adopting a label, changing your demographic, or subscribing to a new worldview. To be a Christian is to believe God invited you into a personal relationship with Him and to accept that invitation.

Saying that you can experience being a Christian in the way God intended without learning to pray is like saying you can be happily married or have a deep friendship without regular communication.

Here are four great reasons why you might choose to pray as a Christian:

You want to tell God how much you love Him and why.
You need to say “I’m sorry” for specific actions or attitudes.
You want to thank God.
You want to bring a concern about your life or someone in your life to God and invite Him to help.

How Do You Pray?

What position should I be in to pray?

You can bow, kneel, stand or walk around when you pray. God will hear you whatever you do, so choose a position that helps you focus.

Kneeling, or bowing your head, is a great way to focus your body and your mind on God. It’s also a way to show how much you respect His authority.

What do I say?

Start by addressing God directly in a way that acknowledges the uniqueness of who He is.

People will say things like, “Father God,” “Heavenly Father” or “Almighty God.” How you choose to address Him will remind you and anyone you might be praying with about who you are talking to and what He represents in your life.

Do I pray to God the Father, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

This is completely up to you. Choose one or try praying to each member of the Trinity at different times, because they are all listening to you.

If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit is the presence of God living within you. So you can address Him directly with confidence that He is as close as He could be.

Should I pray out loud?

Depending on how comfortable you feel or what kind of situation you are in, you will choose whether to pray out loud or silently. Over time, you will likely grow in your confidence praying out loud.

If you are praying for someone who is physically present with you, it might encourage them to hear your faith expressed through your prayers. But if you find praying silently allows you to focus more on God than on someone you might be praying with, go for it.

The one time most of us need to stop talking is when we are trying to listen to God. You will find it harder to hear what He is saying if you are doing all the talking.

When and where do I pray?

Anytime and anywhere can work, but it’s good to find a distraction-free time and place if possible. God deserves your focused attention, and you might find it harder to listen to Him in a busy place.

How do I end a prayer?

A common way to end a prayer is by saying something like, “In the name of Jesus, amen.”

But why is this?

Well, think about how you began your prayer by addressing God directly, by name. This is important because it acknowledges that God is more than a force, more than an unnamed higher power or an idea.

God is a person choosing to be present in your life. Most importantly, He is the only person with the authority and ability to answer your prayers.

Whatever you choose to say can also act as a reminder that you believe God has heard your prayers and that you trust Him to know how best to answer them.

If you’re the kind of person who starts talking to God as you go about your day, you don’t need to wrap up every communication with a formal ending for God to take you seriously. God is a Father who loves His children to talk to Him as much as possible.

What Should You Pray For?

Whatever is on your mind matters to God, because you matter to Him. As you develop the habit of praying, over time you will gain a sense of what things God is talking to you about and what He thinks is worth your attention. In the beginning, try not to get too hung up on what you should be praying about.

God has all the time in the world, and He’s far more patient with us than we are with ourselves.

But if you’re ever in doubt, pray like Jesus.

What Will HappeDoes trying to pray leave you feeling like you missed a class everyone else attended?

The notion of a two-way conversation with a God you cannot literally see or hear can feel elusive and frustrating. We all spend years learning to read, write, add and subtract; relatively few people spend devoted time learning to pray.

One possible explanation for this is that we incorrectly think there is an ideal formula or playbook for prayer. Remember, prayer is about a unique relationship between you and God.

Learn what you can from others, but embrace the journey of discovering your own relationship with God.

Here are six things to expect as you develop a conversation with God:

You will recognize that you are not God.
Every time you pray, you are saying, “In my own strength, I cannot do all that I want to do. I need something more, someone else.”
You will realize the world doesn’t begin and end with you.
Growing up is a painful process of slowly coming to terms with the reality that the world doesn’t revolve around you. Whether you are praying for yourself or others, you’re acknowledging someone else is the center of the universe.
You will gain strength from outside of yourself.
Prayer is a way of inviting a higher power to enter into your life’s struggles. Prayer can be a source of strength, wisdom and inner peace.
You will surrender control to somebody else.
Everyone is a control freak to one degree or another. Prayer allows you to admit to God that you need Him in the driver’s seat of your life.
You will communicate your real feelings.
Do you feel ready to give God control of your life? Talk to God honestly about how that question makes you feel. He knows everything about you. He’s eager to listen 24/7. Prayer is a safe way to process your thoughts and feelings.
You will trust that God is with you.
Unless you’re happy to admit that you talk to floors or ceilings, when you pray, you’re believing that someone or something is listening — and might even do something about the things you’re talking about.

Prayer is a mysterious thing — simple but profound. Billions of people pray every day.

Ways to Develop Your Prayer Life

Pray With a Journal

Dawson Trotman’s words beautifully capture why journaling is a vital part of so many people’s spiritual journeys.

Some of us are verbal processors, and praying out loud enables us to clearly communicate with God. Others of us find that as we write out our prayers, our thoughts become clearer.

You could begin with a Bible verse that stands out to you, even if you don’t know why it stands out to you.

Try asking yourself these simple questions as you read a Bible passage:

What does this passage tell me about God?
What feelings does this passage evoke in me and why?
What thoughts or memories occur to me as I reflect on these verses?
What could God want me to hear since this is what He gave me to read?

Answering these questions will help you reach a point where you can ask God how He wants you to respond to whatever you are reading.

God wants to speak to you, and He’s not limited by how good a listener you are.

Show God that you’re willing to listen, and He’ll show you He’s able to speak.

Take a Walk With God

Jesus’ closest relationships on earth were built as He walked with people day after day. Men in particular often develop deep friendships doing things side by side rather than talking face to face.

Pray With Other People

Listening to someone else talk with God can help you focus on Him.

Think of someone you know who talks about God’s tangible presence in their life. Ask if you can pray together. While time alone with God is vital to our spiritual growth, God Himself tells us that when two or more gather to focus on Him, something special happens (Matthew 18:20).

If you are praying in public or with another person, remember to talk to God and not them. It’s easy to fall into the trap of saying what you think another Christian wants to hear rather than what you need to communicate to God.

Next Steps

Now that you know the basics about how to pray, all that remains is to begin. The aim is not to become an expert on prayer but simply to move deeper into a relationship with your Father in heaven.

As with most other relationships, the things you talk to God about will develop as your trust in Him grows. Remember to listen to God as you talk with Him. Strong relationships are not built on one-way conversations.

Read the fill article here: https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/prayer/how-to-pray.html

How to Pray: A Biblical Guide to Prayer

Daily prayer is essential to a healthy Christian life. Learn why and how we should pray according to scripture.

Prayer is the elevation of the mind and the heart to God in adoration, in gratitude, and in a request for the spiritual and material things we need. Our Lord Jesus Christ instructed us to go into our inner room and pray to God the Father in secret. This inner room indicates the heart, the essence of our being.

Why Should We Pray?

Jesus urges us to pray. Christ tells us in the Gospel of Luke, "how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13b). Pray for renewal and the growth of our soul. Pray to give thanks to God for all he provides in our life. Pray to seek forgiveness for our sinfulness as humility is a requirement for prayer.

How To Pray?

Pray with awareness – so that we can have a genuine connection with God.

Pray with humility – for this kind of prayer goes directly to the ear of God.

Pray with love and grief – with delight and thanksgiving, but also with authentic repentance and sincerity.

Pray from the heart – even if we pray with ‘the words of another’ they should be declared as if they are our own.

Pray with hope and total faith in God – because He knows our life.

How Should I Pray to God for Healing

Start with Simple Prayers

We might think we have to pray passionate, persuasive words for God to hear us, but in reality, He listens even to our shortest prayers.

Read the Bible and Pray Over Verses

Make Prayer an Essential Part of Your Day

You should have a precise rule to pray both morning and evening. Stick to a schedule for praying. You are forming a discipline that is beyond what you will feel like doing. This is not a leisure practice but a path to be in fellowship with your God. You will need to have a distinct set of guidelines that you follow each time with no reasons for shortcutting them.

Focus on Each Word - Concentrate Your Attention in Prayer

As you begin to pray, focus on every word of the prayer. Bring the meaning of the words into your heart. Do not rush through the prayers like you are in a hurry to get them over with. Let them slowly enter into the depths of your heart with humility and awe of God.

After you begin to recite your prayers you will find that your mind will want to roam. While you are reciting the words of the pray your mind can jump to something completely separate. Don’t be worried as this is natural due to the forces that do not want us to pray to God. Work to concentrate your attention. Recognize that when this happens you are no longer praying. When your mind does wander, be gentle with yourself and go back and recite again what you said while your mind was elsewhere.

Read the fill article here:

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/prayer/how-to-pray-a-beginners-guide-to-prayer.html

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