Prayer Series 1: How, When, & Why We Pray

God has put on my heart to do a blog series about prayer.  Not because I am an expert by any means, but because it’s a personal area of growth for me.  As believers, we always hear we should study the Word, spend time in prayer, and spend time in fellowship.  For a few months now, my heart’s desire has been to draw closer to the Lord through prayer, and I want to spend 2018 doing just that, but practically how is that done?  I think my frequency is good - praying throughout the day, during my Bible studies, before meals, teaching my kids how to pray, getting more comfortable praying on the spot for people in need, stepping outside my comfort zone to pray out loud in groups, praying for our church family through the prayer team and the C4 Women’s Facebook Group (if you don’t know about those and want to, just ask!) - but how do I go deeper when I do pray?  How does God want me to communicate with Him?  What heart does God want me to have for prayer?  How can I worship God through prayer?  How can God grow me faster through prayer?  How can I learn more about God’s will for my life through prayer?  I’m sure one could spend a lifetime dedicated to the study and practice of prayer, but I’m excited to see how the Holy Spirit will grow me (and you) in 2018, building on the foundation that’s already laid.  My goal (God willing), is to share on one practical application “topic” about prayer for each blog post this year (~1/month).  I want and desire a strong prayer life, and I must be intentional about understanding, applying, and praying about what I learn.

First, let’s understand HOW and WHEN we should pray.  Ephesians 6:17-18 says:

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

Once we are saved, along with the Word of God, we should be praying ALWAYS in the Spirit with determination for the needs of all believers, including ourselves.  Read this verse and the verses before and after it over and over, and read it in different translations too.  We’ll go deeper in later blogs, but as a believer, this verse should weigh your heart to want to pray more and more and more.

What does the Bible say about WHY we should pray?  I’ve been reading a book cleverly titled “How to Pray” by R. A. Torrey.  It’s a whopping $4.39 on Amazon and is worth every penny.  I’m going to summarize the first chapter in bullets, as it gave eleven solid Biblical reasons with corresponding verses about WHY we should pray.  I pray you go deeper in Bible study and let these scriptures sink in and elevate the importance of prayer in your life as it did for me.

We should pray because:

1. There is a devil and he is against us – Eph. 6:12-13 (note verses 17 and 18 above are after these verses and praying is HOW we overcome spiritual attacks)
2. Prayer is God’s appointed way for obtaining things - Jas. 4:3
3. The Apostles regarded prayer as an essential daily activity – Acts 6:4, Rom. 1:9, Eph. 1:15-16, Col. 1:9, 1 Thess. 3:10, 2 Tim. 1:3
4. Jesus Himself spent significant time in prayer – Mark 1:35, Luke 6:12
5. Jesus lives and is available right now to make intercession for us, which is how He brings us to completeness – Heb. 7:25, Rom. 8:34
6. Prayer is how we receive mercy and obtain grace in time of need – Heb. 4:16, Luke 11:8
7. Prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, is how we obtain fullness of joy – John 16:24, Ps. 16:11
8. Prayer for every need and anxiety, with thanksgiving, is the how God frees us from anxiety and gives us the peace of God which passes all understanding – Phil. 4:6-7
9. Prayer is the method God has appointed for us to obtain the Holy Spirit – Luke 11:13, Acts 4:31, Acts 8:15
10. Prayer is how we fight against the cares of this world and the distractions and temptations all around us and focus on Christ, so we’re ready for His return – Luke 21:34-36
11. Prayer is how we align our hearts with God’s will and it promotes our spiritual growth - Ps. 139:23-24, Ps. 51, Ps. 119:18, Jas. 1:5

Finally, to quote Pastor Matt: “Prayer is not about changing God, it’s about changing YOU.  God is perfect!  Prayer aligns my heart to God’s will, and God’s will is found in His Word.  We should pray God’s own words, therefore, we must know His Word.”  I pray this Bible study has increased your heart’s desire to grow your prayer life.  Start praying for God to reveal to you how to pray.  Next time, we’ll go deeper on praising God during prayer and why praise is a crucial component.

Be Intentional

God is so good all of the time!  As I’ve been praying about this blog series and what God would have me put down on paper, He has already been speaking to me over the last month, preparing my heart as I’ve been in His Word.  He has given me the words “be intentional”, and I simply can’t get them out of my head.  It first stemmed from a study on Romans 13 we did with our Home Group that we co-lead with the Urlachers, but this “phrase” is also exceptionally relevant to my life right now as I transition into a new routine of being a stay-at-home mom after being a full-time working mom for the past 6 years.  In addition, it’s that time of year we all start thinking about what we’d like to accomplish in 2018, as 2017 comes to a close.

Romans 13:8-14 reads, “8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if [there is] any other commandment, are [all] summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love [is] the fulfillment of the law. 11 And [do] this, knowing the time, that now [it is] high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation [is] nearer than when we [first] believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to [fulfill its] lusts.”

When the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40 what is the greatest commandment of all, Jesus basically answered LOVE.  “37 Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is [the] first and great commandment. 39 And [the] second [is] like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

If these are the two most important things we can do as believers, HOW do we love God and love each other?  Well, we need a lot of help from Jesus for sure!  If you’re anything like me, it’s natural to think of myself first and how I feel and what I want and how people are treating me.  God always helps us practically apply His Word to our life and the “how” is found right there in Romans 13:12-14 - “cast of the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light”, “walk properly”, and to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to {fulfill its} lusts.”.

Practically speaking, this is where God calls us to “be intentional” and we must be the ones that choose to “walk” and “put on”.  Galatians 5:12-16 takes it further: “13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not [use] liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

We need to intentionally Walk in the Spirit and leave no provision for our flesh!  When we read on in Galatians through verse 25, we understand the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit which will tell us, in any situation, if we are walking in the Spirit or in the flesh.  What really stands out to me here is how we need to be intentional about fighting our flesh and walking in the Spirit. The things our body and minds naturally want are the things which make us feel comfortable, important, successful, and respected, but that’s not putting God or others first and serving our neighbors in love.  How do we put ourselves aside to “love our neighbor as ourselves”?  It’s a constant practice of being intentional throughout our normal, every day lives.

My former boss would ask me about my plan for success and would regularly say that “hope is not a strategy”.  Biblically speaking, God gives us hope through Jesus Christ and we should absolutely rejoice in that hope daily as He is our joy in any circumstance, but it’s not a strategy of how to Walk in the Spirit and grow in our relationships with the Lord.  We need to be intentional. We need to fight our sinful natures daily and put on the armor of light, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Bottomline is, we can’t be in the Spirit without being in the Word of God and spending time in prayer, and we choose how and when to do these things. They don’t just happen. We have to be intentional. When David Urlacher spoke about tithing a few weeks ago, he said “do you tip God or do you tithe?”  Wow!  It’s the same philosophy with our time.  Do we give God our leftover time or hope that we have time to spend with him once everything else on our to-do lists are done?  Or are we intentionally giving him quality time when we are awake, focused, and not rushed?  The Bible is God’s Word that’s alive to help guide us through life.  Remember, God knows what we need before we know we need it, and He knows what’s going to happen tomorrow.  There’s no other life coach I would want!  If you want to hear from God, you need to be in His Word.  Prayer helps us talk to God about our struggles, submit to His will in reverence, and put our minds and souls and flesh in line with His character to become more like Him.  You must be intentional.  Don’t live your life in a way that gives your flesh the advantage, because our flesh is sinful.  Live your life to give the Holy Spirit room to work in your life.

Pastor Matt recently said during a sermon that “the future is simply a collection of nows”.  What’s on your plate today may seem like a bunch of little things and the future may seem overwhelming, but what can you be intentional in today to take baby steps towards who God wants you to be in the future?  Get up 30 minutes earlier to spend time in His Word, start reading one Proverb every day (there are 31 chapters), start reading the gospel of John, read and study ahead of Sunday/Wednesday sermons, listen to GraceFM on your way to work, download some sermons to listen to at the gym, start coming to Wednesday night service, commit to joining a Bible study and put it on your calendar, email someone on staff about questions you have, start praying with your husband or wife every night, fill out a ministry application, listen to praise music while cooking dinner, go to U-Turn, go to prayer night, etc...  Every one of these things can progress you in your relationship with the Lord and will start helping you learn to walk in the Spirit and will align your heart more and more with God’s.

I am not perfect by any means and battle my flesh each and every day, but it is amazing to look back and see how God changed has my heart over time, after being intentional in the seemingly little things one at a time.  When I rededicated my life to the Lord 4 years ago, it simply started with attending church on Sunday and starting to read the Bible for 15 minutes every day.  Now, after being intentional in many of the things listed above over time, God has poured out His Spirit on me (Proverbs 1:23), and I’ve found that walking with Him through the trials and circumstances of life truly brings wisdom and peace (Proverbs 1:7, 33).  The God of the universe is available and waiting 24/7 for me and you to spend time with Him.  Why wouldn’t any of us want that?  I pray this blog has blessed you, and I’m so excited to share my personal journey with you!