One of the most basic yet most powerful things that a Christian can do is pray. Regardless of how old you are or how long you’ve been a Christian, your prayers are extremely important and can be greatly effective. The Bible gives specific examples of how to pray, when to pray, why to pray, and what to pray. In fact, prayer is discussed quite a bit throughout Gods Word. Interestingly enough, prayer was spoken about in the same chapter that listed the spiritual armor. (Ephesians 6) Though not given a piece of armor that it is equivalent to, prayer was considered as an offensive weapon along with the Sword of the Spirit. But it is also a defensive weapon, and above all the opportunity to speak with the Most High God.
Thorndike – Barnhart’s High School Dictionary defines prayer as the act of speaking to God in worship; entering into spiritual communion with God; making earnest or humble request to God. The American Heritage Dictionary says that prayer is a reverent petition made to a Deity. So according to these dictionaries, prayer is a form of worship of and communion with God, as well as making a request or petition reverently and humbly. That covers two of the areas, but what the dictionary leaves out is the position of prayer in spiritual battle. This part is equally important.
Basically, prayer can be broken down into three types, areas, purposes, etc. Prayer is talking to God, a humble yet vital thing that we need to do on a regular basis. Prayer is asking God for things, petitioning Him, or even pleading with Him to do or not do something particular. Finally, prayer is an essential weapon in the spiritual realm and has great power. All three of these areas are intertwined with each other but are also separate in their own way. We will study out these different areas in more detail in upcoming articles in this series. For now I just wanted to give an overview.
Some common myths about what prayer is:
**Prayer is a list of requests or desires for God to grant me like a spiritual genie or Santa Clause of sorts.
Sounds a little silly when put in this context, but many Christians honestly believe that prayer is all about telling God what you want or need and listing off your problems to be solved. Wrong! That’s a very shallow idea of prayer and unrealistic view as well. Sure, there’s a place for asking and receiving things in prayer, but it’s not the whole point of the action. Prayer is so much more than that!!
**Saying my nightly prayers quickly just before I drift off to sleep is enough praying for me.
If the only time you talk to God is just before you go to bed each night, (or any other one time, for that matter), then you are cheating yourself AND God out of an effective and meaningful relationship. Talk to Him throughout the day…talk to Him just like He’s your best friend and tell Him what’s on your mind. It doesn’t have to be a formal prayer, think of it like a conversation—an ongoing conversation that lasts the entire day! What kind of a relationship is it if you only make contact for a few seconds—maybe minutes—out of the twenty-four hours of the day?
**Prayers don’t really do any good. They rarely are answered and most of the time it’s like talking to thin air. They’re almost a waste of time.
What were you expecting? An audible answer and solution immediately following your prayer? Well, it could happen… But that’s really not the common way that God uses to answer our prayers. It is when we are sensitive to the still small voice that we actually hear and see God at work. Many times we receive answers to our prayers and then write off the solutions as coincidence or fate or whatever—something other than God—because the answer doesn’t come in the form of an easily recognizable miracle. Maybe we just don’t look for God’s hand in a lot of situations, or we don’t’ expect Him to do anything about our prayers…which is pretty sad if we’ve gone to the trouble to ask Him for help. And then there’s the fact that God works in His own time, not ours. So when we think our prayers haven’t been answered, it’s possible that God has just said, “Wait awhile…not yet.” And sometimes God answers our prayers with a flat-out “No”. That may be hard for us to accept, but He really does know better than we do. The thing is, God always listens to and answers our prayers but we often don’t realize it because the answer given doesn’t always fit the description of what we want.
**I’ve seen the power of prayer at work before in the lives of strong and mature Christian adults. I know it’s a very real thing… But I’m still young and inexperienced. My prayers couldn’t possibly be as important or effective as the prayers of the adult Christians I know.
That is definitely not true! The value and power of prayer is NOT based on your age, experience, knowledge, or anything else other than what is in your heart. If you acknowledge that prayer is powerful and you believe that God will hear and answer you, rest assured that He will! So many times we hold back in prayer because we aren’t confident enough that our prayers will mean anything…but that’s just a lie from the enemy. Your prayers go directly to the throne of God. Remember that the next time you feel that your prayers are inferior. God hears you just as well as He hears your pastor, your parents, and the mature Christian prayer warriors. The only time that God doesn’t hear your prayers is when you don’t pray them… (Even then He still knows your thoughts
Well, that’s all for this first article in the series on prayer. Come back next month to read the second article, “Prayer: A How-to Guide”. Have a good day, and God bless you all! :)
-HK
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