HOW TO PRAY

Many people have difficulty praying because we were not taught how to pray, may be shy about praying, or have no idea what to pray about. Learning how to pray taught me THE POWER OF PRAYING!!!  I’m talking about purpose confirmed! I’m talking about witnessing God heal Grandma V when thought she would die and ALL I could do was pray!! I’m talking about my million dollar plan revealed.

WHAT IS PRAYER???

Prayer is not as hard as we think. Prayer is a conversation between you and God. Prayer is about building a relationship with God. Talk about your day, struggles, joys, heart desires, hurt, pain, love, needs, wants, etc. No pretending just open, vulnerable, honest, and authentic heart desiring intimacy with God. Matthew 7: 7 states “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find: knock and the door will be opened to you”. Prayer allows God to reveal his quiet and gentle voice, closer relationship with him, and miracles revealed.

2 Chronicles 7: 14 states “ If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land”. (NIV)

SECRET PLACE TO PRAY

Create a quiet place or secret place where you can pray. Matthew 6: 6 states “ 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. In your secret place with God cast all your concerns, seek his face, draw close to God, and he will draw close to you. Solitary time is the perfect time to be completely honest about what you are going through, pray about difficult times, pray about unforgiveness, and/or anything that is prohibiting you from becoming a better person. Ask God to help you think, behave, speak the way he does, embrace your flaws, repent, and correct. The Holy Spirit will convict you along the way to make better decisions.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” – Mark 1: 35 (NIV)

LORD’S PRAYER

Learn the Lord’s Prayer. Write it down, read it out loud until the prayer is embedded in your permanent memory. 30 day prayer journal by Melissa Wells suggest “ begin to pray the Lord’s Prayer and meditate on it line by line until you achieve understanding of the words that Jesus taught his disciples. Ponder on and research why he chose those words. What’s the meaning of the prayer? And what lesson is in it? Define keywords of destruction such as sin, temptation, debt, debtors, and evil. Define keywords of reassurance such as deliver, your will be done, your kingdom come, and our daily bread”.

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him. “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples”. – Luke 11:1 (NIV)

The Lord’s Prayer:

This, then is how you should pray:

Our Father which art in heaven

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from the evil

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)

HEART CHECK

Heart checks help expose anything that is prohibiting us from communicating openly and freely with God. For instance, we may feel unworthy to talk to God because guilt from sin. We have to be armed with the word of God. God tells us not to be guilty we are free of sin and guilt. All we have to do is confess our sins, repent, and move forward not repeating the same mistakes. 1 John 1: 9 states “ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Although, sometimes we repeat the same sin even if we want to do better because weren’t honest with God about our struggles or God is trying to show us something. Pray for God to reveal the lesson he is trying to show us through sin.Until we are healed and delivered we will make the same mistakes. God will use sin to show unbelievers that the power of God changed you when the world didn’t think you could change and use your testimony to help others. God performs miracles nothing is impossible or too big for God to fix or overcome.

Secondly, your mind may be cluttered and distracted on the things of the world. Pray to ask God to clear your mind from distractions and focus on him. Pray through your distractions despite what you are going through. Prayer time is the best way to relieve stress and anxiety.

Thirdly,  fear we are not praying correctly or don’t know what to say to God. Let fear go God wants our time, commitment, and pure hearts to want to know Him. Talk to God from your heart just like you would a trusted family member or friend. Intimacy starts with open and honest communication. God knows your heart and will never judge or criticize you for not speaking in such ways the world judges us with fancy words and long prayers. Your heart will always win over trying to impress him with fancy words.

Psalm 139: 23 – 24 “ Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (NIV)

METHODS TO PRAY

Pray using the ACTS acronym:

A- Adoration (Praise and worship God)

C- Confession (Confess your sins)

T- Thanksgiving (Thank God for what you already have)

S- Supplication (Ask God for what you want)

Pray with Scriptures:

When we pray align our requests with the Bible. For example, Deuteronomy 6: 4-5 states “ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Pray asking God your word says love you with all my heart, all my soul, and all my strength. God I don’t know how to do that. Please teach me how to love you this way. In Jesus name. Amen.

The bible is filled with everything we need to know to get through life including hard times. There is nothing we go through that is not in the bible. We have to read the bible in order to know how to incorporate God’s word into our prayers. John 15: 7 states “ If you remain in me and your words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”. When we pray incorporating God words we have confidence that God will hear us and answer our prayers because we believe his words.

Pray using word selection:

Another method of prayer is focusing on one word. For example, grace. Define the word grace. Look up what God says about the word grace. Think about what grace means to you. Think about how you can apply grace in your life. Ask God to show you how to give people as much grace that God has given you.

One of my favorite scriptures happens to be about grace; 2 Corinthians 12: 8 -12 “ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “ My GRACE  is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake. I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”.

Prayer Journal:

Prayer journal is a fun way to talk to God. Great thing about journaling you can reflect back and see how God answered your prayers especially when feel like God doesn’t hear you or answer your prayers.

Break down the prayer journal into sections. Here is an outline on how to organize your journal:

• Write the Lord’s Prayer
• Write list of things you are grateful for
• Write areas in your life you need help with
• Write favorite scriptures for encouragement, love, patience, fear, God’s promises, etc
• Write your personal prayer requests include date requested prayer and date prayer was answered
• Write your family and friends prayer requests include date requested prayer and date prayer was answered. Write scriptures relating to family promises.
• Section for daily journaling/ talking to God like a diary
• Write prayers for government, church members, Pastor, coworkers, boss, people who need to be saved, people you influence include date requested prayer and date prayer was answered

PUBLIC PRAYER

Public prayer for a shy person or person not comfortable praying can be overwhelming, uncomfortable, and nerve-racking when focus on the wrong things. When we are nervous we’re not focus on God. We focus on what people may think or say about you praying. Although, we live in a society that aims to impress others don’t try to impress people especially when praying. Don’t overwhelm yourself with thoughts like: What if I don’t say the right things? What if I stumble or stutter over my words? What if my prayer is too long? What if my prayer is too short? God does not care how well we speak. Relax and speak from your heart. God delights to hear from us and praise him publicly.

God provided clear instructions about public prayer. Matthew 6: 5 – 8 states “ 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 others. Truly I tell you they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then you Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask him”.

Testimony time…. People have asked me to pray in the past. Bluntly said no because didn’t know how to pray, had no clue what to say, and fear of public speaking. As I developed spiritually told God probably not a good idea to decline public prayer. Sharing my testimony, talking about God and his grace but declined praying wasn’t adding up. Holy Spirit convicted me  “what you do in private is revealed in public”.  I decided to learn how to pray and no longer shy away from public prayer. Memorable moment God put me to the test to pray at church prayer brunch. I was nervous and uncomfortable. Before prayer we had praise and worship all I remember saying was Holy spirit show up I’m so nervous. Repeated same sentence over 50 times and guess what?? HOLY SPIRIT SHOWED UP AND TOOK OVER WHEN IT WAS TIME FOR ME TO PRAY MY VOICE USUALLY TIMID WAS POWERFUL CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD SLIGHTLY OPENED MY EYES TO LOOK AROUND TO CHECK WHO WAS I?? LOL SPEAKING WITH SUCH AUTHORITY SHY WHERE?? WHEN I SAID IN THE NAME OF JESUS WITH EVEN MORE CONVICTION SHYNESS WAS A LIE!!!!!! The Holy Spirit showed up and showed out and proved when we cry out and ask it will be given to us. That day family prayer had for years was answered! Hallelujah!!

“ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”. – James 5: 16 (NIV).

DON’T TALK ABOUT IT PRAY ABOUT IT

Daily prayer is the best strategy. We never have to fight with our words because we fight battles on our knees. Prayer is a lifestyle not a last resort when all else fails. Pray on it, pray over it, pray through it, pray your way out of it, and then let go and let God move. Trust God will open doors at the right time. Realize we don’t get anything we pray for until we become the person we need to be to receive it.  Pray BIG and BOLD prayers for a BIG GOD. Pray to God first before venting to your friends and family.

Tip: Recommend the movie war room great example of the power of prayer and effective ways to handle life struggles.

Having a bad day pray! Having a great day pray!

HOPE YOU ARE ENCOURAGED!

Peace, Love, & Blessings!

XOXO Go Patty💋 😘

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