Honest Question: How do I pray?

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GWH

Groovy
#81
Oct 19, 2024
6,157
1,221
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USA-TX
#81
shittim said:
He already knows what we want and need, and what we are going to say.
blessings:)(y):unsure:
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Yes, prayer is simply talking to God, and the power of prayer is God’s, so believers should not talk as though God would not act if they did not pray. Petition, may be the most used and least understood type of prayer, although the prayers of Paul indicate that perhaps intercession should be our most frequent type of petition (Eph. 6:18b).

The privilege of petitioning God should not be viewed as a blank check, nor is the primary purpose of prayer to persuade God to do our will like a genie. Rather, in prayer we should express our agreement with the perfect will of God. As 1 John 5:14 says, “if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Although agreement with God is not always mentioned (cf. Eph. 3:20, John 16:23), Jesus exemplified this principle when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36-46).

Again, we should approach God’s “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16) not to ask Him to do some good He otherwise would not do, but rather to remind ourselves of His presence and that He is the source of all blessings (Jam. 1:17). Prayer is like surfing: one does not need to ask God to send waves, but rather for readiness to ride them. In order to pray in accordance with God’s will, we must know God’s Word (John 15:7). Like bread and butter or romantic love and spiritual marriage, prayer and LGW go together. Pray for God’s will to be done.

Knowing God’s will is necessary in order for us to pray more specifically than “Thy will be done”. Much of God’s will is prescriptive or stated in clear moral teachings such as the Ten Commandments (Exo. 20:1-17, Matt. 19:17-21, Gal. 5:22-23). We may not know how to pray, but we can “live up to what we have already attained” (Phil. 3:16). That we pray is more important to God than our wording (Eph. 6:18a, 1Thes. 5:17, Rom. 8:26-27). Not praying would be like giving God “the silent treatment”.
 
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