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Prayer, the lifeblood of a Christian!

Pastor Colin Meadows

Prayer for many of us as Christians is a big challenge! If we are really honest, we struggle to spend quality time listening to and responding to God’s quiet voice. In this article we will seek to learn truths that can help us turn this situation around. We will seek to learn from the Bible, and from other Christians, truths that will help us grow to be people of prayer.

Firstly, we need to ask ourselves just what is prayer? Put simply, prayer is a reverent two-way communication between a believer and their God. The Almighty Creator God of the universe invites us to have fellowship with himself! What an incredible privilege has opened up for us.

Secondly, we need to be reminded that prayer is for all Christians, and not just for the ‘super spiritual’. We are not all called to preach or to teach, but we are all urged to pray.

Thirdly, prayer is much more than us just maintaining our own spiritual life. It is the highest calling that we can engage in as God’s children. God is inviting us to enter into the holy place with Him, to quietly listen and in awe contemplate His power and His glory.

Let us look now at some of the essentials of personal prayer and of how we can grow to be people of prayer.

1. Allow Jesus to teach us to pray: See Luke 11:1ff, Matt 6:5-15, 7:7-11. Jesus was in a certain place praying and the disciples saw him. Jesus thus led by his example. Allow Christ to teach you to pray so that you can then teach others. Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach or to witness but only how to pray. The disciples sensed their own inadequacy in this area and thus asked Jesus for his help. Do we have the same sense of need?

2. Remember that Christ is praying for us: See Luke 22:32, John 16:26, Hebrews 7:25. Here we read that Christ is always interceding for us before the Father.

3. Accept the Holy Spirit into our lives: See John 14:15-20, 23, 25-26, 16:12-16, 23-26. He will reveal the Father’s will to us and empower us to live a life that honors him. Prayer releases God’s Spirit to reign in our lives. See Luke 11:13, Jude 20, 21. We are not alone. Are we willing to allow the Holy Spirit free reign in our lives?

4. Allow God’s Word to direct our prayers: Our praying must be bathed in Scripture. Seek to know God’s Word and to apply it in prayer. Meditate on His Word and then we will begin to know His Will. See Ps 119. The more we understand about the Bible, the more we will understand God’s will. When we are unsure, then we are to ask God. See James 1:5ff.

5. See prayer as worship, that God may be glorified: We need to see that to pray is to worship God in spirit and in truth. See John 4:23,24. We are to pray that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Flowing out of this is the truth that obedience is the only path that leads to the glory of God. See Ps 57:8, Ps 63:1-4.

Learn to pray alone with God: Many people feel prayer is basically a group activity. Jesus felt otherwise. See Matt 6:6. ‘Go into the private room and pray…’ or as The Message puts it ‘…find a quiet secluded place…’ Mark 1:35 ‘Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place, where he prayed’. Pray to the Father ‘who is in secret and who sees in secret’. Secret ‘kruptos’ means hidden, like in a crypt or cellar. See also Matt 14:23.

Pray the Model Prayer of Jesus: The Message translation puts Matt 6:5ff in this way:

‘Pray very simply like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; do what’s best – above and below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes, Yes, Yes.’

This is the first time in Scripture that a believer is encouraged to address God as Father, ‘pater’, the one who nourishes, protects and upholds. Lift the name of God on high. God’s will is the extension of his kingdom. Our basic need is to have enough bread for today. Ask for God’s forgiveness as we forgive others. Keep us from the tests that could break us. A literal translation of the Lord’s Prayer could flow as follows:

Father, may your name be set apart as holy, let your kingdom come, give us each day our bread for today, forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone owing us and don’t lead us into testing…’

8. Pray in His Name: See John 14:13-14, 15:16, 16:23-26. The name of a person draws to the front all that they are. The name of a king, for instance, calls up his power, authority and honor. In prayer, by using Christ’s name, we are seeking to make a request that He has authorized.

9. Believe that God will answer: See Matt 7:7-11 and James 4:3. Seek to pray in his will. See Mark 14:36 where Jesus struggled with what lay ahead for him. See also 1 John 5:14-15.

10. Grow in Faith: See Mark 11:22-24. We need to ask God to increase our faith. Faith needs to be bathed in prayer for it to grow. Faith must have gone on ahead before prayer can even start. See Heb 11:6. ‘Faith clears the way to the mercy seat’.

11. Fasting and Prayer: See Matt 17:19-21. Fasting is the letting go of the seen and temporal. It can enable us to focus more sharply on God and his will. Are we willing in these days of excess to deny our appetites in this way?

12. Forgiveness & Prayer: See Mark 11:25. If we refuse to forgive, then our fellowship with God is disrupted and our prayers hindered. When we fail to forgive others, we have not understood God’s forgiveness towards us.

13. Pray for fruit in your life: See John 15:16, James 5:16. God commands us to bear fruit, so pray that this will take place. This in particular refers to the fruit of God’s Spirit.

14. Come together in prayer: See Matt 18:19-20. Just as private prayer is important, there is the place for public, united prayer. This is a time of agreeing together in the name of Jesus. See 2 Chronicles 7:14.

15. Persist in Prayer: See Luke 18:1-8. There is the paradox in our Christian lives of the ‘instant’ and the ‘process’. Prayer is very much a process of drawing our wills into line with God’s kingdom desires. We are encouraged to make prayer a way of life for ourselves. See 1 Thess 5:16-18, Col 4:12. Literally we are to ‘Live in an attitude of prayer’.

16. Learn from the prayers of others: See Ephesians 1:15-23. Paul was there urging people to contemplate what God had done for them in Christ Jesus. See Ephesians 3:14-21. Here he was encouraging people to understand the incredible love of Christ for others. See Colossians 1:9-14. Here presenting Christ as the pre-eminent one, supreme in all things.

17. Pray at the critical times: See Luke 6:12. Jesus spent the night in prayer before he chose his disciples. He was careful in seeking his Father’s will in this matter. God will often give us a burden to pray at specific times for certain people and situations.

18. Groan when words do not come: See Romans 8:26. This is like dialing 000, gasping out a cry for help and receiving an instant hookup. Just groan at such times! See Ps 38:9.

19. Frenetic Activity is no substitute for prayer: See Luke 10:38-42. When faced with the pressure of deadlines and heavy work schedules, prayer becomes even more important. Note that this passage on waiting quietly before Jesus comes immediately before Jesus’ teachings on prayer.

20. Prayer is not a multiple-choice option: Prayer is not something that a Christian can take or leave. See 1 Sam 12:23 ‘As for me, far be it for me that I sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.’ Do we consider a lack of prayer as sin? This is something very challenging to consider.

Here are some examples from history to ponder: In the winter of 1512, a young man locked himself in the tower of the Black Monastery at the University of Wittenburg, Germany, and set himself to earnest prayer. After that time of contemplative prayer, God used this man, Martin Luther, to begin what has become called the ‘Reformation’, a movement that changed world history.

In 1738 a young Anglican clergyman and his brother in England spent time in prayer and fasting. Later God used these men, John & Charles Wesley, to begin revivals in England, the US and elsewhere.

DL Moody, Charles Finney, RA Torrey, Andrew Murray and so many others set themselves to pray, after which God used them in wonderful ways.

In 1984 in his book ‘Prayer – Key to Revival’, Pastor Paul Y Cho, pastor of the largest church in the world, said ‘It has been historically true that prayer has been the key to every revival in the history of Christianity.’

The challenge is thus before us. We are not all called to preach or to teach, but we are all called to pray! Let us ask God to help us to grow to be a people of prayer!

Further Reading