Equip Yourself
It’s not enough to point yourself in the right direction and start taking steps, you need to equip yourself with skills that will ensure completion. Over the next few days, we will look at a few simple skills that will help you finish the course well. It does no good to go on a journey unless you reach your destination. The first skill we will look at is prayer. No other discipline in the Christian life is more essential than developing a prayer life. It is one act that produces far more results than effort. Paul shows us prayer that works.
Philippians 4:6-7
The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
God Hears You
We have the assurance, as a child of God, that our prayers are heard. God loves to hear from us. When we go to him, he is at hand, and we don’t have to be anxious about anything. In fact, we can go with boldness to the throne of God because we are one of his own. Many people don’t pray because they think that their prayers are not heard. So we consume our time with worrying about our problems. God wants us to bring our anxiety to him.
Expand Your Repertoire
When we pray, it is important that our time with God isn’t us just reading a list of things we want him to do. Jesus, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus shows us that we need to have a time of praise, thanksgiving, and confession along with our requests. We need to praise Jesus for who he is. This takes our focus off of our problems and onto him. David’s Psalms are filled with wonderful examples of what it’s like to praise God, even when things are not going well.
Getting Right
We also need to have a time of confession of our sins. This gets our heads right and consecrates our heart to God. After we have had a time of praise and confession then, and only then, should we bring our requests to him. I’m not trying to be a legalist by expecting this order but what I have found is that if I don’t do the praise and confession part of my prayer time before the requests, I won’t do it all.
Spend time in prayer each morning; it will equip you for your daily walk. Do it early during your devotion time. Start a journal and write your prayers down. Watch as they get answered, and your heart is drawn closer to the Lord.