How to Have A Prayer Life.

Prayer is an essential part to a Christian life. Prayer is your dialogue and intimacy with God. Studies show that communication is at least in the top five of important factors to a successful marriage. Which is the same for your relationship with God. Your relationship with God will not mature if you do not communicate with God through prayer.

Most people know what prayer is. Most people have an idea of how to pray. But I want to share with you Bible verses that speak specifically on prayer to help you have a more efficient prayer life with God. Some questions I want to discuss are What is prayer and why should we pray? Is there a sin of prayerlessness? How often should we pray? Should we have a time and place to pray?

 What is prayer and why should we pray? I discussed this a bit in the first couple of paragraphs but now I want to get into the scripture that says what prayer is and why should we pray. Matthew 6:9-13 has a prayer set for you. So if you don’t know what to pray about challenge yourself to memorize that prayer. Or, if you don’t know how to start off your prayer you can start your prayer by saying Matthew 6:9-10 and then go into whatever you need to say to God.

Matthew 18:19  says that when you ask for something, it will be done by my Father in heaven. When you pray don’t beg God as if you doubt it will happen. Have you ever watched a movie where the peasant falls on their knees and pleads with their king? They are pleading because they probably already have an idea of how their king will react and are not confident that they will receive what they ask for. As long as your prayer does not go against scripture, then believe that God will give you what you ask for and if you don’t receive it know that it is best for you.

God may not come when you want him but he’ll be there right on time.

Why should we pray? To find out God’s marching orders. John 5:30 says “I can’t do a solitary thing on my own; I listen, then I decide. You can trust my decision because I’m not out to get my own way but only to carry out orders.” We should pray so we know what steps to take in life. The reason a lot of people go through life feeling hopeless and lost is because they are not living a life by God’s purpose.

I can’t tell you whether God will give you a specific direction over everything. Some decisions are not a right or wrong choice, but simply a choice to make with different consequences. Like how video games are made now, many games have multiple choices and both choices can have both positive or negative consequences.

 Is there a sin of prayerlessness?

Luke 18:1 tells a story about a judge who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. You cannot love God amd never pray. Prayer is how you communicate with God. Like how people use phones to communicate with others when they’re not in person; prayer is how you communicate with God because he is not in the flesh. Prayer is your iPhone to talk to God. As well, you cannot say that you’re a Christian and never pray for the people you love and pray for your enemies. When we want to see the people we care about prosper we pray for them. When we want our enemies to lose their power over us we pray for them rather than curse them.

How often should we pray?

 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”

The Bible says pray all the time. Some people have a specific prayer room and a specific time that they spend with God. Doesn’t mean that they don’t pray any other time, but having a specific time and place to pray everyday means that you are deliberately putting God in your life. Like the saying goes, You make time for what is important to you.I know life gets busy we can’t let the world distract us from our relationship with God. Try to think of the time of day when you have the most free time. Try setting your prayer time for at least five minutes when you first get in the car. Make your prayer time in the shower. If you don’t have time to sit still and pray to God, at least set a specific time when you can be doing something while also able to concentrate on God.

All verses were taken from The Message Bible and the New Living Testament.