Prayer

The next discipline I want to discuss is prayer. There are a lot of misconceptions around prayer in today’s culture. Two of the biggest are that we don’t need to pray because God already knows everything we need or want so why do we need to take these things to him directly. I think the other biggest misconception about prayer is that it is simply us going to God with our requests. 

One of the biggest reasons Christians don’t pray is because they don’t see the need. We serve an all knowing all powerful God so why do I need to tell him things he already knows. Prayer however is a vital part of the life of the Christian. It was also a major piece of Christ’s life while he was on earth. Prayer helps remind us that we are dependent on God. When we admit to him that we need his help with things it keeps it front of mind that we are not self-sufficient. The act of telling God what we need and what we want helps us to focus on the fact that he is our sustainer and provider. 

Prayer doesn’t just have to be us listing off our wants and needs to God. It should also contain aspects of worship. We can in these quite moments between just us and God praise him for the things he has done whether in our lives, the lives of others or just creation as a whole. We can also bring our sins and confess them to God allowing us to set our struggles down at his feet. 

Prayer isn’t just us talking to God either though. Our prayer should also include times to listen. I am not saying that God will audibly speak to you during your prayer time, I am not saying he won’t either. However we need to take time away from the distractions around us to listen and hear through the prompting of the Holy Spirit things God is trying to teach us. When we keep ourselves constantly distracted it can be easy to miss these promptings because we aren’t listening for them. 

So I want to challenge you to try a couple of things. When you pray try just sitting there for a few minutes. It might be awkward since we as people don’t typically like things to be quite we want some sort of distraction often times. However, I ask that your really try to listen. It doesn’t have to be for some long amount of time maybe start with just a couple of minutes. I also challenge you to write down your prayers. This doesn’t make them any more valid or anything but it can help to remind you of the things God has done, As you go back and visit past prayers you can see where he has answered a prayer and give him thanks specifically for that answered prayer.