Prayer

Is It In You?

Ask any Christian about prayer, and you will get a lot of enthusiastic talk about how great it is and how important it is. Ask a Christian to pray, and you might get a blank look.

I want you take a minute and give a very honest evaluation of your prayer life.

Do you really know how to pray?

Do you spend any time praying with other women? Of all of the topics covered on this site, this one is the closest to my heart. I was a Christian for about 18 years before I really understood what prayer is, why it is important, and how to do it.

Sure, I thought I understood prayer. But my understanding of prayer was that I should ask God for what I want and mention the prayer requests of others (and maybe thank him for a few things too). Once I experienced a real, abundant prayer life, I realized how much I had "missed out" over the years.

I believe that there are still a lot of Christian women missing out.

It does not take long to figure out that I am a fan of Oswald Chambers, and I definitely recommend reading My Utmost for His Highest . Chambers was passionate about prayer, and he had a lot of wise things to say about it.

So forgive me as I give more than a few quotations from this book. I just can't say it any better than he did:

"The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer."

Th purpose of prayer is to enter into a close relationship with God. We get to know God's character intimately by praising him for his attributes, and we affirm our faith by claiming the promises that he has made to us.

In prayer, we bring our lament to God first instead of to our husband or friends, because God can bear the burden and we know that he understands our pain.

Getting into the habit of conversation with God means that we never forget to abide in him.

Yes, we will get answers, but that is the extra blessing.

"Prayer does not fit us for greater works; prayer is the greater work."

Another misconception is that prayer is something we do in preparation for "real work." Ha! That "real work" may just be what is keeping you from praying enough.

Prayer is a greater work than preaching, teaching, organizing, raising money - you name it. It is a great privilege to be given the responsibility of prayer, and any other commitment to "church work" should be secondary.

I'm not saying "don't do" the other work. I'm saying that whatever your work is in the body of Christ, it is secondary to prayer, not instead of prayer.

If your prayer life is hindered because you are too busy being an active Christian, then you need to resign from a committee or two.

"Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished."

If we ignore him for even one day, we will be malnourished. Prayer is the only way to fix that.

Not teaching Sunday school, not planning the women's retreat, and not going to choir practice.

Those are all great things, but they will not replace prayer as nourishment.

Think of it as eating a candy bar instead of dinner. It may hold you over once or twice, but as you continue to lose nourishment, it will eventually catch up with you and have its effects.

"There are certain things we must not pray about - moods for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking."

I don't care if you are in a bad mood - fix it and pray anyway. You need to confess it and praise God until your heart is right on who he is and who you are.

If you are in a bad mood, you are responsible. The joy of Lord is there in abundance for the taking, and it is your decision to wallow in self pity.

I can speak with authority on this subject because I am the queen of self-pity.

When we choose to have this attitude, we are being self-centered and having an expectation that life should be easy and that we deserve some kind of restitution from God.

That is a sure sign that we are drawing on a sinful nature. Who said life should be easy? Remember, Jesus is not my Nirvana. I don't pray to get things from God; I pray to get God and his character.

"If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly."

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Have your purposeful, scheduled time with God, but do not say "Amen" and "goodbye."

Abide in him and take him with you, praying always until it is as sub-conscious as breathing.

When you are at the place where every decision is inherently brought to God, when every unexpected blow is steadied quickly inside of you by the Word of God and the promises that you have claimed, you have begun to pray without ceasing.

When we pray, we follow these four steps:

1. Praise - we get to know God by learning his character
2. Confession - we practice having a clean heart before him
3. Thanksgiving - we learn to give thanks in all circumstances
4. Intercession - we learn to have God's heart for others.

There is an added blessing when we use scripture to pray; we learn God's Word naturally. We hide God's word in our hearts by praying it every day, and when we need that scripture it is on the tip of our tongue in a moment's notice.

Where can you learn to pray and have the support of other women praying with you? This is where I learned how to pray.

Share you prayer requests.

Do you have a prayer request you would like to share? Submit it here so that readers can pray for you. Don't forget to come back and comment on you request with updates.

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Prayer Resources

A Woman's Prayer Life, DVD By Beth Moore / Word Entertainment Inc

Every Child Needs a Praying Mom Audio CD By Fern Nichols / Moms In Touch International

Every Child Needs a Praying Mom: Life-Changing Prayers for Your Children By Fern Nichols with Janet Kobobel Grant / Zondervan

When Moms Pray Together: True Stories of God's Power to Transform Your Child By Fern Nichols / Tyndale House

Praying The Scriptures For Your Children By Jodie Berndt / Zondervan

Praying the Scriptures for Your Teenager: Discover How to Pray God's Will for Their Lives By Jodie Berndt / Zondervan

Praying God's Will for My Husband By Lee Roberts / Thomas Nelson

Prayers from a Mom's Heart: Asking God's Blessing and Protection for your Children By Fern Nichols / Moms In Touch International

Igniting A Passion to Pray Teacher & Student Pack By Fern Nichols, Marlae Gritter & Janice Oldham / Moms In Touch International

POWER OF PRAYING PACK 4 VOLS By Harvest House Publishers