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Prayer
... Tell us what you think here |
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Praying.
How should we approach it? We all know we
should do it, but do we really know why we
should do it? Can we really change things
through prayer? Or is just Christians trying
to control events and circumstances in their
favour? Could it actually be an opportunity
for God to change us?
How
do you approach prayer? What’s its purpose?
If you have seen the Brazilian football team
then you have probably seen them praying.
They have been interviewed saying that God
helps them because they are Christians. So
does this mean that God supports Brazil? What
if the two teams playing each other are believers
and both pray?
Or what about exam time? The invigilator utters
those dreaded words: ‘Stop writing and
pens down’. You hand in the exam paper
and pray to God that your grades will be good
enough or that the answers you have given
will have been the correct ones.
Or what about when you are stressed? Are you
the kind of person who mostly prays the ‘help!’
prayers or prays only when things aren’t
going your way? Do you approach the Almighty
only when you’re stressed out, or keep
away because you are stressed out?
The question is: when do you pray and what
do you pray for? How you view your conversations
with God will inform what you think prayer
is and what your expectations are.
Of course we can come to God with all sorts
of prayer and petitions. There is nothing
we can’t pray about; but what’s
our motivation? Do we come to God with a special
coded language, praying what we think he wants
to hear, rather than what we’re truly
experiencing? Or are we praying to see God’s
will or our will be done? It’s probably
impossible to pray without our prayers being
influenced by our own agendas and expectations
of what God should do.
However, perhaps there’s another side
to prayer, which isn’t just about what
outcome God can bring. Perhaps prayer is an
opportunity to submit our lives and agendas
to God; an opportunity to be honest with God
about the issues we’re facing in our
lives and express our emotions. And when we
allow ourselves to be shaped by God, perhaps
we find that some of our agendas start to
change… |
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To
Think About…
In the Bible, there are all sorts of passages
showing how different people prayed. They
all demonstrate people experiencing different
aspects of life and emotion; they all used
prayer differently to express their experiences
to God.
Take the Psalms for example. They’re
full of people being honest with God about
their experiences.
Psalm 13 expresses the Psalmist’s desperation:
‘How long, O LORD ? Will you forget
me forever? How long will you hide your face
from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
Psalm 51 describes the shame David felt after
his affair with Bathsheba: ‘Create
in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast
Spirit within me’…
Psalm 73 expresses a sense of injustice, as
the Psalmist observes, ‘Surely
God is good to Israel, to those who are pure
in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost
slipped ….. For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked’.
Or what about the incredible sense of awe,
as the author of Psalm 119 is blown away by
Gods love?
We need to remember that we can pray about
anything – from world peace to a piece
of homework, but we also need to see prayer
as an opportunity to be honest with God and
let him shape us more to his likeness. |
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For
further thought
Check out the following passages for other
ideas and approaches to prayer…
Genesis 32:24-31
Genesis 18:20-33
Psalm 13
Psalm 23
Psalm 42
Psalm 51
Psalm 73
Psalm 119
Job Chapter 38
2Corinthians 12:7-10
Paul’s Prayer – thorn in the flesh
John 17:21-26
Jesus own prayer
Luke 11:1-4
The Lords prayer
Romans 8:26-27
Spirit intercedes with groans…
Hebrews 7:25
Jesus intercedes with the Father |
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The Partnership ...
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