How should we pray and talk to God?

As followers of Jesus it is imperative for us to communicate with the Almighty. Just as we need to talk to those close to us to maintain relationships and/or grow in friendship, it is important that we talk to God as it brings us closer to Him. Time after time, in the Bible, we're reminded of the importance of prayer and the need to do so...

• 1 Thessalonians 5:17: "...pray without ceasing,"

• James 5:16: "..., and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

• Matthew 26:41: "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

• Ephesians 6:18: "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints..."

• ... and many more.

A simple search in a biblical concordance for verses about praying, will come to show an abundance of verses on the topic. Here's the "problem" I've seen many times within the christian community, within the followers of Jesus... many claim that they don't know how to pray (!!!). Many many times I've heard questions such as: "how should I pray?" or "I feel I'm always telling God the same things, does He listens to me repeating?" or "Am I praying the right way...?" ... and so on. Actually, in full disclosure, often times I used to ask myself the same questions in my mind. It's very interesting the fact that in church we're always told to talk to God, to pray... but we're never actually taught how to pray (at least not in the churches I attend to when I was a kid).

Based purely on my personal observation at how prayer is done throughout different churches, there's clearly a division in the way different Protestant /christian religions believe prayer should be done. Some pray in "tongues", some pray repetitive verses, some openly and freely speak to God... the question becomes, 'what is the right way to pray?' (if there's such a thing). Well, in order to answer this question, we'll take a look (of course!) at the Bible. The Bible is God's word left to us and in it are not only the words of life, but life's manual. God left us instructions as to how to approach certain things in life and prayer happens to be one of them! Ready? Let's dive in...

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Researching the Bible

Let's begin by looking at the words of Jesus Himself in the book of Matthew. If there was someone that knew how prayer should be was Jesus, and He happened to speak about prayer several times. Let's look at one of these instances:

"...And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words..." - Matthew 6:5-7

From the verse above we get two of our first lessons about how should we pray:

• We should speak to God in private.

• We should not use vain repetitions when praying.

So I believe we now have debated the idea of certain churches of using scripts to pray. Prayer should NOT be a repetition of words or memorized prayers, is an intimate conversation with God. Let's keep reading and searching the Bible...

"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." - 1 John 5:14

From the verse above we can extract two more hints about how we should pray:

• We can talk to God and ask Him about anything.

• Whatever we ask in prayer, which can be anything, should be in accordance to His guidances and will. (For example... don't go ask God to bless the pork pepperoni pizza you're about to eat!!)

I think now we're starting to get better picture of how we should pray. The Bible has more to share, however. Let's keep reading:

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:6-7

Another hint!

• We should be thankful in our prayers.

Let's look at one more verse:

"I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me." - Proverbs 8:17

One "last" hint...

• Pray at all times like 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says... but make it so that at least one of your prayers is early in the morning.

I think we can now put together everything we have found and build a complete picture. let's look at all the "how to's" we have found by reading the Bible verses indicated:

1. Prayer should be in a private setting

2. At least one prayer should be early in the morning

3. We should pray without repetitions and/or without memorized statements

4. We should be thankful when we pray

5. We can talk to God about anything

6. We can ask God about anything as long as it conforms to God's will and standards

I think this gives us a pretty clear picture of how prayer should be done, right? If you look carefully at the statements above and really think about it, we can easily state that praying to God is simply having a conversation with Him. A prayer is none other that an intimate conversation with the Almighty. I love how Ellen G. White puts it in her book: "Steps to Christ" chapter 11:

"Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him." - Steps to Christ, ch. 11, EGW

Just as you would talk to a friend about your ups, downs, successes, and failures, you can talk to God. Telling how your day went, be thankful for His blessings, ask Him to help you achieve whatever is in your mind... open your heart to Him. Ask for forgiveness and trust that He is merciful and will forgive you. God, Jesus is the best friend, companion, family member you can have. When you pray, do it from the heart. God doesn't want to hear prayers that you memorized or words that are repeated out of tradition, He wants to hear about YOU, He's interested in YOU... AMEN because we have such a friend and Savior!!

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There's one more thing...

Now we've clearly define how we should pray, there's something we need to clarify. At a first instance, it would almost seem impossible to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and also to do so in private. After all, we all have jobs, tasks, daily chores that we need to complete... how can we pray at all times in "private" when we also need to be responsible with others things in life? Well, the best way I know how to explain it is by studying in the Bible the life of Enoch. Let's read together:

"Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." - Genesis 5:21-24

By now we know that praying is simply a conversation, an intimate conversation with God, with a friend. Right? So here we read about this man named 'Enoch' and how he walked with God for HUNDREDS of years. He had such a tight relationship with God that God decided one day to take Enoch with Him... imagine the closeness those two had!!! Obviously Enoch prayed, so does this means that Enoch locked himself in a private room and talked to God for hundreds of years? No, of course not. He had a life, he had kids, he had more than likely a job... So how did He prayed? Well, we don't have that information available but I believe it would be safe to assume that He, during certain parts of the day, prayed in private, and then he would go on to his daily chores but talked to God while on his daily routine. Nothing private, but just like talking to a friend.

See, just as we would have serious and private conversations with a friend, we also have just general conversations with a friend that don't necessarily need to be private. God is our Father, our friend. Yes, we need to pray in private and confess our sins and be thankful, but we can also just talk to God (as we would a friend) while we're embarking on our daily activities. There's a time for private and intimate prayers, and there's a time for casual and general prayers (conversations) with God as we go about out day. What a beautiful thing it is that we can talk to God anytime and we KNOW that He'll listen to us!!

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Closing

Next time the devil tries to 'trick' you into thinking that you should now pray because you don't know how... remember that praying is as easy as talking to a friend. God is our friend, our Father, and He'll never EVER reject or ignore what you have to share with Him.

He loves you and He wants to hear from you... what are you waiting for? Go talk to your Almighty friend 😃

Until next one...

#neverfarenough