What Prayer can be! Part III ...

Wednesday, April 6, 2016. It is interesting to see what happens when you start to discuss prayer questions with other people. You get a lot of different opinions back, a lot of questions and remarks, and there is the need to explain yourself. For example, someone yesterday told me: why do you talk about different styles, you just pray!

Just pray …

This is of course true, and it is important. We are invited to be kids of God, to be kids of the Most High. We can just pray. The core of prayer is to just come to him. We do not need any particular style, we do not need to setup ourselves. We do not need 20 songs first, before we can come with our requests. We do not need a particular place, a particular wording, a particular attitude. Just come to your heavenly father. As Jesus starts his prayer: “Our father in heaven…”

However, does this mean we should not think further about prayer? No! We should think about it, and it is highly rewarding. You learn a lot about God, when you think about prayer and when you look into the biblical templates of prayer. When you study the remarks and the advice of the apostles. Humans have always prayed, but you can also get it wrong. So think about what you do!

Jesus tells us, how we should NOT pray. If our prayer is done publicly to show our relationship to God, we have our reward already by the admiration of the others. God will not listen to such prayers. If we make a lot of words since we think that we can reach something by it, we will not succeed. God wants our simple prayers, not complex prayer techniques. We need to keep that in mind, when we talk about prayer styles and the setup of our personal prayer.

Prayer Types …

Yet, we can pray in a different way, as kids of God. We can pray to ask him for ourselves, in our need. We can pray for others, ask for their needs, for God's blessing and help in their life. And we can listen to God, either directly to the holy spirit, or we can listen to his word. Both should be part of prayer and should be accompanied by prayer. God, talk to us by your spirit. God, give us your insight and wisdom, open your word for our heart and our mind!

Also, when you praise God, it is part of the communication which we call prayer. When we tell him, how great he is, that is an important prayer - for ourselves and for our relationship towards God. It is the “prayer of praise”. Thankfulness is a feeling and attitude which is good to develop and nurture in our life!

There is also the prayer of penitence, the prayer where we come to God with our regret and our guilt. In Christ Jesus, he forgives all our guilt. But it is important for us to come to him and and search his forgiveness. It is the great door in Christ Jesus through which we come to God at all, through which we are made new, a new creation in Christ Jesus. And it is the fresh source of new life which we can use day by day, when we walk our path of discipleship. (RWEP) ... more texts