True Prayer

Last night i was talking to my niece about prayer, so i wrote a few pointers for her to get a better understanding of what i believe prayer truly is. This is a summary of an article i read by John Bunyan and i thought i would share this with y'all as well. This is is no means exhaustive, but i believe it is a good summary for her, a new child in Christ and also for anyone who is learning how to as a Christian.

1.Prayer is a sincere, sensible, pouring out of the heart and soul to God, through Christ, and using the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit. We have to pray:
a) According to the will of God
b) According to the bible and
c) With submission.
Read Psalm 66:17, 18 when David said that:

“I cried out to [the Lord] with my mouth;his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened [to my prayer]"

We do not pray so that people can see you, or to fulfill a duty, we pray so that you can communicate with God. Prayers are not supposed to be fake.
Why does God ask us to be sincere in prayer? Because when we are sincere, we open our hearts and say what we truly feel without fear or thinking of what the consequences are. God looks at our hearts and judges if we are being honest or not.

2.Prayer is Rational. This means that prayer is supposed to make sense. Prayer is not continuous babbling of many words but it is simple reasonable utterance straight from the heart. It can be short or it can be long, it can be alone or it can be amongst a gathering. Wherever the location, when we pray, we need to make sure our prayers make sense and that we are being understood by God.

3. Prayer is affectionate. In Psalms, words like yearns, pants, longs, consuming are used to describe how David Prayed. We are praying to a great and holy God. We therefore cannot come before Him lightly with no passion as if we were speaking to a stranger. Imagine, for example, how you would present yourself if you were given the opportunity to address a Hollywood celebrity of your dreams. We have seen fans on television cry, faint and scream because they are overcome with emotion, love, respect. Now celebrities do not in any way compare with the greatness that is of God yet we most times treat prayer like it is an unimportant duty we need to perform.
We should not use empty words to make our prayers longer. When talking to God, prayer should be filled with hope, trust, respect. We should forget everything else and focus only on our great Father. For without a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart to God, our prayer is nothing but useless lip-service.

4.Prayer is through Christ and with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Simply mentioning the name of Christ in prayer does not mean that we are coming to God through Christ. A man that comes to God through Christ must first of all know who Christ is and believe in him. Likewise, any prayer that is without the assistance of the Holy Spirit cannot be the will of God because it is through the Holy Spirit that we can listen and understand the will of God. Romans 8:26, 27.


5.Prayer should be in line with the things that God has promised. We cannot possibly expect God to answer prayers that are contrary to His word. Likewise, the Spirit will guide you according the word of God. Any prayer outside the bible might as well be called blasphemy. For whatever we seek ask or need, the scriptures have to be fulfilled. This means that we need to know what the word of God says in order to pray aright. God only hears what is according to His will.
When Jesus was being arrested he said that he could not tell his Father to send legions of angels to save him because that would not be according to scripture. Matthew 26:53, 54.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us- whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of Him" 1 John 5:14