Prayer
Hello friend! Welcome to the blog!
Today, I want to talk about prayer! Prayer is so important, and I can’t wait to share why!
To start, I want to share some of my story when it comes to prayer. I used to be so scared to pray: I didn't want to pray in front of my family, or even to God Himself. So, I would plan what I was going to say and try to make it sound super eloquent, and perfect, and seamless. But, if I would stutter or mess-up, (which I usually did because I was so nervous) I would beat myself up, get all sad, and I honestly felt like I was letting God down.
Maybe, this is you right now. Maybe you’ve been struggling with praying confidently, or you don’t know why prayer is so important. I was in the same position! But then I learned that prayer is actually so simple, beautiful, and powerful!
All it is, is talking to God! Prayer isn’t just some religious thing that is super complicated! Prayer is talking to our ABBA (this means Dad, and in Romans 8:15, it says-
“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba Father.”)!
We don’t have to sound perfect in front of God; He just wants us to talk to Him! In the book of Zephaniah, it says that He delights in us! When we pray, we don’t have to give this super long eloquent speech; it can be as simple as saying “Thank you Jesus!”
And that is where the beautiful part of prayer comes in- it cultivates our relationship with God! You can’t have a relationship with someone if you don’t talk to them! And so, when we pray, we are pursuing God, and it is developing and strengthening our relationship with Him!
Another important part of prayer, is listening! Doing what Psalm 46:10 says to do:
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Think of your relationship with your best friend; do you talk the entire time you guys are together? Probably not (if you do you guys are probably not best friends :)). Because if you talk the whole time, then you don’t really know the other person. The same is true with God. Not only does He want us to talk, but He also wants to speak to us! As our ABBA, He wants to lead, direct, and comfort us! He wants to share His heart and desires with us! We just need to give Him room to speak! I asked my pastors how they describe prayer, and they mentioned this quote from Corey Russel:
“There is a direct connection to us listening to God speak and our authority speaking for Him.”
When we pray and then listen to God’s voice, He gives us authority to speak! He will lay things on our hearts, and He gives us that authority to share those with others through prayer!
At first, it may be hard to distinguish God’s voice from our own. But as we read our Bibles and pray more, then we will be able to hear and recognize the voice of God better! Because both of these things cultivate our relationship with Him!
Prayer is also SO POWERFUL! In James 5:16 it says that:
“The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results!”
Prayer is talking to God, but it is also a conversation that engages your faith! When you pray, you are saying “Lord, I apply my faith to this situation!” You are trusting the Lord, giving Him control, and believing Him for the results! In 1 Thessalonians it even says to never stop praying! Let’s not sleep on the power of our prayers! If we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can even move mountains! (Matthew 17:20) Sometimes though, we may not see immediate results. Does that mean we give up on prayer? NO! The Lord still hears us, answers prayers, and fights for us! God’s timing is His, and it is perfect! He may be doing stuff in the spiritual and behind the scenes that we can’t see! Prayer CHANGES things! Not only your situations, prayer changes YOU!
I also want to mention this- never limit your prayers because you think you're sinful or undeserving. Don’t be ashamed to pray! In fact, that is what you SHOULD be doing, praying and pursuing the Lord! We are all human, we all fall short, but the important step is turning away from that sin- and turning TO God!
Now, you may be thinking- Ella this is all great, but how do I even start praying? Well, I gottu :)
The A.C.T.S prayer model is a great guide to follow to start praying!
A: Adoration- Start your prayer by adoring God for who He is! (God you are my: Creator, Savior, Prince of Peace, Living Hope, King of Kings, Father, Provider, Best Friend, Healer, Teacher, Counselor, Hope, Strength, Foundation, etc.)
C: Confession- Admit your sin, repent, and then ask for forgiveness! (All repentance is, is turning away from sin and disobedience and turning to God and obedience to Him, His Word and His Ways!)
T: Thanksgiving- Thank God for who He is and what He has done! (It is so important to take time to be grateful! We don’t want to just come to God with a list of requests and needs. Jesus has already done more than enough by dying on the cross for our sins, and there are new reasons to be thankful every day! So let’s come to Him with praise and thanksgiving!)
S- Supplication- Giving your requests to God! (As our Dad, the Lord wants to help us! All we need to do is draw near to Him, and He will draw near to us!)
You don’t have to make every single prayer look exactly like this- this is just a little guide to help you start your prayer journey!
I also recommend going on prayer walks! In 1 Peter 5:7 it says to “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.” I love to go on these walks and put that verse into action! Whatever has been stressing me out, or making me anxious, I give to God! I usually do this in the morning, and just talk to God like He is my friend! (Because He is! He’s my best friend in fact!:)) God truly moves on these prayer walks- and whenever I go a day without one I can tell the difference!
So let’s talk to God today! Wherever you are or go, invite the Lord into your day! Let’s do what Philippines tells us to do- not worry about anything but pray about everything! Because He is your Best Friend, Father, and Savior: who wants to have a relationship with you!
Thank you so much for reading friend! I hope this helped and inspired you to start your prayer journey! My challenge for us this week is to go on a 15 minute prayer walk every day! Stay tuned for October 26’s blog post! I love ya’ll so much, and Jesus loves you more!
