Praying

Click this link to listen to the audio message – Ephesians 6:10-20

We're going to talk about how to pray this morning. One of the very basic things about the Christian life is praying.

Prayer really is important. We talk a lot about prayer and we throw the word around but prayer is a tremendous power. Prayer activates the power of God. God moves in response to the prayers of His people.

And not only that, prayer lines us up properly with God. When we're told to pray, we are told to pray in the Spirit. Now what it means to pray in the Spirit is to pray consistently with the Spirit of God.

So prayer not only moves God to act but prayer is to align us with the will and purpose of God. When we pray in the will of God or in accord with God's will we are lining up with His purposes.

Prayer really does change things. Prayer is effective. We would say that prayer is simply is talking to God.

One of the things that happens when a baby comes into a family is that the first thing you want the baby to do is...what? You want to communicate with the baby, right? You want some response, and that's the same as a Christian.

The thing that happens when you become a Christian is immediately you're thrown into an environment with God when you have a tremendous desire to communicate with Him, to respond and say the things that are on your heart.

Now that's all prayer is. Prayer isn’t buying a little book and reciting whatever it says. That isn't prayer. Prayer is communing with God. It's just conversation like you talk to anybody. It isn't a whole lot of thees and thous and such, it's not a vocabulary contest to see who can say the most theological words without taking a breath. It isn't that at all.

Prayer is not vain repetition. It's not, "Please, oh do this, oh I beg You, I beg You, I beg You, you know, please do this, please." You don't need to beg like that. The Pharisees had endless repetition. Prayer isn't that either. It's not saying 48 Hail Marys in a row, the same thing over and over again. God isn't deaf and He heard you the first time.

Prayer is simply conversation.

And sometimes in your life you may say, "God, it's sure a nice day and I hope You're enjoying it like I am and I just want to thank You for it." That's a significant a prayer as if you stood up in a pulpit and said a bunch of theology because all you're doing is communing with God.

When we read the Bible, God talks to us. When we pray, we talk to Him. And you've got to have both sides or you don't have conversation. Nobody likes a one sided conversation.

Now all Christians pray. We all talk to God sometimes. We don't all pray right. We don't all pray the way we ought to. A lot of Christians pray wrong.

In the first place, we spend a lot of time asking for stuff we don't need. Did you ever know that? "Lord, give me this, give me that, give me that," and the Lord knows if He gave it to us it would only mess us up so He doesn't.

So, prayer is simply communing with God. It’s simply talking to God. It isn't to be sophisticated, it isn't to be formal or informal, it's just anything. Paul says in Ephesians 6:18, "Praying always with all kinds of prayer." Any kind of prayer.

You could be crying out, "O God, help me" in a terrible time of stress. Or you could be saying, "Lord, this is a terrific day, I'm really happy, I just want You to know I'm checking in. Thanks!"

That's prayer. Any kind of communion with God at any point, at any level, on any subject...communion with God is prayer.

Now you don't have to close your eyes. It really doesn't matter, the Bible says you can pray with your eyes lifted up to heaven. It says you can pray with your hands lifted up. It says you can pray kneeling, you can pray bowing, you can lie down and pray, you can stand up, you can pray while you're walking, sitting, whatever.

Often times we close our eyes and teach our children to close their eyes during prayer to simply block out distractions from our surrounds. Although I must say if you are praying while driving, don’t close your eyes.

Incidentally, you can pray to anybody in the trinity you want. You can pray to God. You can pray to Christ. You can talk to the Holy Spirit. Or you can say, "I want all of You to listen here, I have something to say to all of You." So you can call them all in there.

Let me give you an illustration of how this communion with God really works.

You're going through your day and you're just minding your own business. You see something good. You see a clear day, you see a lovely little child or you hear a friend call you on the phone and you think about the love of that friend.

Or maybe you look at the person you love and you just say, "Isn't that great," so what do you do? What's your first reaction? Thank You, Lord, for that. You're seeing things in relation to God.

You see everything in relation to God and you converse with Him about it.

Or maybe you see a problem and you say, "Lord, here's a problem, deliver us from the problem, solve the problem, gain glory from the problem." You see, in other words, everything it is, good, bad, indifferent, whatever it is, you see it in the light of God.

It becomes something for which you can talk to God. That's praying. It isn't just mumbling all through the day some little words, or praying some special prayer. It's just relating everything that goes on in your life through the day to the presence of God, He's there.

You can all think of a best friend you have, maybe it's your husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend, or whatever. But think of the best friend. And imagine your best friend was with you today all day by your side.

You had the whole day with your best friend, or the person you love most. And that person never left your side this entire day. And you talked to that person today just as many times as you talked to Christ today.

How much conversation did you have with them? How would your friend feel if he spent the whole day with you and you never said a word and he was there the whole time? Well it would be a little ridiculous, wouldn't it?

It would probably be the start of the end of your friendship. You would at least acknowledge that they were there and you would begin to see things in the light of the presence of your friend. You'd say, "Hey, isn't that terrific? Did you see that? Isn't that too bad, you know, we ought to do something about that."

You're relating everything to the presence of your friend. That's how it is in prayer. All you're doing is relating everything to the presence of God and that's a God conscious attitude and that's praying without ceasing.

Closing Prayer

We thank you Lord for the gift and blessing of communication with You. We thank you that you are always there for us. Help us to always be there for you too.
AMEN.