As Christians, we know we should pray.  From listening to sermons and from reading Bible, we have the sense that we should be taking time out to talk to God.  We look around us and we see a few people praying.  Pastors are always praying – but that is their job, right?  And we see the super-spiritual types praying, those people who seem much farther down the road than we are.

But we may not be a pastor.  We may not be one of those super-spiritual types.  Should we be praying too?  Should prayer be a regular habit?  Is prayer something that is required of Christians?  Is talking to God something that all Christians – not just the turbo ones – are commanded to do?

The Bible gives us a few intersecting lines to look at in regards to this question.

The Bible Models Prayer for Us

Old Testament Examples

It seems reasonable that if prayer is something vital to our spiritual health and joy, then Biblical characters would be people of prayer.  If talking to God is important, we will see it demonstrated by those characters so familiar to us.  Let start in the beginning of the Bible and take a look.

In Genesis 20, Abraham has lied to King Abimelech about his wife by saying she was her sister.  Abimelech takes her as a wife.  The whole issue gets sorted out after some angst, and the story ends with Abraham praying for Abimelech, “Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so they bore children.  For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.” (Genesis20:17-18, ESV) Shortly thereafter, Abraham’s son Isaac prayed, “And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren.  And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.”  (Genesis 25:21, ESV)

The great Moses, of the Red Sea fame, was no stranger to prayer.  Pharaoh, surrounded by the plague of flies, pleads with Moses to take them away.  “So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.” (Exodus 8:30, ESV) When the nation of Israel angered God yet again, Moses interceded, “Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down.”  (Numbers 11:2, ESV) Then take a look at Psalm 90. We are told in the opening notes that Moses wrote this Psalm.

Hannah was a woman deeply distressed by her inability to have children.  Not only a personal tragedy, but in that culture, a public humiliation.  Her response was a heartfelt pouring out to God of her feelings and desires, “She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.”  (1 Samuel 1:10, ESV)

King David, the man described as a man after God’s own heart, was certainly a man of prayer.  As the author of a great many of the Psalms, it is clear he knew how to pray.

The prophets were mouthpieces God used to communicate to his people.  As such, they were well versed in speaking on behalf of God.  Yet, they also spoke to him as well.  Surrounded by an army holding ill intent, “Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O LORD, please open his (the opposing general’s) eyes that he may see.’  So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”  (2 Kings 6:17, ESV, parenthesis mine)

The prophet Nehemiah was in the presence of King Artaxerxes – his boss – and he was sad.  We all have had moments of sadness, but bringing such melancholy before this king was strictly verboten.  The king noticed, and confronted Nehemiah with it.  Nehemiah confesses he is bothered by the condition of Jerusalem, the home of his people.  Nehemiah relates what happens next when he says “. . . the king said to me, ‘What are you requesting?’  So I prayed to the God of heaven.” (Nehemiah 2:4, ESV) Nehemiah asks God for help in a moment of crisis and confrontation.

Daniel was in the habit of praying.  His friends knew it.  His enemies knew it.  He was so committed to his habit, and to his God, that his enemies convinced the king to ban prayer to anything except himself for thirty days.  “When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem.  He got down on his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” (Daniel 6:10, ESV)

New Testament Examples

Our Lord and savior Jesus Christ was himself a man of prayer.  Luke tells us, “. . . he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”  (Luke 5:16, ESV) Several times we are told of Jesus going up mountain to pray.  The night before he goes to the cross, he prays in Gethsemane.  Jesus talked often with his Father.

Like his mentor, Peter had picked up the habit of going off by himself to pray.  “The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.”  (Acts 10:9)

Paul was another person who conversed frequently with the Lord.  In many of his letters he speaks of his prayers for his readers.  He tells the Roman believers, “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers . . .” (Romans 1:9-10a, ESV)  To the Ephesian church he writes, “. . . I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers  . . .” (Ephesians 1:16, ESV)  In a touching letter to his protégé Timothy, Paul tells him, “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.” (2 Timothy 1:3, ESV)

We could speak of numerous other examples of believers praying to the heavenly Father.  This list is by no means exhaustive.  The Bible records in its pages many other characters who converse with God.

Looking at the example of all of these men and women, spanning thousands of years and throughout the story of the Bible, it is becoming clear that the example God’s people set for us is that God’s people pray.  If your bracelet says WWJD – What Would Jesus Do? – it is clear that at least one of the things he would do is pray.  If you had a bracelet that read WWMPBD – What Would Most People in the Bible Do? – the answer remains the same.

God’s people pray.

Example is not enough

The pages of scripture contain a great many examples of people who pray.  We have examined some of them.  But, some of us might advise caution.  An example cannot always be a command.  After all, for many of these characters, the Bible also records their major failures.  Failures which include adultery and murder.  No one looks at the presence of these actions in the Bible and construes a command.

This gets us down to brass tacks.  Does the Bible actually command believers to converse with God?

The Bible’s Commands to Pray

As it turns out, the Bible does command Christians to pray.

Paul closes his first letter to the Thessalonian church with a list of things they need to remember to do.  On that list is a short sentence on prayer, “. . . pray without ceasing . . .” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, ESV) This command is pretty clear.  Pray.  We must pray.  Occasional prayer is not enough.  Prayer during just times of crisis is insufficient.  We must pray without ceasing.  We must be constant and fervent in our prayer.  The God of the universe wants you talk to him – regularly.

Jesus also issues a directive to pray.  He prefaces one of his parables by saying, “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1, ESV) The parable he goes on to share helps people understand that they need to pray, and pray a lot.  He proceeds to tell the parable of the persistent widow.

The parable is the story of a widow who is being oppressed and appeals to a judge for justice.  This judge does not fear God or people.  He is not motivated by a love for God, and he does not care what other will think about him for ignoring the widow.  So, he ignores her at first.  But the widow keeps coming to him seeking justice.  He resists for a while, but ultimately gives in – only to get her to go away.  Jesus implies we need to be like the widow.  We must pray.  And we must pray frequently.  We should pray so much that God could identify with the judge.

For good measure, Paul adds a few more commands to pray.  To the Colossians he says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 4:2, ESV) Clearly an imperative: pray.  Pray faithfully.  Be sure to be grateful and give thanks as well.

To the church in Philippi he pens one of the more familiar passages on prayer, “. . . do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  (Philippians 4:6, ESV)  A word of encouragement to many.  Great hope comes from being told to not worry and ask God for your requests.  Make no mistake though, the word in the original Greek for “let your requests be made known” is in the imperative.  This is an encouragement, but also a command.

At a fundamental level then, prayer is a matter of obedience.  The Word of God commands us to pray.  We must strive to become people of prayer.

The Command is Paired with a Promise

For some people, reading the above may have just been a “bad news first” moment.  Already stretched by life’s demands, we are now adding something else to the to-do list.  We might feel like our burden just got a little heavier.

This is a normal response.  Theologian John Calvin knows this is a common response, and in his Institutes of the Christian Religion he points us to hope.  He acknowledges the command to pray.  He Calvin also points out that the command to pray is paired with promise.

Preaching his sermon on the mount, Jesus tells his disciples, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11, ESV)

What an amazing promise.  Especially for someone who has just been ordered to pray.  Yes, we have to pray, but we are also promised that God will answer our prayers.  Prayer is not intended to be some empty ritual that we do simply because we must.  It is intended to be powerful experince.  And it is intended to be effective.  What we seek in God’s presence – we will find!  What we ask for – we will get!  Our time conversing with God will have meaning far beyond rote ritual.

Jesus’ promise is a broad overarching promise to make our prayer effective.  God’s Word reveals many other, more specific promises in regards to prayer.  In the Psalms, Asaph tells us of God’s promise to hear our prayers: “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.” (Psalm 77:1, ESV)

The apostle Paul reminds the church in Philippi, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:19) This verse appears on a lot of coffee mugs, but it is still true.  God promises to meet our needs.

The pages of God’s word include other promise in regards to our prayer life.  One is God’s promise to guide us (Psalm 31:3).  Another is his promise to give us wisdom when we ask (James 1:5).  One of the most comforting to me is the promise to always forgive us when we confess our sins (1 John 1:9).

These promises change everything.

Promises and Lottery Tickets

Imagine I had the power to order people around.  Then imagine that I ordered people to purchase lottery tickets every day.  Most peoples’ response would be negative.  Why?  People’s response would be negative because they know they are not going to win.  The odds are too great.  Any normal person would be angered by a command to waste significant time, effort, and money pursuing something that would not benefit them in any way.

Many people think about prayer in the same way.

But imagine that along with the power to order people to purchase lottery tickets I also had the power to guarantee that you would win a large amount of money every time you played.  Purchasing our lottery tickets would jump straight to the top of our daily to-do list.  Why? – because we now expect the time, effort and money expended to be richly rewarded.

God’s promises in regards to prayer are just like the guarantee for the lottery tickets.  These promises mean that we will attain what we are seeking.  We will not be wasting our time or efforts – because God promises to hear and answer.

Exchange Our Lottery Tickets for Plane Tickets

These promises are great news to us who don’t have a consistent prayer life up and running.  This pairing of command and promise allows us change our whole conception of prayer.  Gone is the idea that we must endure drudgery and rote ritual.  In its place we have the idea of hopeful expectation.  Praying is not buying a lottery ticket.  It is buying a plane ticket.  We buy plane tickets with the expectation of getting somewhere.  We can now pray with the same expectation.

So, let’s embrace our responsibility to pray.  Embrace it with hope.  And start praying.  Or start again.

The post Do We Have to Pray? Is Prayer Recommended – or Commanded? appeared first on One Year Prayer Experiment.

I like to be prepared.  My wife would say sometimes I like to be over prepared.  The words, “Just get on with it” have been launched my way more than once.  But before I launch out on this experiment I really want to get at least a few tracks to run on as to how to pray.  I know there are many techniques and strategies for prayer out there.  Where does one begin?

To anyone who knows me, they would not be surprised that I found the answer to this one in a book.  For a question this important, I went straight to the most important book on the subject:  the Bible.

In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus instructs his disciples with the following words:

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  (Matthew 6:9-15, ESV)

This is the famous Lord’s Prayer.  Many people have heard it.  Many of us have prayed it.  I prayed it almost every night as a child.  It is familiar.  It is comforting.  But what many people don’t realize is that Jesus is not here giving us a prayer to recite, but a model for prayer.  The opening words clue us in to this.  Pray then like this.  Pray this way.  I like how the New International Version translates it as “This, then, is how you should pray . . .”  Jesus gives us, in the lines of this familiar prayer, an outline to guide us in our prayer.

The Essential Elements of a Healthy Prayer Life According to Jesus

Let’s work our way through this prayer, taking a look at each part and learning what our times of prayer need to include.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Hallowed is a word we don’t often use anymore.  As I think about it, the only time I have ever heard the word used was to refer to the hallowed halls of something or other.  The word was being used to indicate that this hall was special.  It was different from other halls.  Worthy of notice.

This usage is not far off from what Jesus is trying to teach us.  The word hallowed comes from a Greek word that means to make holy, or to set something apart as holy.  To recognize God as holy – or hallowed – is to recognize that He is something special.  To acknowledge that His name is distinct from and superior to all other names.

In prayer, this is simply praise to God.  To make hallowed his name is to praise him.  Lift him up.  Acknowledge his attributes.  Give glory to God.

Recognize however that praise is different from thanksgiving.  To give thanks to God is to express gratitude for what he has done.  “Thank you Lord for providing the money I needed to pay for the rent.”  To praise God is to extol him for who he is.  “God, you are a generous God who provides for his people exactly what they need.”

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus preached often about the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is the presence and rule of God.  In the kingdom, life is the way God intended it to be:  full of love, justice and peace.  The world clearly is not that way now.  This makes sense when we understand that the New Testament gives us a picture of the kingdom as one that has started, but has not yet been fully realized.  The kingdom of God has broken in to our world, but it does not yet encompass all.  The kingdom is present and it is growing.

Our prayers then need to be that the world will look increasingly like his kingdom.  We should pray that his people act more and more like citizens of this kingdom.  That his people do his will.  And we should pray that the world around us will see how we treat each other and join us in creating a place like the kingdom of God.

The prayer for the kingdom to come is where we pray for justice and unity.

“Give us this day our daily bread,”

Jesus tells us to ask for daily bread.  I need to eat to stay alive.  You probably do too.  Jesus acknowledges needs.  He knows we need food, water, heat, and shelter.  He knows we need money to pay the rent and buy medicine.  Jesus knows we have needs.  And he tells us to pray for them.  It is right to take our needs to God.

Ask God to supply what is needed.  Ask specifically.  If one needs $200 more to pay the rent, boldly pray for $200.  Pray confidently.  Wait patiently.

Before you start running through the want list with God though, we must make sure to discern between needs and wants.  A bigger TV is not a need.  Money to keep the heat on during an Upper Peninsula Michigan winter is a need.  Money to keep the cable TV going over those winter months is not.  Be discerning.  God promises to meet our needs.  He never promises to give us everything we want.  Remember, he is the sovereign God of the universe who is working out his plan.  He is not Santa Clause.

As we become practiced in praying, do not forget to recognize when God answers prayer.  I used to think God never answered many of my prayers.  Then I was given a challenge.  A mentor challenged me to write down what I prayed for and check the list every time I prayed.  Turns out, if I slowed down the rate of requests just enough to remember what I asked for, I started to see that God actually was answering prayers and working around me.  So, remember what you prayed for, and recognize the answered prayers.  Then express your gratitude.  Tell your generous Father in heaven “Thank You!”

“and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Jesus tells us to ask God to forgive us our debts.  He is not telling us to ask God to get us out of financial trouble.  Nor is he telling us to ask him to make our credit card bills go away.  He is talking about the personal debts we owe to him.  These debts are the debts that accrue when we sin.

Every one of us has all sinned.  We can all think about something we should have done – but did not.  We can also probably remember something we should not have done – but did anyway.  This willful sin builds up a debt between us and our Heavenly Father.  This sin does not take away our salvation.  Our relationship with God is fixed and secure because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.  Our fellowship with God, however, our ability to connect and enjoy our relationship with God, is disrupted by this sin.

The solution to this disruption is to ask God to forgive us our debts.  It is to confess to God our sins.  To confess our sin means to openly admit what we did and agree with God that is was wrong.  Then repent – commit to turn away from that sin.  After confessing any sin we are aware of, continue to commune with God with a clear conscience.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

There is a war going on around us.  We cannot always see it.  Swirling around us is a violent conflict between Satan and his demons versus the Kingdom of God.  These enemies concentrate on wreaking havoc in the lives of believers.

Jesus tells us to pray for protection.  Pray that we will not be led into temptation.  Ask God for the wisdom to recognize a trap laid by the enemy.  Ask for the courage to walk away from the trap, regardless of how inviting it looks.  Pray that you don’t fall for the lies.

Jesus tells us also to pray for deliverance.  Our enemies will not only launch temptations at us, they may try to afflict us more directly.  Ask God to shield us from the assaults of the enemy.  Pray that God will keep the enemy at bay, at a great enough distance to not be able to harm you.

Be forewarned.  If you decide to embark on a prayer challenge of your own, if you decide to try to become a person of prayer, expect the attack to come.  Know the enemy does not want you to pray.  The enemy does not want us to feel close to or connected to God.  As we try to move closer to God, expect the enemy to try to move us apart.  So, make sure to pray for protection.

A Balanced Prayer Life

We are presented with the essential elements of a balanced prayer life in the Lord’s Prayer:  praise, justice and unity, personal requests, confession, and protection from the enemy. 

This understanding of prayer is so much more diverse and engaging than my early understanding of what prayer was.  Early on, I understood prayer as only making requests to God.  Honestly, I was dumbfounded when I heard about people who prayed for hours.  How could you spend hours just asking God for things?  It made no sense to me how anyone without an iron will would be able to that.  Or even desire to.  But expanding my understanding of prayer with all these different categories changes my expectations of prayer.  Praying like this can be a much more relational experience.  It can be a much more engaging experience.

As I look to renovate my prayer life, this outline presented by Jesus will serve as the tracks I run on.  I will strive to incorporate each of these components into my daily time of prayer.  And that 30 minutes figure seems a lot less daunting when I realize I only need to pray for six minutes in each one to reach my goal!

Go to our Tool Box page and download a simple one-page guide to praying the way Jesus showed us that you can print out and use to give you tracks to run on as you pray.

The post How to Pray | Jesus’ Guide to Prayer appeared first on One Year Prayer Experiment.

It sounds like such a simple question.  The answer is often simply assumed.  But I think it is vital to clearly define what prayer is.

First of all, I am committing to doing it for 30 minutes everyday for the next year.  I need to make sure that what I spend my time doing really is prayer.  Good accountability depends on good definitions.  It is no different with prayer.  So before I pray for 182.5 hours and report back to you about it, let’s clearly define what prayer is.

Answering this question is also made difficult by the fact that there is no one passage in the Bible that clearly defines prayer.  We see the Word command us to pray, teach us how to pray and tell us about people praying.  Yet, there is nowhere in the text do we find a clear answer to the question of “what is prayer?”

We will use as a starting place the definition of prayer most people carry with them.

“Prayer is just talking to God”

The most common definition of prayer, and likely the first one in our heads, is that prayer is simply talking to God.  What I like about this definition is that it is so simple.  The practice of prayer really is summed up in that phrase – when we pray we talk to God.

This common definition however is a little bit reductionist.  It is a little one-directional.  “I” talk “to God.”  Someone else we only talk to comes to mind:  Santa Clause.  Who has ever stopped to listen to Santa Clause?  Has anyone ever asked Santa what he wanted for Christmas?  Do we know of anyone who has been encouraged by the man in red?  Or confronted by him for those acts that warrant the naughty list?  Such one-sided communication does not result in a relationship of any depth or meaning.

Aside from shallowness, the unfortunate reality seems to be that simply defining prayer as talking to God leads to two other problems.  First, practicing this definition of prayer can lead to one just rattling off our list of desires.  I do know what else to talk about, so I will just ask you for things.  That’s a prayer life that is hard to get excited about.  And one that is hard to sustain.  Especially if God is not granting all – or any – of your requests.

Second, putting this definition of prayer into practice can just lead to babbling.  We all have that friend who can talk for an hour and never talk about something substantive.  The same thing can happen with God.  Unsure what to say, but motivated, we just start talking.  God, let me tell you about my day . . . There is a time and place for processing your day with the Lord.  But words with out substance are just words.  Just like an hour with our babbling friend does not result in much of a relational connection, many words do not connect us to our Savior.

“Prayer is a conversation with God”

Bill Bright was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, an international parachurch ministry now known as Cru.  In many of his discipleship writings he expanded the definition of prayer.  Bill Bright said prayer is having a conversation with God.  This is a wonderful expansion of the definition of prayer.  It strongly emphasizes the relational aspect of prayer.  Prayer now becomes a two-way exchange.  We communicate to God.  God communicates to us.  We have questions.  He can answer.  We seek guidance.  He can lead.

This definition makes it okay for us to have a tough day and tell him, “Lord, I have had a tough day.  Let me tell you about it . . .”  But after we have vented to him – because it is a conversation and not a monologue – God can respond.  He may speak words of hope and encouragement into our hearts.  He might remind us of the help he offers through the Holy Spirit.  The Lord might even speak conviction into your life.

As foreign as this may seem, a beautiful give and take can occur in our times of prayer.  Through conversations with our loved ones, we truly know and become known.  Through our conversations with our heavenly master, we become known by God and we know him.

Qualifiers not useful to the definition of payer

As we expand and refine the definition of prayer, there is a strong temptation to start adding other qualifiers to the definition.  Most of these qualifiers will take the form of a “how.”  We have conversations with God “by going into our room by ourselves and closing the door,” or by getting on our knees,” and so on.  The difficulty with these types of qualifiers is that it confuses the question of “what” with the question of “how.”  These are two very different questions.  Don’t fret, the church often struggles with sorting between these two.

Communication between two spouses is a great illustration.  The goal of communication is that thoughts, feelings and desires are shared between two people.  This is the “what.”  But let’s say we decide that we can only talk to our spouse in the early morning.  And we can only share with our spouse while on our knees.  This is a rather silly example, but it clearly illustrates the idea.  A husband can obviously share with his wife while he sits on the couch with her, while they hike in the forest, or while they ride in a car together.  Defining the “what” too narrowly with too many “how’s” is a mistake.  It excludes many legitimate expressions of communication.  So, we will not burden the definition of prayer with qualifiers that amount only to technique.

Qualifiers useful to the definition of prayer

A different type of qualifier, however, can be wise to include in the definition of prayer.  A qualifier that does not define techniques, but defines heart attitudes, is prudent to include in the definition of prayer.  Back to our married couple trying to communicate.  To say that communication is, “pausing from life to give our undivided attention to the other spouse and to share thoughts feelings and desires” is a strong, clear, and flexible definition.  Again, it allows our couple to talk while at dinner, in the car, or on the couch.  But it does not allow meaningful communication to happen while the husband is engrossed in the game on TV.  It does not allow it to occur when the wife is busy trying to get dinner on the table.  There are two such heart attitudes we think are important to include in our definition of prayer.

Authenticity

The first heart attitude that is vital to include in a definition of prayer is authenticity.  Some people are not honest when they talk to others.  Be it our of fear, mistrust, insecurity or whatever, these people cannot be honest with others.  People are the same way with God.  In their hearts they say, “I really feel this way _____, but God would not approve of that.  So, I will pray like everything is ok.”  Other times, in a group that prays together, we will listen to each other pray.  Then someone will pray, and we can tell when they are not trying to communicate with God, but instead are trying to impress everyone else in the room.  The fact is, God can detect a lack of authenticity.

God knows everything.  Including what we think and what we feel.  So be honest.  Job was a stellar example.  We will take a more in depth look at him later, but what impresses us is how he managed to spend a fair amount of time shaking his fist at God – but never pointing his finger at him.  He was able to be honest with God about his tough circumstances, but he did not go straight to angry accusations.  So be real.  Inauthentic prayer is a waste of everyone’s time.  It takes an intensely relational experience and hollows it out into mere ritual.

Enter into his presence

The other heart attitude that we will add is entering into his presence.  Many of us will hear this and think of the verse where Jesus told his listeners to go in to their room and close the door and pray in secret.  Some will cry foul and accuse me of trying to go against what I just said and include a technique in my definition:  solitude.  Going off by yourself can be a great help in prayer.  Solitude greatly reduces

distractions.  Solitude is an environment where it is easy to focus on God.  But, I will admit that many times I have set aside some time to be in a place all by myself to pray – and been totally distracted.  It just happens sometimes.  Life is stressful.  Deadlines pile up at work.  We fall behind at school.  The kids.  The bills.  Sitting by myself in a room and stressing – without really talking to the one who can do something about all of it – should not count as prayer.

In the same way, I have had times in other places where I have been able to clear my mind, focus clearly on God and have a wonderful time of connection with the Father.  I have had such times of prayer pedaling away on a road bike, zooming down the freeway, and sitting in a busy coffee shop.  Given these examples, it is clear then that solitude does not automatically equal quality prayer.  The ability to calm our mind and free ourselves from distraction is the key.  This is a heart issue.  We need to be able to trust God enough with our schedule and our needs that we are able to stop charging through life long enough to quietly and calmly just be with Him.

Our definition of prayer

Having worked through all these aspects of what it means to pray, we settle upon this definition of prayer:

Prayer is entering into God’s presence and having an authentic conversation with him.

When we sit down to pray, we must enter into his presence.  We must clear our mind of worry and distractions and clearly focus on communicating with the Father.  Once in his presence, we must talk to Him – honestly and openly.  From the heart.  And we must also pause to listen to him.

This definition sounds really cool.  It sounds like if I could learn to do this, my whole experience of the Christian walk would be radically different.  This definition also sounds challenging.  This does not sound like this is something we can figure out in a few days.  But I do think it will be worth it.  I hope it is.

Finding out is really what this experiment is about.

The post What is Prayer? Nailing Down What it Means to Talk to God appeared first on One Year Prayer Experiment.