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Minister’s Website Article January 2020

Do you struggle with prayer? Find prayer meetings difficult? If you’re like me, you want to have a more dynamic prayer life, and find that organised prayer meetings leave you cold. You want prayer to feel right and good and worthwhile.

I came across an article which I think helps, so I summarised it for the Lynch Chapel Church Meeting. It seemed worth reproducing here. Notice they are suggestions, not rules:

Ten SUGGESTIONS for Prayer

1. In order to see great power in prayer, there must be faith.

See Luke 17:5 and Mark 9:24. In Mark 11, Jesus talks about prayer, putting heavy emphasis on faith and belief. The good news is, you don’t need mountain-moving faith. You can’t hustle up faith; it’s a gift from God. If you are going to pray for something, pray first for faith.

2. Faith doesn’t come quickly, it is a process.

Many ask for a mountain to move when their faith is geared to molehills. Pray that God makes you a BIT kinder than you have been, that you be more faithful in little things, that you be a better parent/friend/partner - not perfect, just better. The faith you receive will help you move to bigger requests.

3. Effective prayer is always within the parameters of God’s will.

See 1 John 5:14-15. If you pray for your enemy’s death, will God grant your request? Of course not. If you pray for a new house, will God grant that request? Maybe. If you pray for a closer walk with him, for the filling of his Spirit, or more love towards those who persecute you, will God grant those requests? Absolutely. The bible says so.

4. Effective prayers are specific.

See James 4:2. The farmer who prayed in the storm, ‘Lord, come and help us! And come yourself - this ain’t no time for boys,’ knew about specific prayers. Tell God what it is you need, you desire, or what concerns you. It is right to be specific and detailed in our requests.

5. Remember that God knows better than you do what is needed.

Billy Graham’s wife said she was pleased God didn’t answer all her prayers, or she would have married someone else. ‘I have tried to thank God,’ said Desmond Tutu, ‘that not all my prayers were answered.’

6. Remember the power of praise.

See Romans 8:28. Something about praising God, even during bad things, opens the gates of heaven. If that’s true, no matter how bad it gets, praise is appropriate. Praise is often the missing ingredient in ineffective prayers.

7. Be obedient (or, at least, want to be obedient) to what God says.

Many mothers of teenagers would say, ‘I don’t tell him what to do any more, because I know he won’t do it.’ A desire for obedience is a sign of your response to God’s love. Without that, it’s hardly worth asking.

8. Keep on praying.

See Luke 18:1-8 and Matthew 7:7-8. The Greek here suggests perseverance and frequency. In other words, ‘Ask, and KEEP ON asking; seek, and KEEP ON seeking; knock and KEEP ON knocking.’

9. Don’t make demands, only make requests.

See Job 42:1-6. This was Job’s problem - he forget that God was God. God knows so much more.

10. God takes your prayers as seriously as you take your prayers.

If your prayers are not important to you, they probably won’t be that important to God. Don’t just assume, like the husband whose wife felt he ought to know things without being told. Remember, this is a relationship. It won’t work if you don’t talk.

Every blessing

Duncan

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