What is prayer? The simplest definition is that its communication with God.

I don’t know about you, but I love talking to friends. There’s always something refreshing and engaging in having a conversation with our dear friends. And generally if we have good friends, we make an effort to talk to them regularly. Well we should at any rate!

We have a great friend in Our Lord and Our friend and He wants to communicate with us too.

How do we communicate (pray) with our Lord? On our knees? Standing? Pray loud? Pray quietly or Internally? Pray by prepared scripts or spontaneously?

While I don’t think there’s any one right way to pray, I think sometimes it is good to be on our knees, to display our reverence to the Holy God we serve.

And He has told us to come boldly to the throne of Grace, so I guess we should spontaneously bring our qualms or our praise to the very feet of God instead of waiting for gold gilt invitation (which He has already given us). Pre-prepared prayers or scripts of prayer, while effective if heartfelt, can come off a bit dry and stifled in a sense of religious duty.

Imagine if we walked into our friends room and start declaring to them, “oh Holy Deity, I have come into your presence with great piousness.” How do you think that friend would react. Probably along the lines of “what are you on about?”

Don’t get us wrong, Praising God is a great way to start prayer, but we’ve come to communicate with Him, not deliver a speech to Him. God created us individuals with individual expression.

Jesus did give us a way to pray.

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come thy will be done,

on earth is it is in heaven.

give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,

and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,

For Thyne is the kingdom and power and Glory for ever and ever Amen

He gave us a great template for our prayers, a template that can be used in any situation. How does this sound?

My Lord, My Friend, it is in you I live and have my life and I know how awesome you are. (Praise Him. Don’t butter Him up out of a sense of religious duty, but share your heart with how you feel toward Him)

Give me today the resources I need to be to be your hands and feet. (Petition Him, for the things you think you need. Remember He knows what you want more than you do. I don’t think there’s anything as powerful as praying that He give you the tools to carry out His work on earth.)

Forgive me Dear Lord for there have been times when I have not done my best in everything you require of me. (Don’t be afraid of being specific. Naming and shaming the sin in your life is a great way of releasing it’s hold over you.)

Lord I forgive the people who have wronged me, hurt me and think evil of me. (Once again, be specific, and free them from the wrong they have caused you. There is nothing more powerful than to recognize when someone has hurt you and release it to God, to work all things for better into good.)

Lead me so I don’t go into places you would not like me to go, protect me Lord from the evils of this world. (Ask him to guide you along your walk with Him. If you have big decisions to make, this is a great place to get his opinion on it. He holds the road map for your life. It just makes sense to stop and ask for directions.)

For your Kingdom is the place I want to live now and for ever. Amen (Finish with sincere thanks and praise)

Be yourself, before Him. He loves you as an individual and wants you to live in relationship with Him.

Talk regularly to Him, He will never leave you or forsake you.

He cares too much about you to ever do that!

Old fellow John

God Bless

*Please feel free to message us your prayer requests. We would love to join with you in your prayers.