How do I Pray

Rhys — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:02:08 +0000

How Should I Pray

The answer to, “How do I Pray”,

Talk AND Listen

is quite simply this: Prayer is dialog with God [whether Father Son or Holy Spirit]. By definition, dialog is two way, one party talks and the other party listens, then the roles change! It is a conversation. If only one person talks, that is a monologue. If you never stop and listen, you will surely never learn anything!

Our Role

What is our role? It is easy to answer most questions if we use the analogies given in the Bible. In this context the Bible talks about God as our father, and we can easily relate to that image of a child talking to a loved father. We can share our joys, our worries, and our needs, just as we would with a temporal parent.

Prayer Language

Our God designed and built us, so He understands what we say, in whatever language or idiom we may use. Using ‘traditional’ thee, thy, and thou type language is silly – God well knows that we love, respect and revere Him – so we need only to talk naturally, using words we are comfortable with and that we understand.

What to Ask

He also knows, to the last molecule, what we need to keep us running on all cylinders, so we don’t need to ask for things for ourselves – He is a loving father and will always provide what is best for us. I have found that He always supplies my needs in a better way than I would have dared to ask for! You wouldn’t ASK for breakfast at home – it is naturally provided – but you should say, “thank you”, afterward!

Who to ask for

We can always pray for others, whether it be thanks for them or petitions for them. I try not to ‘tell God what to do’ – like I just ask for blessing for a person in need, but never specify what that blessing would be. Our perception of another persons need must always be from incomplete and partial knowledge. We seek His wisdom, just as in finding out How to Preach.

Dialog with God

Remember that prayer is dialog with God and you will have no problem knowing how do I pray!

What to Preach

Rhys — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:15:08 +0000

What Do I Preach – Seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit - You will either already have a conviction, like,

Pray........

You were just meditating, and some light suddenly fell on some scripture or some moral question………..

Or maybe you were talking to someone about some thing and suddenly it all came clear to you…………. And you felt that you just HAD to tell about it.

Or, You will need to seek for conviction

God treats us all as individuals, and He might talk to you in a dream, or words in your head, or in visions and pictures or when you are looking on His handiwork, e.g., a sunset, or when you are browsing thru His Word. It is the ‘still small voice’ that we really need to be very quiet and still to hear.

If prayer can be defined as communing with God, then the conviction you seek will be found in one of the above types of ‘prayer’.

What NOT to DO

Don’t start ‘writing it down and constructing a sermon’ – if God wants you to preach He will give you the conviction to share and the words to express it!

Don’t go looking up information, or reading ‘suitable’ books for inspiration. What happened to other people or in other places is irrelevant to your testimony and can only be second-hand when you tell it!

Our God is creative, He is never stale or boring – He always has a fresh message if we are prepared to look for it.

Do believe, that when He promised to ‘supply all our needs’, that He actually meant just that. Our need of something to share when we preach is no different from our need of food and clothing, and it is easy to trust Him for our ‘daily bread’ – Right?

The Structure of the Message

The order you make your points is the same order that they are given to you – often it is simply following the relevant reading(s) verse by verse.

The Whole Service

If you apply the same contemplative method to the whole service, you will easily find the appropriate songs/hymns to sing and the prayer subjects to use. If others choose the songs – you can rely on His Holy Spirit to guide them to select appropriate praise and worship themes.