12 Thoughts on Why and How We Should Pray

12 Thoughts on Why and How We Should Pray

Jam 5:16 .... The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

I have been looking through a bunch of Scripture references on prayer tonight and also thoughts on prayer from others ( quotes etc..)

This is really a work in progress I think but I thought I would post what I have so far.  Feel free to share any other thoughts you may have....

#1 It is commanded and exhorted over and over again by Jesus and the Apostles and in the Psalms – in fact, the whole Bible.

See the Bible

#2 It is God’s alternative to worrying/ anxiety.

Phl 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

Phl 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 Don’t “worry pray “ though. Do you know what I mean? That kind of obsessive, nail-biting type prayer that is really more reliant on how “well” we pray rather than on laying the issue before God and leaving it with Him.

#3 Supplication, worship, meditation, thanksgiving , intercession,  personal strengthening,  spiritual warfare etc….  are all communicated via prayer.

See the Bible

#4 Half of prayer is listening to God, not just talking to Him.   It changes us. 

God speaks in the silence of the heart.  Listening is the beginning of prayer.  ~Mother Teresa

Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God’s voice is its most essential part.  Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine. ~ Andrew Murray

Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things.  ~Samuel M. Shoemaker  

#5 It seems that Reading the Bible and praying are almost 2 sides of the same coin. 

By personality some people find it easier to grasp theology and study while others find it easier to grasp the intangible effectiveness of prayer. Both are needed for a well rounded Christian life.

#6 Right and pure motivation are key 

James 4:2 Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
Jam 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures……….

Some people think that prayer just means asking for things, and if they fail to receive exactly what they asked for, they think the whole thing is a fraud.  ~Gerald Vann

Deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it.  You can't pray a lie - I found that out.  ~Mark Twain

#7 It is often necessary to take the obvious practical answer to your prayer 

In other words,  don’t keep praying for rescue from a flood when there is a boater calling out to you.   

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.  ~Frederick Douglass, escaped slave

Call on God, but row away from the rocks.  ~Indian Proverb

#8 Answers vary…

 “Yes” , “No” , “Wait”,  and “I have something even better” are examples….

God does not delay to hear our prayers because He has no mind to give; but that, by enlarging our desires, He may give us the more largely.
~ Anselm of Canterbury

 #9 Through some mysterious design of the Almighty, it allows even the weakest of us to further the Kingdom of God and even to be more effective in our own daily chores.

There is a place where thou canst touch the eyes
Of blinded men to instant, perfect sight;
There is a place where thou canst say, “Arise”
To dying captives, bound in chains of night;
There is a place where thou canst reach the store
Of hoarded gold and free it for the Lord;
There is a place–upon some distant shore–
Where thou canst send the worker and the Word.
Where is that secret place–dost thou ask, “Where?”
O soul, it is the secret place of prayer! ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Work, work, from morning until late at night.  In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer. ~ Martin Luther

#10 It is perhaps the most poignant and powerful form of communication between  brothers and sisters in Christ and also our friends, family, neighbours and enemies  

I will never forget the story of my Great Grandpa Cornelius Harder and his daughter, ( my great aunt) Agatha. It has been handed down through the generations of my family as a testament to faith and prayer.

My great grandfather was an old colony Mennonite man who was very austere. My Aunt Agatha had discovered the grace of Christ and had become a Christian and set about to share this new found faith with her family – but her dad was not easily moved.

One night great grandpa was walking through the garden near his home when he heard some soft murmuring. He went further toward the sound and found his daughter on her knees quietly but passionately pouring out her heart to God that her dad’s eyes would be opened to this truth she had found.

My great grandpa was so moved  by the scene that his defensives crumbled and He soon gave his heart to Christ as well. 

This seemingly small act of prayer forever affected the course of my family.

Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together.  Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other’s hearts in prayer. ~ Charles Finney

#11 There seems to be in all of us,  an innate ability and fervent desire to communicate on this deep level with our Creator. As mentioned before -  It changes us. 

"I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping...... it changes me." 

— C.S. Lewis

I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle.  There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent.  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered.  ~George Meredith Lewis

There come times when I have nothing more to tell God.  If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said.  At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in Thy presence, Lord?  I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence."  ~O. Hallesby

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
~James Montgomery

#12 Jesus did


Imagine the Son of God taking such time and effort to privately "pray".  What was prayer to Him? Apparently intimate communication with His Father.


In His public prayers, He seemed to be speaking as much to His audience as to God.

Mat 14:23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.

Luk 6:12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

See John 17 and also the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

*********

Thank you for perusing this little list of thoughts.....    feel free to add some of your own.

The Prayer the Lord taught us

Mat 6:9 "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.Mat 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as [it is] in heaven.Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.Mat 6:12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 

Mat 6:13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.