Prayer is something I love but this wasn't always the case. I used to be extremely intimidated by prayer. When I was a little girl, I thought prayers had to be long & very formal with big words that needed Webster to define them. I believed that somehow when I was grown my prayers would naturally morph into a liturgical ballad. As I got older, my angst for praying grew as I felt like everyone around me could pray amazing prayers, hear clearly from the Lord & speak words that made angels stop in amazement.
My desire to have a good line of communication with God, however, spurred me on to keep at it. After reading countless books on prayer, I began to gain understanding that prayer is an intimate & crucial part of our relationship with our Father who loves us. Practically, I forced myself to pray in group settings, to spend time praying daily & keep a prayer journal. I also learned to love praying scripture, which has been the key for me to unlock consistent & perpetual prayer with God.
I have 2 kids & I love it when they talk to me. They have completely different styles of communication. One is bold & says everything that comes to mind, the other is more analytical about words & gives me pieces of thoughts over time.
Either way, I don’t care. If my kids want to talk to me, I am willing to listen. I don’t care if it’s about deep details of their day or silly antics of time spent with friends. I just want them to tell me about it.
God is the same way. He understands we all have different ways of communicating with Him because He created us all differently. He doesn’t care how you communicate; He just desires that you do it regularly.
We need a prayer life that is persistent enough to keep discouragement from derailing us
He wants us to keep praying, keep talking, and keep communicating. His desire is for us to tell Him the good, the bad & the ugly. We need the kind of prayer life that believes that God wants more for us than we could ever imagine. {Ephesians 3:20-21}
We must stop over-spiritualizing prayer by making it all about religion & begin to measure ourselves through the eyes of God to make it all about relationship. He sees us as His righteous child. He wants to hear from us & He doesn’t compare us, or our prayers, to anyone else.
Here are some things I’ve learned about communication with the Father:
A willing heart is all it takes ~ Take a tip from Nike & Just Do It! Start with a few words, start with the Lord’s Prayer, start by writing out things you can thank God for, but just start. You would never dream of having any relationship with a human being that you didn’t talk to. God is your Father & your Friend & if you do not talk to Him, your relationship can’t grow. Ask Him to show you how to make prayer a more comfortable action in your life. {2 Corinthians 8:10-12, Colossians 4:2}
Let God’s words be your words ~ Jesus Himself gave His disciples words to pray. If Jesus pointed people to pray scripture, we need to take special heed to how important God’s own words are to Him. It’s not because God is boastful & thinks His words are the only words, but it’s because He wants to know you value His principles & hide them in your heart. Praying Psalms is also another great place to start because they are so real. There is so much praise & so much real life wrapped up in the book of Psalms. {Luke 11:1-4, Psalm 119:105}
Be relentless in your prayers ~ Your enemy is scheming constantly to do harm to you. If you stop praying you will essentially be giving your victory over to the devil. In Ephesians, not only does Paul tell us to put on the Armor of God to stand firm in our faith but he tells us that we need to pray persistently at all times. Being a person of prayer lays claim to the victory God wants for you. {Luke 11:9-10, Ephesians 6:18}
What is your next step in prayer? Do you need to make it a daily habit, pray out loud in groups or be bold enough to pray for a neighbor or co-worker? Ask the Lord to help you to deepen your communication with Him.
Love, Cara
