Basics of Prayer
What is Prayer?
Prayer is the way we communicate with God. It’s a spontaneous, one on one and an unorganized form of petitioning and thanking God for all that He has done in our lives.
When I pray, I talk to God like I do with my friends. I share all my worries, emotions and feelings to Him and also thank Him for the life that He has given me and for His blessings too! In the same way, we see many people in the Bible, like David, Samuel, and Moses, speaking to God in a personal way. They petitioned before God, praised God, sang to God, wrote poems and more, as they prayed to Him. Prayer is a way for us to communicate with God.
What Happens When We Pray?
Firstly, prayer helps us build our relationship with God.
According to Jeremiah 33:3, ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know,’ God answers us and reveals secret things to us when we pray. When we pour out our worries, confusions, and anxieties to Him, God cleanses us and calms our mind. He, then, reveals to us what we need to do and helps us through it as we face each situation.
Just like a best friend, the more we spend time with them, the closer we are to them. The more time we spend with God and talk to Him, the deeper our relationship is with Him.
Prayer changes our hearts.
Before my grandfather entered into ministry, he was praying for God to use him. Then, one day, God told him that He was changing my grandfather’s stone heart, his hard heart, into a heart full of love. After that, when my grandfather started doing full-time ministry, every time he prayed for people, his heart was filled with love. God had filled his heart with compassion, that he would take up the person’s problems like it was his own and pray with so much burden for them to be delivered. When he prayed with the love of God, people received miracles. Even today, people lovingly remember him as an “apostle of love.”
Yes, God changes our hearts when we pray so that we can be filled with love and be more like HIm.
Prayer enables you to trust God.
When I was in college, sometimes I would be overwhelmed by the situations around me. I would feel lonely or would have allowed the words of people to hurt me, be stressed about a project and so on. When I felt overwhelmed, feeling like no one around me would listen or understand my feelings, I would burst into tears, cry and pour out my thoughts to God. As I would mention each worry that I had and list out all of my thoughts, I would feel my burdens getting lighter. At the end of my prayer, I felt so free and full of peace. I was able to trust God and know that he would take all my worries and guide me as to what I should do. I would get peace of mind and know what I should do next.
Just this small prayer, venting our feelings, our thoughts and our emotions to God will give us peace of mind. God assures that He will guide us through whatever we need to do and everything will work out for good.
Prayer makes you forgive and love the people you pray for.
A few years ago, when I was at home, my sister, Sharon, and I got into an argument. I was so angry cursed at her, ran to my room and slammed the door. I was so angry at her what everything she said. Then, when we were about to go to bed, my dad called us all for family prayer. It was my turn to pray that night. During my prayer, I was praying for each person in my family. I prayed for my parents, grandma, siblings, and relatives. I started to pray for Sharon, and when I genuinely asked God to bless her, all my anger started to fade away. God gave me the heart to forgive her during my prayer. After the prayer, my sister and I reconciled and forgave each other.
This is a situation that a lot of us face at home. When we fight with our siblings or even our parents, we sometimes curse them and go. But when we pray for the people that hurt us or make us angry, and genuinely ask God to bless them, God changes our hearts. He gives us the ability to forgive them. When we forgive them, our hearts feel a lot lighter. Holding on to grudges makes our hearts heavy and forgiving people makes us feel free. That’s what we need. God will give us that peace.
When you pray for others, God does miracles in your life.
One of my friends was sharing her story with me and it personally inspired me. My friend said that she suffered from emotional eating, which means that if she felt stressed, angry or sad, she would eat food to suppress her emotions. She had been dealing with this problem for the last few years. Because of this, she would rapidly gain weight, feel unhealthy and it negatively affected her lifestyle. One day, she decided to pray for other people in the Jesus Calls Telephone Prayer Tower, once a week. When she prayed in the telephone prayer line for other people, listening to their problems and asking God to deliver them and do a miracle for them, she started feeling better about herself. She was filled with a sense of gratefulness and God filled her heart with content. Her desire to eat when feeling she was feeling stressed, emotional and sad had left. She was filled with content and prayed for God to help her through her situations rather than go straight to food to calm her down. God changed her life as she prayed for others.
You might be facing many difficult situations in your life and you might try to fill that void in your life with materialistic things, people or other temporary solutions. Today, I encourage you to pray for the people in your life. People you love, people you just met, people who are struggling or many others. God will deliver them and bless you, as well.
How To Pray
Phil 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
I want to share with you how I pray, all the little things I say when I pray. This would change based on each person because of its a personal way of talking to God. This verse is truly a guideline for how I pray, so I follow that.
First, I start with thanking God with all that He has done in my life. I thank Him for the beautiful day, my family, friends, opportunities, education, work and so on. Next, I share my worries with Him. Everything I’m dealing with and for God’s will to be done in each situation. I always have a belief that God will give me the right thing, at the right time. So I trust in this as I pray. After that, I ask God to bless the people in my life, my education, work and so on and end the prayer.
The most important thing to remember while praying is to have a genuine heart. Prayer isn’t a list of words to say but an open conversation with God. God loves genuine prayers.
When should we pray?
1 Thes 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
When we pray, we should have a cheerful heart and give thanks to God in all the situations that we face. The words, ‘pray continually,’ struck me because I always mention that prayer is not just something we do in the morning or at night but it’s a conversation we have with God throughout the day. I pray when I wake up, before I eat, before going somewhere, before talking to someone, while getting ready and so on, so that God’s guidance will be with me when I do anything. I pray that through each and every small detail of my life, God should be glorified, according to 1 Corinthians 10:31. This keeps me in constant connection with God as I talk to him and share my thoughts with Him throughout my day.
What confidence do we have that our prayers will be answered?
Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Believing in your prayers is a vital part while praying. Trusting that God will give you what you need at the right time will build your faith. Sometimes we lose our patience when we don’t get what we need or it takes a long time for us to receive our miracle. But I’ve always believed that God gives us the right thing at the right time. I spoke about my graduation story in my Road To Graduation blog post, where I had to walk a unique path to achieve my goals. God had miraculously guided me to help me graduate with my bachelor’s degree. When you believe, you’ll receive your miracle.
Psalm 145:18
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
God is close to those who call on him. He is with you as He listens to your prayers and answers them. Have this confidence as you pray. Even when you don’t know how to pray, the Holy Spirit will teach you how to pray and what to pray. That’s the wonderful God we have in our lives. To learn more about the Holy Spirit, read Let’s Learn About The Basics.
I hope this post encourages you to deepen your relationship with Christ as you pray each day and grow closer to Him. Remember, God is always listening and He’ll give you the right blessing at the right time. So, trust in Him!
Here’s a video I’ve linked, where I talk more about the basics of prayer. Check it out and I hope it encourages you! Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel, “Stellazlife” on YouTube, where I share more about the Christian lifestyle of an everyday, follower of Christ.