Prayer

Romans 8:26-27
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we
ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words
cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

The Who, What, Where, When and Why.

Anyone who has any kind of faith-and often those that dont can be heard saying: I
will pray for you! if you disclose a difficult situation or circumstance they may be
going through.
Sounds good-right? I mean, we are supposed to pray-right? God says in Matthew
26:41 Keep alert and pray.
But, if you are like I was for an embarrassing long time-you really dont know HOW
or WHAT to pray for. The Bible is pretty awesome about addressing this issue and
yet, there I was: A Christian who had been raised Catholic (who pray A LOT), joined
a bible preaching protestant churchwho would sit there and not know how to
openly pray to our Lord and Savior without some already scripted bible verse.
Why? I honestly can sayit is because no one ever correctly taught me. Oh sure, I
can rattle off a good Lords Prayer like no ones business. I can still, after all these
years as a non-practicing Catholic, rattle off a Hail Mary without skipping a beat. I
can even give you Psalm 23, the Apostles Creed and a few other beautiful prayers.
But what did it teach me? How did it counsel me? How did it HONOR GOD?
I can tell you. It taught me nothing. It never made me feel better, or counsel my
spirit. There was never any experience with God. It was just blind repetition of
prayers taught to me since childhood. No one ever taught me how to humble
myself, how to open my heart, how to open my ears to what God had for me and
things he needed to communicate with me. No one taught me just how simply
awesome being in the presence of Jesus was. How He wants you to chat with Him.
How he wants you to open your heart to Him. How He wants you to confess and
repent when you fall off that spiritual wagon of hope and trust.
With some recent upheaval in my life-especially spiritually, I reached out to Jesus at
a very low point. I asked for His awesome forgiveness and it was impressed upon
me to write this so that MAYBE someone else wouldnt waste the many years of
blind repetition prayer with life giving, honest and honoring prayer that God always
intended for us.
Who
Now you would think this is a simple answer: God. You pray to God and God alone.
At the risk of offended a large amount of Catholics and others that use intercessory
prayer-I tell you this: You should never pray to anyone or anything but GOD. That

means Mary, while a wonderful, beautiful vessel used by God to usher in our great
Jesus into the human world-should never be prayed to. There is nowhere in the 66
books of the bible where God directs us to pray to ANOTHER being so that He could
hear your prayer. In fact, God wants and flat out says to pray to Him and Him alone.
I AM your God. None shall come before me.
That is #1 on the top 10 list of commandments. If we pray to some dead
grandmother to help your situationwho is being glorified? Not God. What makes
you think God is going to listen to your request if you dishonor Him by going to good
old dead grandma BEFORE you go to him?
In fact, GOD instructs us over 300 times to pray to HIM. Jesus-while God on earth
prayed without ceasing.
What makes us think that we need to go through another to get to God? Maybe
because of some false sense of unworthiness taught to you through the misguided
interpretations of Scripture. Maybe you dont feel like you CAN go to God and unload
all of your heartaches and pains. "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be
dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, yes, I will uphold
you with My righteous right hand." -Isaiah 41:10
Maybe you feel that you are not eloquent enough, or know enough bible passages
or that your needs are so insignificant that you dont want to burden the Lord with
your trivial trials and needs. Matthew 11:28-30: Come to me, all you who are
weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Doesnt sound like God would mind does it? In fact, it sounds like this is what God
WANTS you to do. So why are we so afraid to do it?
I am here to tell you-if you have Jesus Christ in your heart and have accepted Him
as your Lord and Savior For God so loved the world He gave his only, begotten Son.
That whosoever believes in Him shall never perish, but have eternal life.-John 3:16
then you CAN and SHOULD be praying to Him and him alone. Without ceasing
But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all
these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man Luke
21:36. In doing this-we Honor our Lord and Savior. You honor Him and his
worthiness you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37.
And THAT is why we should always and only pray to God and God alone.
What
Ahh. What to pray for. This is a daunting question with about as many answers as
there are specs of sand. I am not an expert, but I know who is: God. So in this
section I am going to prayerfully explain that while I am quite sure God doesnt give
a fig about who wins the Super Bowl, what color nail polish you pick when getting

that pedicurehe does want to hear what is in your heart. He wants to hear you
sing His praises. He wants to hear your heartaches and troubles. He wants to hear
your love for Him. Simply put: He wants you to talk to him. He wants, and I dare
say demand, that he be your BFF.
Now lets not be confused about praying and wish lists. Yes, one should tell God of
any problems or circumstances where you need His divine intervention. Provision,
strength, knowledge, guidance are all things God wants to ask for and rely upon
Him for.
Read that again. GOD wants you to ask and rely upon HIM.
God isnt some genie in the sky in which you send up your wish list and wait for
those to be fulfilled. God wants you to interact, talk to Him as a child would talk to
their parents. Ask questions. Laugh at silly jokes. Sing your heart out to. Comfort
and wipe away your tears. The single best thing I ever did as a parent was to
instruct and teach my children to pray to God. Yes, they were the official prayers.
The Lords Prayer, Psalm 23 and the Apostles Creed. Along with that prayer,
though-I always encouraged them to talk to God about any problems they had, for
protection for those that they love. Pray for school, friends and all of it. I told them,
even though I really didnt have the best understanding of how to pray for many,
many years later-that God was always there-always listening and always happy to
hear from his children.
That is what we are to God. HIS children and like I love to hear from my now adult
kids when they call me and catch up on what is going on in their lives, He wants to
hear from us.
He loves US-and when you love someone, dont you talk to them on a regular
basis? Dont you want to tell them about the exciting new thing that happened in
your life? Dont you want that shoulder to cry on when you didnt get that big
promotion at work? Well, God wants HIS children to bring all those things-to bring it
ALL to him. He loves to hear the simple prayer of protection the 3 year old asks for
his Mommy and Daddy as much as he wants to hear the chants of prayers from the
monastery of monks.
Again: He loves us. We dont deserve that love, but love us he does Love never
fails. But where there are prophesies, they will cease, where there are tongues, they
will be stilled, where there is knowledge, it will pass awayAnd now these three
remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love. 1Corinthians 13:
13. He loves us so much-that he sent his son to save us from our inevitable death to
sin.
Praying to him and submitting to His willis the least we can do to honor and praise
our Savior. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much James
5:16

Where

This is probably going to be the shortest answer ever: Wherever you want. God is
always with you. God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
Hebrews 13:5.
You are not required to ONLY pray at church or at the side of your bed, or on your
knees (although that is the traditionally what we are told). I am known for praying
in my car. It is one of the few places where I am alone, where I can really just let
loose and communicate with God. I tell people Jesus rides shotgun, usually with a
few chuckles after. But it is true. I recently saw a wonderful Christian movie War
Roomwhere it was encouraged to set aside a closet or quiet place to take your
prayer time to a whole new level. Pray in private. Pray in public. Pray silently. Pray
vocally-but always, always pray. Like any other of your daily routines: Brushing your
teeth, walking the dog or simply cleaning your housePrayers needs to be just
something that you do, because you love God.
When
So, now that we have established who we pray to and what we pray for and where
we should or canwhen should we pray?
Simply put: All the time. Here are some samples of the MANY portions of scripture
that flat out tell us when to pray.
"But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape
all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
Luke 21:36.
not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in
hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer Romans 12:12.
With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be
on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints Ephesians 6:18
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;
Colossians 4:2
So you are probably thinking the same things I would respond: How on EARTH can
you pray ceaselessly? I mean, I have to sleep, eat, blah blah blah. Notice how I is
taking front stage. If you claim that God is your Godthen that means God comes
first. Not after you finish that chapter of your really interesting book. Not as soon as
you have a minute. Always. Ceaselessly.
It will require commitment like anything else you may not be accustomed to doing.
Ask yourself: is God worth it? Yes. I say Yes, God is worth all of it.
Why
So now that we know the who, what, when and wherethe big unanswered
question is Why.
Why should we pray to God, who we know is omnipotent and omnipresent?

This is also a simple answer: Because God tells us to. Prayer is the foundation to the
relationship that God wants you to have with him. It is the time for praise. It is the
time for repentance. It is the time to SHOW your God that HE is in control and that
you are nothing without Him.
Prayer is to the spirit what breathing is to humans. Essential, non-negotiable and
detrimental without. It is where we have fellowship with God. It is where we are
authentically, unabashedly naked in front of our Master. It pleases God and I dont
know about you-but that is all I want to do.
Honor God and praise his name.
Blessings, many prayers of blessings to all that understand how important prayer is
to all of us.