Prayer Ingredients

A good prayer is important but as time overtakes our prayers, they can become brief and lack focus. It is not right to ignore this condition. Our Heavenly Father is redeeming a family that loves Him and his ways. It is our desire to improve our communication with the Lord. Our neglect is harmful to our relationship. The Bible tells us that God wants to hear from us continually. Our goal should be a well-rounded talk with our savior, rather than a continual string of complaints. Surely, there are things we can discuss with the One who loves us so much. God knows every breath and feeling that we have. It can become natural for us to talk with the one who knows everything. Going over the ingredients of a prayer will remind us of how God cares for us.

Deep down, people know that God is bigger and stronger than anything is and that all the creation should adore Him. However, this feeling has a strange effect on some humans and they refuse to worship God. These people are in trouble because our Creator is choosing the cream of the crop of believers. The Lord is looking for good family members to live with Him in eternity. It will be to our benefit to tell everyone that we adore the Almighty and will give anything to join His family. In fact, worship must be an ingredient of our conversation every time we pray. There are also people who do not glorify God because they do not obey him with a clean life. Their actions are offensive and cause guilt in their life. Living in guilt is not contributing to a healthy relationship with God. Do not stand before God with a life that does not honor Him.

Our worship should be even greater than that of the Old Testament people. The life that Christ has made possible for us is far superior to their lives. We can have the Lord inside us giving his blessing every minute of the day. Failing to be thankful for everything that is available in Christianity is sinful. In addition to the written words of God, we now have the living word of God inside us. The Bible actually tells us to be thankful when things are not so great. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire. (1 Thes 5:16-19) In order to be joyful always we must continually pray and give thanks. Our prayers can cultivate the excitement that the Spirit has already brought into our life.

Many times a Christian will thank God in anticipation of the “answer” to their prayer. This is one of the types of confession seen in the Bible. An example of this can be seen in Rom 10:10 where Paul says, it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Salvation is a life long pursuit but we are celebrating our ultimate salvation now.  Believing God before we see any answer to our prayer is something that is precious to our Father. Another kind of confession is given in 1 John 1:9 saying If we confess our sins. Believers must confess their sins continually and not allow them to ruin the righteous life that God loves. We may also confess the sins of others. This is seen most often as men of God asked for the sins of a nation to be forgiven.

Prayer is usually a request for our needs or even godly desires. This is called petitioning of our Lord. God really wants to help us but there are some hindrances to our prayers. For example, we have a sin that we have not confessed of if we need to forgive some other person. Sometimes our own pride gets in the way or maybe we just doubt God. Usually these problems are resolved when we follow the Spirit in our life. On the positive side, as the Spirit leads us to help others and our life becomes more righteous our Savior does things daily for us. Prayer is most effective when we are surrendered to the Spirit. We have no idea of the power of prayer.

It is a wonderful privilege to have been given the opportunity of prayer. In addition to reaching God for our own benefit, we are to touch the lives of others. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16) We may feel that our prayers are going nowhere at times but God assures us that they are effective. Making intercession for others is a sign of maturity in a Christian life. Many loved ones have been saved because of prayer. This includes both physically and spiritually.

Prayers of dedication are of spiritual value. We need to state our intentions in order to have rallying points to add meaning to our journey. When our prayers include love, understanding, peace, patience, joy and steadfastness, our life will make great strides toward pleasing God. Another great area of prayer is the voicing of revelations that the Spirit has given us. It does not need to be great to be enjoyed. Even a new understanding of a Bible verse is a wonderful experience with the Lord. One dictionary tells us “prayer is the principal means by which Creator and creature are bound together in realities that define our relationship.” If this is true, then we need all the realism we can obtain.