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.

Fruit of Repentance

One of the discussions among believers today “is confession necessary for salvation” is based primarily on misunderstanding. The people that do not like confession stand on the fact that repentance is all they need. If we go to the scriptures, we find that these two subjects do not challenge one other. Confession is a vital part of repentance. This is like saying that wheels are not the engine of our car. They may not be but they support each other when we want to go somewhere. Repentance is a change in our belief. But if we refuse to profess our belief (confession) then no one will know what we believe. In other words, we are all professing our beliefs whether we live a righteous life or a worldly life. For example, a tattoo is a confession that we do not believe God’s word. Do not …put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD. Lev 19:28

John the Baptist tied repentance and confession of sins together during his ministry. John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. Mark 1:4,5 We see clearly that confessing sins is a part of the repentance process. Confession is also important to our health. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16a Confession and repentance are part of our salvation development. People have a need to confess all kinds of things. Somehow, this helps humans with their guilt. A profession of our beliefs can be either right or wrong. However, confession is how we let the world know who we are and where we stand.

Look how important our confession is in this passage spoken by Jesus. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matt 12:33-37 Our mouth confesses what is in our heart and then we are judged by our own words. Maybe we should confess the righteousness of Jesus more often.

Another interesting verse is about our continuing to confess. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. 1 John 1:9,10 We are to use our confession of sin properly. Praying to God under the direction of the Spirit is the best way. The Spirit can also direct us to confess to other people. All types of confession are part of who we are and what we believe. As we walk this life we must confess our sins and confess the righteousness of Jesus. It is all part of our salvation. Paul wrote, For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Rom 10:10

May the fruit of your repentance be as the Spirit directs.