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Day 4: Prayer Life
Scriptures:
Matthew 6:9 NLT
“Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.”
Matthew 6:6 NLT
“But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”
Romans 8:34 NKJV
“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Romans 8:26-27 NLT
“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”
John 16:13-15 NLT
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’”
So, with having entered into a new relationship, you’ll soon realize that communication is so very important! Just like any relationship, failed communication ultimately leads to a failed relationship.
The super cool thing, though, about this relationship, is that He already knows everything you will say even before you say it!
He took the first step of communicating: He told you how much He loves you by sending His Son to die for you.
Also, what’s also so very cool, is the fact that there are many ways to communicate with God the Father, as well as Him speaking to us in different ways:
- Through prayer in the name of Jesus
- Through the Lord Jesus Christ (Jesus makes intercession for us)
- Through the groaning of the Spirit (praying in tongues)
- Through praise and worship
- Through reading/listening to/meditating on/confessing what is written in, the Bible
Since He knows exactly what you’re saying, the rest of your journey with God on this earth is learning how to discern and “hear” Him in return.
God knows how to speak to you in particular. So don’t try to imitate another person.
Finally, nothing can be cooler than having 24/7 open access to the Throne Room!
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22 NLT
Anna candidly shares about how boring her prayer life was. She attributed that to not having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues – see next devotional). How did she go from a dull prayer life to a vibrant one now?
Practical tips from Anna:
With me, it was just not receiving the Holy Spirit, I later realized my prayer life was boring, or I’d be stuck with words in the middle of prayer because everything was about me!
I was praying a selfish prayer, so I’d pray about me, my family, siblings and maybe my friends lol. And when I had no one else to pray for, I’d be left without anything to say.
I didn’t like praying for others, I found it boring and unnecessary, so I never understood when people spoke about it.
But once I understood that prayer is talking to God, prayer is another way of offering something to God, prayer is you going for war. I learnt there’s declarations, warfare prayer, thanksgiving prayer, then there’s asking God what you want.
My steps were:
- Spend more time in his presence (quietly) (this will teach you sometimes word are not needed)
- Worship for 30mins (the words in the worship songs will sometimes speak to your heart, and you can just start speaking and praying!)
- Get devotionals or even get a plan from your Bible app
- There are books to help you pray step by step
- Pray! Ask God to turn your prayer life around!
Prayer:
Father, let there be change in our prayer lives! Let there be a turnaround in our prayer lives. Remove every spirit of laziness and procrastination from our prayer life.
Let us not be selfish when it comes to prayer, let us learn that when it comes to loving others, praying for them is also important.
Lord, baptize us with the Holy Spirit! Strengthen our spirit man.
Help us to pray more. Nudge us to pray when we are doing mindless tasks. Help us to truly know who we are in Christ, to understand that You always hear us, to know Your Word so We can pray it, to write down my own prayer needs and the needs of others, and to know that You really do know me. In the strong name of Jesus, Amen.
