Prayer

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This week the topic is about Prayer.  I’m reading Dr. Charles Stanley book call, Handle With Prayer and wanted to share some things from the book that I know will help encourage you to have a more prayerful life. There is a wealth of information, I mean wisdom in this book!

We are all interested in answered prayer, but our seemingly unanswered prayers have led many of us not to expect God to respond to every time we pray.

An encouragement to pray

Jesus encourages us to pray. He tells us to ask, seek, and knock. We ask for think, we seek understanding, and we knock on doors of opportunity that lie before us. The Lord is saying that in every area of life we can find what we are looking for by talk to our Heavenly Father.

Right Relationship

The psalmist wrote, “if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Psalm 66:18. We must set our sights on God. He must be our aim in life. We must seek to live our lives according to the precepts of His word and according to the guidance He gives us.

Right Method

The right method answers the question of how we go to the Lord in prayer. The key is to be specific. We are not to window shop when we pray. “Lord, help all missionaries, and mom and dad. Bless the church.”  When we pray vague prayers, it shows that the requests don’t really mean much. Yet we expect God to get all excited and do something.

God encourages us to pray specific prayers. Once we decide on something, we must stick with it in our prayers. Otherwise we demonstrate lack of faith. It is the attitude of our hearts that matters. God wants to bless His children, but the relationship and method must be right.

Right Request

We must learn how to make the right request. “And this is the confidence that we have in, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” 1John 5:14

Right Attitudes

Doubt and prayer don’t mix. Doubt comes from relying on feelings. James 1:7 Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord. A man whose faith wavers in prayer is a “double minded man” and  is “unstable in all his ways.”

Right Motive

Our motives for everything we do must be to glorify God. Can a prayer for some mundane, seemingly unimportant material thing give glory to God? Yes! But only if we are willing to share the need and desire being met as a testimony to others of God’s faithfulness. In this way, God will receive glory out of any prayer He answers.
If we want our prayers to affect God, we must (1)begin with the right relationship with Him through Jesus Christ; (2) make specific requests; (3) pray according to His will (4) Pray in Jesus’ name and in keeping with His character; (5) Ask in faith that is based on God’s WORD and not feelings; (6) pray with the right motives. All we do, say, and pray must be to the glory of God. If your prayers aren’t being answered, check out these six conditions. It is God’s joy to answer your prayers. I pray that you will put yourself in a position that will allow Him to do just that.

Next week, I will be typing out excerpts from this book again! The topic will be on Unanswered Prayers.  This is one amazing book, you should definitely check it out. Dr. Charles Stanley, Handle With Prayer.
(Excerpt from Dr. Charles Stanley; Handle With Prayer) – Used with permission

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Handle with Prayer: Unwrap the Source of God’s Strength for Living