You may not know this about me, but I like to pray. I am excited to pray and to hear other people praying. I look forward to our family meetings where we all gather together before our God and lift up various prayers to Him alone who can answer them. These times are always so encouraging! I am grateful that the Lord has given me some level of maturity in my prayer life, and while I still have so much room for growth and improvement, I want to offer some insights that have been helpful to me along the way.

There are numerous helpful resources out there that you can read to give insight to praying (and a list of them at the end of this post). But better than all of those resources is really to just pray to God to increase your prayer life, and furthermore to increase your dependence on God. Our sinfulness makes it so easy to forget God and depend on ourselves for things, and it’s a grace from the Lord to see our weaknesses and come to him for help. If the disciples had to ask Jesus to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1), then surely it’s only fitting that I make the same request.

It's an amazing and hard-to-comprehend truth that God hears our prayers, delights in them, and answers them for our good. John 14:13-14 is mind-blowing to me: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. We could pick this verse apart and give it a lot of caveats – Jesus isn’t implying that he’ll give me a Corvette if I ask for one -- but at the end of the day, Jesus is telling his disciples that he is going to his Father on behalf of us. We heard this preached just a few weeks ago in Hebrews, that our great High Priest is interceding for us before God! This is our present reality that the world threatens to conceal. Prayer is a means to keep that concealment away and Jesus front-and-center.

Eph 3:20 - Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think…

This post will list ten pointers on prayer that I have found helpful in my own life.

1. Pray the Bible – Memorize verses and incorporate the psalms into your prayers. The Songs of Jesus, by Tim Keller, was especially helpful in this regard.  As we pray the bible, we study the bible. Studying the bible develops a healthier theology, which shapes our worldview, which shapes our prayers.  Anxieties are calmed when our worldview is firm that God is sovereign and He works all things together for our good. The Spirit is speaking through the Word.
   
   
2. Pray with Jesus – Remember, we’re not praying by ourselves. There is never one prayer that we will take to God by ourselves, but we always will have our perfect high priest with us. We are hidden in Christ (Col 3:1) and through him we have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph 2:18).  Jesus will never leave us or forsake us for one moment.  So pray with him!
   
   
3. Pray to your Father – I don’t think I ever prayed to God as my Father until I had already been a Christian for over 10 years. I brought my earthly dad into my relationship with God, and because of that, I had a skewed view of Him. But the bible is very clear that God is our Father (John 20:17, Gal 4:6-7, Matt 6:9). And what kind of Father He is! Patient and loving and kind and full of mercy, and we are privileged to come before Him with every need.
   
   
4. Pray the Church Directory – This really is a great tool to use to increase your prayer-time. Make it a daily habit to pray for at least one member of the church.  Incorporate it into a family devotion. Work to know the people who make up Christ Fellowship Church as much as you know your earthly friends & family. Ask people how you can be praying for them and then follow-up, or better yet, pray for them on the spot! The inverse of this is also true: make yourself and your needs known to brothers and sisters and ask for them to pray with you and for you. Pray for the Flock, by Croft & Fullerton, is another helpful book in practically praying for one another.
   
   
5. Pray When Tempted – Oh how this one is hard! When I’m tempted it’s so easy to push off thoughts of God and to live in accord with my own self. I don’t want to go towards God, but I want to go towards sin. But this is unhealthy and foolish. Ultimately it’s the grace of the Lord that will empower us to resist sin, but he does not leave us defenseless.  Paul covers a list of the “armor of God” in Ephesians 6, but I especially like how the NIV translates Eph 6:18 - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Remember, prayer is essentially expressing our dependence on God. So resist sin with prayers! And even better, when tempted to wallow in self-pity or self-centeredness or whatever sins plague you, instead spend that time actively praying!
   
   
6. Pray Out Loud – There’s nothing wrong with praying silently, and a lot of praying will probably be done silently, but whenever the opportunity is there to pray out loud, I encourage you to do it. Listening and thinking about your words will be reassuring to your own ears, and it will help stay focused too. Whenever I pray in my mind, I find it easy to drift off onto other topics and before I realize it I’ve not been praying. We are less distracted when we are articulating our words.
   
   
7. Pray Often – Short prayers or long prayers, major things or small things, all of them are worth going to the Lord. The parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8 is very encouraging to me. How much more does our Father love us! The chorus of “What a Friend We Have In Jesus” states: Oh what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Are you needlessly bearing burdens? Take them to the Lord in prayer.
   
   
8. Practice Praying – It’s easy to think negatively of ourselves and minimize our praying. Who are we comparing ourselves to? Jesus is pleased with us, not ashamed of us (Heb 2:11). He’s not impressed by strutting and showcasing (Mt 6:1-8); he wants to hear us pray. But you might say, “I don’t know how to pray. I sound dumb. I don’t know what to say. Doesn’t God already know what I want?” Prayer is a muscle that grows in confidence in the Lord as we use it. It will stay weak and undeveloped if we neglect it. So practice praying! Make a plan and then strive to stick to it, keeping in mind that your work isn’t to gain merit with God (since He’s already supremely pleased in Christ, He is pleased with you!), but your work is to spend time with God. Plan to get up 15 minutes early to pray first thing. Pray during your lunch break. Or maybe try fasting, abstaining from food and during those times of hunger, go to the Lord. Whatever you do, do it for the Lord and grow your dependence on him.
   
   
9. Praise God – One of the classic prayer acronyms is ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. For me, it’s very easy to spend a lot of time in the Confession or Supplication mode, but one of my goals is to spend more time in the Adoration and Thanksgiving portion of praying. God is worthy of praise and all glory, and prayer is one of the best ways to praise Him. Adoring God and praising him for Who He Is leads to much gratitude and joy, I have found.
   
   
10. Share With Others – Write down your prayers and list out when/how God answers them. Tell other people about God moving in your life, encouraging one another however He answers. Don’t steal the glory from God whenever He does something remarkable. Be quick to look for His hand. As believers, we don’t believe in coincidence or luck. Our God is not capricious or acting on whims, but He is working a plan for our good.  Keep an eye open for the evidence of grace and praise God for working those graces out in us!

Great Resources

1. Prayer, by Tim Keller
2. The Songs of Jesus, by Tim Keller
3. Pray for the Flock, by Brian Croft & Ryan Fullerton
4. Pray Big, by Alistair Begg
5. The Secret Key to Heaven, by Thomas Brooks
6. Prayer, by John Bunyan