Friday, November 18, 2011

The Prayer Habit


…Steadfastly maintain the habit of prayer (Romans 12:12-J.B. Phillips).

The Father wants us to develop our intimacy in prayer with Him. He wants prayer to become a habit. The prayer habit will be one habit that can transform the atmosphere of your life.
 
E.W. Kenyon in his book In His Presence says: Prayer should be as natural as breathing and as enjoyable as eating. Prayer should be as unconscious as our communication with one another. He goes on the say: You can’t spend any length of time in prayer without being affected by it. The quietness, the unshaken faith, the deep unsounded peace that pervades the Godhead, will overflow into the prayer’s life.
 
Many people find prayer a great challenge. The flesh struggles with relating to a God you can’t see. But God is the Father of spirits. He relates to our spiritual nature, not to our mentality and emotions. Here are some tips to help develop the prayer habit.

First, you must know that the Father sees you as righteous; that is, as though you had never sinned! Our sin debt has been completely paid by Jesus, and God sees us as pure as Jesus before Him! In Christ, you have no past!
 
Secondly, you must know that The Father loves you as much as He does His own Son. In John 17:23, Jesus prays that he Father will reveal to us the fact that You have loved them as you have loved me!  You must know that you are endeared to the heart of the Father, and that He wants your companionship and fellowship.
 
Then you must begin to develop you fellowship with Him based on your right standing with Him according to the Word; not according to your feelings. Take some time to get alone and just tell Him that you love Him and tell Him how glad you are to be saved from sin and redeemed from hell.
 
Then, remind Him of what His word says about you, and of what His word says about answered prayer. Talk to Him in specific terms about every single concern you have in life, and ask Him specifically to help you.
 
Share your heart life with Him. Bear to Him your thoughts and feelings and ask for His aid.
Take time too to pray in the spirit, in other tongues. Your spirit, in communion with the Holy Spirit will pray God’s perfect will in all areas of your life.
 
Start slowly. You may pray to begin with for ten or fifteen minutes. That’s just fine. If you keep it up every day, you’ll find the need to pray longer. You’ll find it easier and easier to express your heart and you’ll begin to want to take more time.
  
Life will become a partnership between you and the Father. You’ll begin to talk over every problem, every challenge, and every circumstance good and bad with Him. And before long, you will have developed and unconscious communion with Him that will erase fear and worry from your life.
 
Prayer will become and unconscious act of communion throughout your day. Daunting impossibilities will turn into opportunities for your Father to show Himself strong in your life. You’ll begin to fulfill Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 



1 comment:

  1. Hey PM,
    Amen to Friday, Nov 18's blog. Prayer is so cool--just talking to God, that you know is listening and truly cares about everything I mention to Him. He wants to hear from us, just as I want to talk with my boys and listen to my boys--what's going on with them, school, life, heartaches and what their desires are. I think we tend to make prayer a 'burden', hate to put it that way, takes too much time. I've heard people say, (not anyone at our church) 'why pray if God know's everything'? He does know everything, but wants us to reach out to Him, ask Him, worship Him, just talk to Him. If I were God I would hate to be in Heaven and even tho I know everything, being God, no one down here on earth said a word to me, asked me for anything, thanked me for anything or just loved on me, that would be so hurtful! That's like me and my boys never saying a hello, I love you, help, can I, may I mom, not a word to each other! Like you said, it's communication with our Father who loves us and wants to have a daily ongoing relationship with Him. I would miss Him thru-out my day, not having Him to talk to if He was a God that didn't have time for me!
    Then to see prayers answered, wow--that's so awesome to me. Might not be answered in the way I ask, but His Will, not mine. He knows what is best for me and for the ones I'm praying for, Thank you Jesus!!!
    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving--we have so much to be thankful for-- from the green grass, birds and wildlife to the fresh air. A roof over our heads and food in our stomachs. People who love and care about us. Our salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ!! I thank God and thank Him for hearing me, listening to me in prayer!
    : )
    Peace to you Pastor Mitch--
    Linda H.

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