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Being a Christian means that we are in a battle. Every since the adversary fell from heaven, satan has made himself an enemy to God and to His prized creation, mankind. In Ephesians 6, our Father has given us the tools that we need to win. One of our weapons is prayer.
There are 3 principles to a successful prayer life:
There is a time to talk
God is our source. He holds the keys to the universe in His hands. He is the Creator. When we have doubts, concerns, and questions, He is the one that we should run to. In fact, He is anxiously waiting to hear from you. It is a shame that some of us only talk to Him before we eat or only when there is a dire emergency. I believe that God desires to have a running, consistent, conversation with us just like He did with Adam and Eve in the garden. You shouldn't just always run to Him with your laundry list of requests. Prayer is our opportunity to tell God how much we love Him and how grateful we are for all that He has done in our lives. It is also time for us to tell Him how much we look forward to what He is going to do in the future.
We should always tell God how we feel if there are things in our lives that are making us nervous or afraid. As a matter of fact, we should bring all of our burdens, cares, and concerns to Him. The great thing about this transaction is that we can bring them to Him and leave them right there. He will deal with everything that concerns us and perfect them all.
There is also a time to listen
Conversations between two parties are usually more effective when there is only one person speaking at a time. Sometimes our problem is that we spend all of our prayer time talking. We have to tell God all about everyone and everything that has been getting on our nerves. We have to tell Him about the guy that cut us off on the expressway. And we also have to tell Him about our unrealistic boss and nosy neighbors.
We even spend a great deal of time in prayer telling God how wonderful He is and thanking Him for all His wonderful blessings. The moment we get exhausted from talking for 30 minutes straight, our time in prayer is over. We rarely give God 5 seconds to talk to us.
Prayer is a 2-way street, and we have to give God ample opportunity to speak to us. We should never jump to our feet without getting some sort of response. He may not always respond in the way we desire but we must give Him room to be God. Sometimes we are afraid of what the answer might be - thus the reason we 'END' our prayer time. Make time to listen not only in your prayer time - but throughout your day. Be willing to accept his plans and direction for you - not always your own. Have a consistent awareness that he is with you always...
There is a time to act
Once we have brought our petitions to God and once we have given Him room to respond, we must not stop there. We must allow the connection to God through prayer to give us the strength to act upon what He has said to us. There may be a time after prayer that we may need to call a friend or loved one that we haven't spoken to in years. There also may be opportunities to witness to a co-worker and be their LifeSaver.
On the flip side, there may be times of distress coming where we need to act calm and rational. Our connection with God through prayer will show us how to act peaceful and right. Whatever the situation may call for, like in any war or battle, we must be prepared for action.
There is an ongoing effort by our enemy to destroy us or, at the very least, hinder our progress. When we learn who we are and all the advantages we have with prayer as a weapon we can cause mountains of despair and confusion to be cast into the sea of forgetfulness. When we connect to God through prayer we maintain our status as more than conquerors. The power of prayer is our weapon of choice. Get back to the basics - Use it and benefit from it!
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perry meade
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