Focus on prayer basics
Once and a while, the thing that can improve our prayers the most is to have a quick refresher on the basics. I know what you’re thinking, ‘I know how to pray… I know the basics…’, but I know if you read these simple reminders, your will have more powerful prayer.
1. It is easy to forget who you are praying to. God is your father. Rather than trying to formulate articulate sentences, praying with feeling and clarity is much more important. While expressing genuine feelings, you can focus on the purpose of your prayer.
2. God already knows what you’re going to pray for. He knows everything. He loves you and wants you to be happy. Sometimes he waits until you realize your needs and humble yourself enough to pray and ask for help. Then he blesses you.
3. Prayer answers are not always given in the manner you expect. Because God knows everything about you, he will answer your prayers in the manner that is the best possible way for you. For us to pray and expect an answer to come in a certain way is us setting expectations that are rarely what God has in store for us. If we expect a prayer answer to come in a certain manner, we can prevent ourselves from recognizing the manner God actually answers the prayer.
4. Prayer does not always need to be formal. When learning to pray, there are often patterns or subject we are instructed to follow with our prayer. The more we pray, however, the more we develop our relationship with God. It is perfectly natural to have many conversations with your father throughout the day without saying ‘Hello’ or ‘Goodbye’–at the dinner table for example or while watching a TV show. Why, if God is our father, can we not have the same sorts of conversations? We can. Be respectful, but not always formal and you will find your prayers become more frequent and more genuine.
5. Accountability is important for progress. When we pray and ask for a certain blessings, it is not uncommon for spiritual promptings to direct us towards certain actions. We should report on the actions during a later prayer. This will help you to remember details or lessons learned during the action and will help you to feel better about the step-by-step answer to your prayer. By doing this a few times you will find yourself coming across the answer or blessing you were looking for.
If you made it this far, you’re on your way to more powerful prayers. I saved the most important basic for last…
6. Gratitude. As a father, I have learned how it feels to hear thank you from my children. When I give a gift or help with a project, when I don’t hear ‘Thank You’, I long for the acknowledgement. However, when my children show their gratitude, I am more motivated and willing to give or provide more. This is the same with our prayers. Saying ‘Thank You’ has more than a few positive effects on our prayers. One could be, the more grateful we are, and the more likely we are to recognize the answers we really get. Also, when we pray and give thanks, God is more willing to bless us in the future because we are more humble and worthy to receive his blessings.
I hope these basics have helped to point out an area where you can improve your prayers. If there is more than one of the above basics you need to improve, I suggest starting by focusing on one of them. Then as time passes and habit form, focus on another one until your prayers become more powerful.
