Skip to main content

Prayer - FBI

I often ask myself if I'm praying as well as I should.  I feel that prayer is both a simple and complex practice for Christians.  A message I heard the other day gave me the inspiration for this post about prayer and its importance and effectiveness in our life.

One way to focus on our prayer should be F.B.I.

Frequent:
We should pray frequently.  1 Thessalonians 5:17 simply tells us to "Pray continually".  Ephesians 6:18 says "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  With this is mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people."  We can say a quick one sentence prayers as we head into a meeting, or between tasks.  We should keep our minds and hearts focused on Christ at all times.  Pray at work before you open and start the day, pray between clients, pray with clients if the opportunity presents itself. 

Brief:
We can pray briefly.  We are not required to recite long repetitive prayers to God.  Matthew 6:7-8 tells us "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."  Praying to God is not like telling our kids something where we have to repeat it and tell them over and over.  He already knows our desires and prayers before we even ask.  It's not necessary to carry on a long list of babble, just tell God how great he is, tell him thank you, confess yours mistakes, and ask for what you need in his will.

Intense:
We are to pray with intensity.  Luke 22:44 says "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground".  Jesus was praying so intensely that his sweat became blood.  I've done some pretty tough workouts in my life but I have never had my sweat turn into blood.  When we pray, we are talking to  God, the creator of the universe.  We should be so excited that he's willing to listen to us that we pray with passion. 

Prayer is different for everyone, and different for individuals at different times.  Sometimes we need to ask God something, other times we just want to praise Him, sometimes submit to Him, and other times we just need to be still and listen to Him.  No matter what technique works best for your prayer life, the most important part is that you have one.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Worship > Fellowship

I believe that worship, true worship of God, is more important than fellowship with other believers.  Now I'm not saying that fellowship and relationships aren't important.  But I am saying that if I'm not worshiping God, if I'm not right with him, then my other relationships can't be right.  My fellowship and worship with him is more important than my relationship with my wife, my son, family, friends, my church, and my community.  Think about it.  How can I love my wife like Christ loved the church if I don't love Christ?  I wouldn't know how to love without knowing him.  Why should she submit to me if I'm not worth submitting to?  And yes I do believes wives should submit, but I also believe that won't be an issue as long as she's submitting to a godly husband.  (Ephesians 5:22-25) Our love for others must flow from our love and worship of God.  1 John 4:19-21 reads, "We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do You Need Revival?

"Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You?" - Psalm 85:6 The thoughts below were in my devotional this morning by Dr. Lee Sheppard: "So how can we know if we need revival in our lives?  Well, we need revival when our salvation has lost its joy, when our sin does not break our heart, and when we make little to no effort to witness to the lost.  We need revival when worship becomes boring, when we are at odds with believers and see no need for reconciliation, and when we fail to believe God for the impossible.  We need revival when we have to be begged to give and serve in church and when we would rather make money than give money.  We need revival when we have to be entertained to be drawn to church and when we are indifferent to the fact that there are 2.5 billion people on the planet who have never heard the name of Jesus.  We need revival when we don't regularly see the supernatural evidence of God's power and when ...
Post a Comment
Read more