Hi friends,
Hope you're doing fine. Sharing an article written recently for a magazine. Hope it blesses you!
Note* (The
celebrities enlisted below are from Indian background as the church was from
there. However, as we are Kingdom citizens, we have no racial or national
parameters :) you may choose any celebrity of your choice!)
4 Keys to
Developing a Powerful Prayer Life!
Let
me begin by asking you a question. Who is your favorite celebrity, the one who inspires
you the most? Maybe a cricketer like Sachin Tendulkar or a film star like Amitabh
Bachan or Rajnikanth, maybe a leader or maybe a woman icon like Kiran Bedi or
PT Usha. Now suppose you get a free ticket to meet with your favorite celebrity
for about 30 minutes, how excited you would be! What all preparations you would
make! You would immediately start planning what to wear, where to go, what to ask.
Also you would definitely carry your camera with you to take as many photos as
you can to treasure the memories of that meeting forever.
Now let me ask you
another question, what if instead of that celebrity, you got an invitation to
have a friendly chat with the God of this Universe? What would be your
reaction? Would you be as thrilled or maybe even afraid? Would you be making
the same plans we discussed earlier? Most likely the answer is NO. We are given
an Invitation every single day by the biggest and the best celebrity in the
whole world, our Lord Almighty and yet sadly, most of us choose to either ignore
or postpone His invitation to spend time with Him.
Some people may
say, I’d be happy to accept the Invitation someday but not right now, I don’t feel
ready enough. The truth is we will never be ready enough so let’s go to Him
today just as we are. Others will say yes, I’d like to but what can I talk
about? Here are 4 keys from my personal experience that may help you. God wants everyone of us to develop our own close prayer walk with Him.
√ KEY NO 1 : A Time of Prayer -
We can pray whenever we feel like as God’s
lines are never busy. However, it is a good discipline to set aside the first
& last portion of our day for prayer. Gradually we will learn to make
prayer our lifestyle meaning we connect with God all through our day for eg:
when we are driving to work, when faced with challenges during the day, before
our meals, etc. (Psa 5:3, Psa 3:5, Psa 4:8)
√KEY NO 2: A Place of
Prayer-
It is good
to find a quiet & comfy place where there’s less chance of being
distracted/ interrupted. (Math 6:6)”But when you pray, go away by
yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.”
√KEY NO 3: A Way of Prayer-
There are no hard
& fast rules for prayer. Prayer is simply talking to God from our heart
& listening to what God has to say. The imp thing is to be honest &
simple as God loves the childlike prayer the best. We don’t have to impress
Him, He already knows us since He made us.(Jer 1:5) We can relax in His
presence as He loves us just as we are. We can even ask the Lord to teach us to
pray. In Math 6:9-13, we see the Lord’s prayer where Jesus taught His disciples
how to pray.
Let me share with
you 4 main elements of a Powerful Prayer:
This can be summed
up in the acronym ACTS- they are : Adoration , Confession,
Thanksgiving & Supplication
a) Adoration:
means praising & worshipping God for who He is – His attributes- Faithful (1 Corin 1:9, 2 Tim 2:13), Holy (Psalms 22:3, Isa 6:3),
Sovereign (Job 42:2,Eph 1:11), Love (1 John 4:8, John 3:16) etc & what He does (His works). During
this time, we can sing songs of Praise & Worship.
b) Confession: means looking
into our life & checking if there is anything displeasing in the eyes of
God. Ask Him to reveal that to us & to forgive us because of the holy blood
of Jesus. (Psalm 139:23,24, I John 1:9)
c) Thanksgiving: means expressing our gratitude & thanks to
God for His blessings in our life. (1
Thess 5:18)
d) Supplication: refers to our prayer requests to
God. This can be for our needs or for the needs of others (Intercession) (1 Tim 2:1-3, Heb 5:7.)
√KEY
NO: 4 A Record of Prayer-
Journaling what God
speaks to us or keeping a written record of our prayer requests and ticking
them as God answers them can be a great source of encouragement in our prayer
life. (Habakkuk 2:2)
I am
sure that if we apply these principles, our prayer life will become such a joy
that we will actually look forward to having more chats with our Heavenly
Father.
Let
me end with some favorite quotes on prayer:
Ø Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Ø
“Satan
trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”-The Kneeling Christian
Ø “Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an
appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.” - Corrie Ten
Boom
Ø
“Prayer is a
shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.”- John Bunyan
Ø Philippians
4:6-7 “Do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus.”
Wishing you a blessed
prayer life,
Sparky Laurie
