What should prayer look like?

This is the second article in our series on prayer. Each day we are looking at a particular aspect of prayer and examining what the Bible has to say about it. Today we will examine what prayer should look like.

It should not be for recognition or reward, but is between us and God.

Matthew 6:1, 5-6 Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. . . And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

It should be accompanied by faith and according to God’s will.

Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

One way I have found helpful to increase my faith in prayer is to keep track of not only my requests, but when and how God has answered them. When I do this, it helps me see how God is working. That in turn naturally builds my faith.

We know that we are to pray according to God’s will, but how do we do that? One thing I have found quite helpful is to use Scripture prayer prompts. For example, one day a month, I pray that God will help make my children diligent. My Scripture prompt is Proverbs 21:5 "The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty." My prayer then, might be something like this: Lord, you have said that the plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty. Please develop in my children that diligence that this verse talks about. Help me as I guide them to know how to motivate and inspire them to keep going even when it is hard. Help me to teach them to work patiently, not hastily.

Jesus’ answer when the disciples asked how they should pray is found in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 There is so much that can and has been said about Jesus’s example of the Lord’s prayer. It is a great place to begin a study on prayer as it is the example Jesus gave us to follow. When I have taught about the Lord’s prayer, I have used Equipping the Church for Kingdom Praying by Barbara Thompson which is available from www.pcanet.org/cep

As you can see, praying in faith and according to God’s will can become rather involved. Tomorrow I will mention a few practical resources that have helped me. Also we will examine how often and about what kinds of things we should be praying.