Post by servantofthelord on Jul 15, 2021 23:19:59 GMT -6
I read a small book not long ago on prayer. It was actually select writings from a few Christians of the first three centuries of the church. I believe it was Tertulian, Origen, Cassian and possibly Clement or Polycarp. It was both fascinating and illuminating. What I learned, among other things, is that they held prayer as not only an integral part of worship, but they revered it and took it quite seriously. The entire book centered around the Lords prayer, and how they saw it. They broke it down into parts and expounded on the blessings held within and the meanings behind the wording. Mind you, it was just each of their opinions, not unadulterated facts. But they all basically saw it in more or less the same way, even though they were from different churches and different countries and cultures. That in itself is a sort of testament to the unity of thought in the early churches.
But I digress. I'll do a thread on the early Christians at some point. Here I wanted to discuss prayer specifically. Aside from the Lords prayer, there is no strict rules to prayer. I think that is purposeful. We do have some guidance, we know not to ask God to do things contrary to His rules and His stated will. But prayer is perhaps one of the strongest tools we have in our spiritual tool box. When used properly, it can accomplish miraculous things! When used unwisely, it accomplishes nothing, or worse, it backfires.
I'll use my own experiences as an example of both. When I was a child, I was taught to pray for whatever I wanted and to thank God for whatever I received that was good. For a child, that is good advice, since children can't understand the ways of adult life. But as the saying goes, as I grew up, I should have put away childish things. I didn't. It took most of my adult life for me to really grasp the nature of prayer.
I did what many people do, I'd do something wrong, I'd realize it and ask God to forgive me, but the thing is, the problems never went away. I asked God to help, asked Him to take my difficulty away from me, but it remained. I of course kept repeating my mistakes. This is a great example of how not to pray. Prayer is basically a conversation with the Lord. But in order for Him to hear your end of it, you have to have faith in Him. If you believe, but lack faith, why would He reward you for lacking trust in Him to actually fix the problems you have? I was praying cause I wanted help, but I didn't really trust that He was going to help me. It was more a learned behavior than a spiritual conversation. Sort of like the difference between when someone talks at you, not to you. When you talk at god, He probably does what most of us do when people talk at us, ignore them. They are talking to themselves out loud really, to benefit themselves, not us. Half the time those people don't even realize you are tuning hem out. They mostly want you to hear them or to affirm them somehow. This is not the way to approach a conversation with the Creator who knows your every thought.
If you want Him to hear you and to help you, you should probably start with some respect for who your talking to. Acknowledge His status as your Father and creator, thank Him for what He has already done for you, without your even asking (like the fact you breathe and can have the opportunity to give the thanks your giving) that He already loved you so much He gave up His only Son to die for you, and whatever you can think of to be thankful for. This should not be a speedy run through type thing. You should give it the importance and seriousness you want returned to you.
Then, once you've acknowledged Him, and all He has already done for you, this then would be the time to confess what you have done TO Him. repent your sins, and if you can't recall any offhand, then ask forgiveness for the ones you may have done without realizing it. Believe it or not we do sin, without knowing it at times. Besides, just because He doesn't hold our sin against us if we are truly trying to do His will, doesn't mean we will ever be free from the sinful flesh we inhabit every day. It is good not to dwell on bad thoughts, but we all have them from time to time. Sin nature sucks, but it is always there.
Now that we have given Him acknowledgement, praised Him, and acknowledged our own sin, now would be the time to be a little selfish in a good way. But here is the tricky part. You are able to ask anything of Him, He tells us this many, many times. But how and why you ask does matter. He already knows what you want to ask, so putting on pretenses may be offensive, so just speak your heart.
If your asking for help for a friend or another who is in need, and you have faith He will help, He will. His will is that you put others first and you want for them what you want for you. If you want help with a problem, try asking for strength and wisdom to overcome it, rather than asking him to remove it. Suffering may be painful, but it is the best teacher, and you don't tend to forget something that caused you pain, mentally or physically.
Life is full of pain and suffering. God may take some from you, but he may also give some to you. Every obstacle you overcome, especially those difficult ones you had to ask Him to help with, perfects and strengthen your faith.
There is no rule on when to pray, but the early Christians did it three times a day, no matter what. The more often the better. The Holy Spirit is within you, it is there to guide and to protect you. To be your advocate. Use it, rely on it. The more intimately you grow with it, the easier it is to hear it when it tries to speak to you. It takes a lot of practice to learn to recognize the difference between the "voices" or thoughts/intuitions inside you, so you can be sure the one you heed is the right one.
Satan is a sneaky devil! He can lead you with good sounding advice, which takes you into a wrong spot quicker than you may realize. Your best and only defense against this is the Holy Spirit, which Jesus knowingly and lovingly provided us. But test the spirit, be sure it is leading you in a way that is absolutely according to God's stated will. If you have to interpret it and modify scriptural teachings to follow it, be wary. Pray for discernment and wisdom, and when in doubt, pause. Be at peace, allow time for God to answer your prayers before taking the reigns.
There is much more to be said about prayer, but this is plenty longer than I intended to begin with, so I'll leave it here to pick up again later. God Bless and I hope something in here made sense or helped someone.
PS- If I said "you should" in here anywhere, read " I'd suggest". I'm not a prayer teacher or telling you how or what it the proper way, just offering advice on what has worked for mr and what I've read and think is helpful. Prayer is personal between you and the Lord.
But I digress. I'll do a thread on the early Christians at some point. Here I wanted to discuss prayer specifically. Aside from the Lords prayer, there is no strict rules to prayer. I think that is purposeful. We do have some guidance, we know not to ask God to do things contrary to His rules and His stated will. But prayer is perhaps one of the strongest tools we have in our spiritual tool box. When used properly, it can accomplish miraculous things! When used unwisely, it accomplishes nothing, or worse, it backfires.
I'll use my own experiences as an example of both. When I was a child, I was taught to pray for whatever I wanted and to thank God for whatever I received that was good. For a child, that is good advice, since children can't understand the ways of adult life. But as the saying goes, as I grew up, I should have put away childish things. I didn't. It took most of my adult life for me to really grasp the nature of prayer.
I did what many people do, I'd do something wrong, I'd realize it and ask God to forgive me, but the thing is, the problems never went away. I asked God to help, asked Him to take my difficulty away from me, but it remained. I of course kept repeating my mistakes. This is a great example of how not to pray. Prayer is basically a conversation with the Lord. But in order for Him to hear your end of it, you have to have faith in Him. If you believe, but lack faith, why would He reward you for lacking trust in Him to actually fix the problems you have? I was praying cause I wanted help, but I didn't really trust that He was going to help me. It was more a learned behavior than a spiritual conversation. Sort of like the difference between when someone talks at you, not to you. When you talk at god, He probably does what most of us do when people talk at us, ignore them. They are talking to themselves out loud really, to benefit themselves, not us. Half the time those people don't even realize you are tuning hem out. They mostly want you to hear them or to affirm them somehow. This is not the way to approach a conversation with the Creator who knows your every thought.
If you want Him to hear you and to help you, you should probably start with some respect for who your talking to. Acknowledge His status as your Father and creator, thank Him for what He has already done for you, without your even asking (like the fact you breathe and can have the opportunity to give the thanks your giving) that He already loved you so much He gave up His only Son to die for you, and whatever you can think of to be thankful for. This should not be a speedy run through type thing. You should give it the importance and seriousness you want returned to you.
Then, once you've acknowledged Him, and all He has already done for you, this then would be the time to confess what you have done TO Him. repent your sins, and if you can't recall any offhand, then ask forgiveness for the ones you may have done without realizing it. Believe it or not we do sin, without knowing it at times. Besides, just because He doesn't hold our sin against us if we are truly trying to do His will, doesn't mean we will ever be free from the sinful flesh we inhabit every day. It is good not to dwell on bad thoughts, but we all have them from time to time. Sin nature sucks, but it is always there.
Now that we have given Him acknowledgement, praised Him, and acknowledged our own sin, now would be the time to be a little selfish in a good way. But here is the tricky part. You are able to ask anything of Him, He tells us this many, many times. But how and why you ask does matter. He already knows what you want to ask, so putting on pretenses may be offensive, so just speak your heart.
If your asking for help for a friend or another who is in need, and you have faith He will help, He will. His will is that you put others first and you want for them what you want for you. If you want help with a problem, try asking for strength and wisdom to overcome it, rather than asking him to remove it. Suffering may be painful, but it is the best teacher, and you don't tend to forget something that caused you pain, mentally or physically.
Life is full of pain and suffering. God may take some from you, but he may also give some to you. Every obstacle you overcome, especially those difficult ones you had to ask Him to help with, perfects and strengthen your faith.
There is no rule on when to pray, but the early Christians did it three times a day, no matter what. The more often the better. The Holy Spirit is within you, it is there to guide and to protect you. To be your advocate. Use it, rely on it. The more intimately you grow with it, the easier it is to hear it when it tries to speak to you. It takes a lot of practice to learn to recognize the difference between the "voices" or thoughts/intuitions inside you, so you can be sure the one you heed is the right one.
Satan is a sneaky devil! He can lead you with good sounding advice, which takes you into a wrong spot quicker than you may realize. Your best and only defense against this is the Holy Spirit, which Jesus knowingly and lovingly provided us. But test the spirit, be sure it is leading you in a way that is absolutely according to God's stated will. If you have to interpret it and modify scriptural teachings to follow it, be wary. Pray for discernment and wisdom, and when in doubt, pause. Be at peace, allow time for God to answer your prayers before taking the reigns.
There is much more to be said about prayer, but this is plenty longer than I intended to begin with, so I'll leave it here to pick up again later. God Bless and I hope something in here made sense or helped someone.
PS- If I said "you should" in here anywhere, read " I'd suggest". I'm not a prayer teacher or telling you how or what it the proper way, just offering advice on what has worked for mr and what I've read and think is helpful. Prayer is personal between you and the Lord.