Talk to God- Prayer
In Philippians 4:6 it says, Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God. Basically prayer is simply talking to God just like you would talk to your very best friend.
God cares deeply about each and every one of our problems and is just waiting for us to come to him with those problems. The Bible tells us over and over to constantly bring our problems to our Heavenly Father.
Prayer is not to inform God of something which He may not be aware of or to try to convince Him to love us more. He already knows our needs and He has certainly shown his love. Prayer defines our relationship with God. As you explore the questions below, our hope is you will see the importance of prayer for your life.
Why should I pray?
How do I talk to God?
How does God talk and communicate with me?
Seven questions you can ask as you pray?
What about unanswered prayer?
Prayer unleashes Gods's power so that he is able to work in our behalf. Prayer opens the channels of God's blessing. Prayer is how God accomplishes the things that he wants to see happen in our lives. Prayer opens new doors of opportunity for God to move. In fact you can view prayer like a door. You are on one side of a closed door and on the other side is God. But standing with God is all this incredible and unimaginable power. When you pray, it is you turning that doorknob and swinging that door wide open. For it is at that moment when all that power can step through that doorway and work for God's good, and for your good.
Prayer is our lifeline to God!
We should tell him our thoughts, desires, hurts, and problems, as well as giving him our thanks and praises. He wants to hear them all from us. He already knows what they are but he wants us to tell them to him. Also remember that God's help may come about in steps or stages. Your request to the Father may involve and have impact on the lives of many, many others, both now and in the future. Therefore you may not receive immediately all that you request from him, but the tide has turned the very moment that you turned to him.
Whenever you cast all of your care and concern upon him and rely upon him totally to supply your needs and to show you how you are to live, he is quick to respond.
Since he respects our freedom of choice and free will, prayer enables him to step into our lives. In some ways, God has limited his powers in our lives to the importance that we place on prayer. Prayer is an invitation to God to do what he has been longing to do all the time. It is aligning our will with His. As the Lord Jesus prayed, “Father, not my will, but yours be done”, so are we aligning our hearts with Gods. Even when we do not see anything significant occurring, God is still at work. When there are apparently no answers, God is still is waiting for the proper time to give us the solution.
Psalm 55:22 Throw every burden upon God.
Psalm 68:19 Blessed be Our God who daily carries the load for us.
Psalm 56:9 This I well know, that God is for me.
How do I to talk to God?
1--Bring your circumstances to God's attention immediately. But always keep the circumstances God centered and not problem centered.
2--Supplication. The definition of supplication is---a very honest and clear confession that tells God that you need his help. “Cast your cares upon Him and He will care for you”.
3--Then focus on God and not on the problem or circumstance. Keep in mind that our prayers are always to be God centered.
4--Thanksgiving. You are thankful because you know the following about our great and mighty and glorious God.
- That you can come to the Father with your problems anytime
- That he is concerned about you
- That he loves you
- That he said that he would help you
- That he will see you through this problem
- That he has the power to solve this problem
- That you can trust him 100%
Much of the Bible talks about thanking and praising God as the following verses indicate. As you pray, be sure to thank God for the people and good things he has brought into your life.
Psalms 95:2 "Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with praise."
Ephesians 5:20 giving thanks always, for all things, to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ".
1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus".
Psalms 100:4 "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name".
Hebrews 13:15 "Therefore, let us continually offer to God the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."
Psalms 97:12 "Rejoice in the Lord, And give thanks".
God is just waiting for you to talk to him, waiting just for those few brief moments when you acknowledge Him, think about Him, and show Him some love and respect. Yes, your God is just waiting for you to talk to Him and He desperately wants to talk to you, not in words, but through your mind and your heart. God is going to bypass the vocal cords and the ear and instead your heart will feel that gentle tugging, that urging, that pulling. Your heart and mind will know exactly what God is trying to tell you.
Most people expect God to answer them in some divine way or somehow speak to them verbally out of the heavens, but that isn't the way God operates. God speaks to a person’s heart. To their mind. To their sense of moral righteousness and fairness. To their sense of what is right and Godly. And those methods of communication that God uses are extremely loud and clear. But before God can begin to talk to you, something must happen. You have to be receptive to God's words. You have to begin to communicate with God and listen for God to speak. You have to get your heart in the right condition.
How does God talk and communicate to me?
There are always two people involved in prayer. You and God. So prayer should never be a monologue, but rather prayer should always be a dialogue.
You may wonder just how he will speak to you, just why he would speak to you, and just what methods he uses to do his speaking. Generally there are four methods he speaks to you and there are four reasons….
- God speaks to us through his Word. He uses the Bible as his foremost tool to impart truth and wisdom for how to live a lifestyle that we were created to enjoy and honors Him.
- God speaks through the Holy Spirit who is with us every second of the day.
- God speaks to us through other believers.
- God speaks to us through divine circumstances.
REASONS HE SPEAKS TO YOU
- God desires to have fellowship with us. We are his most precious creation and he loves us dearly. Each and every one of us is a child of God.
- God knows that we constantly need direction and we need His power to overcome evil. He provides that as we pray through the Holy Spirit in Christ.
- God realizes we need comfort and assurance in order to get through all the ups and downs of life and that He is there.
SEVEN THINGS TO ASK YOURSELF EACH TIME YOU PRAY.
Each and every time that you pray, you should ask yourself how the things that you are praying for fit in and affect the following seven conditions.
1) Will the thing that I am praying for meet my Godly personal needs and will it fit in with a just and biblical life style?
2) Am I being submissive to God's will, and will I gladly accept whatever God is willing to give me, if anything. Is your spirit willing to agree with the Lord and say, ..”not my will, Father, but let your will be done?”
3) If my prayer is answered will the result honor God?
4) Will it harm or hurt someone else or will it interfere in another person's life.
5) Will it please God. Will what you pray for delight God?
6) Does my request contradict or conflict with the Word of God in anyway.
7) Will it further my spiritual growth. Will what I pray for bring me closer to God?
We must remember that we are responsible for three things when it comes to prayer…
FAITH---You must have complete faith in God.
OBEDIENCE---You must obey God fully and completely.
PATIENCE---You must wait patiently on God, for we are all on his schedule.
When trials and tribulations come into our lives there is a tremendous temptation to immediately begin to worry and become fearful. However worry and anxiety do not bring clarity. Instead, they simply cloud our minds and prevent us from seeing God's solution. All fear and worry do, is paralyze us. But you can prevent mental distress from ever coming into your life, if you look to Jesus Christ the very moment a difficult time enters your life. If you can immediately concentrate on the Son Of God and not on the problem, then worry and fear will never be able to gain a foothold. If we are able to do that then verses like the following will become very, very evident. Psalm 34:19 "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers them out of them all".
Prayer changes us, not God. Prayer opens our hearts and minds to the greater and wiser will of God. Through prayer, God gives us strength to better reflect his character of love when we are tested. Through prayer God gives us courage and peace to trust in his control over matters that are beyond our control.
One of the hardest things to believe is that God is intimately involved in our lives when everything is going wrong in our life. But what prayer does is transform doubt into trust.
WHY WE SHOULD TRUST GOD
- My God is right here all the time.
- My God loves me unconditionally.
- My God will listen to me.
- He will help me.
- He will hear me.
- He will give me peace.
- He will solve my problems.
- He keeps his promises.
What about "Unanswered" Prayer?
Certainly people get sick, even die; financial problems are real, and all sorts of very difficult situations can come up. What then?
God tells us to give our concerns to him. Even as the situation remains dismal, "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." (I Peter 5:7) The circumstances may look out of control, but they aren't. When the whole world seems to be falling apart, God can keep us together. This is when a person can be very grateful that they know God. "The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, 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 comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."God may provide solutions, resolutions to the problem beyond what you imagined possible. Probably any Christian could list examples like this in their own lives. But if the circumstances do not improve, God can still give us his peace in the midst of it. Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful."
It is at this point (when circumstances are still tough) that God asks us to continue to trust him -- to "walk by faith, not by sight" the Bible says. But it's not blind faith. It is based on the very character of God. A car traveling on the Golden Gate Bridge is fully supported by the integrity of the bridge. It doesn't matter what the driver may be feeling, or thinking about, or discussing with someone in the passenger seat. What gets the car safely to the other side is the integrity of the bridge, which the driver was willing to trust.
In the same way, God asks us to trust his integrity, his character...his compassion, love, wisdom, righteousness on our behalf. He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."15 "Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us."16
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