16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
I love to pray. I pray all the time. And I love to talk to others about an active, effective prayer life.
Rick Hamlin, executive editor at Guideposts magazine wrote a book, 10 Prayers You Can’t Live Without. Part of his introduction says this:
“To try to pray is to pray. You can’t fail at it. Nobody can. Open your heart, open your mouth, say something, say nothing. Shout if you must. Raise your hands, and clasp them in your lap. Sing if you please. You can start with a ‘Dear Lord’ and end with an ‘Amen,’ or dive right in. You can close your eyes, get on your knees, and use whatever language you like, or no language at all. You can pray when you’re walking, running, driving to work, setting the table for dinner, lying in bed before you turn the light out.”
For me there is only one rule for praying:
Prayer must be a conversation. Prayer lets us speak to God; meditation lets God speak to us. Both are essential. Don’t do all the talking; we must listen, too. Meditation is focused thinking.
That’s it! You have so much freedom in your prayer time. Be yourself. God wants a relationship with you, the real you.
As I said before I love to talk to others about prayer and have spoken with many groups, (women’s Bible studies, Youth, Confirmation classes, children, and Sunday School classes) about prayer. Here’s a list of why and what we pray that I have collected over the years.
- Pray to bless our meals
- Prayer as conversation
- Pray for others (intercessory prayers)
- The Lord’s Prayer
- Praying for forgiveness
- Pray through a crisis
- Sing your prayers
- Prayer to focus your thoughts
- Pray in thanksgiving – all the time
- Pray yes
- Bless our meals
- Daily prayers (prayer lists, pray for family, friends, needs, etc.)
- Rocket prayers
- Popcorn prayers – I pray all day long.
- Barbara Parks 30-day prayer program
- One word prayers
- Breathe prayers
- Praying scripture
Feel free to ask me about these.
Next time I’ll tell you about my prayer bead ministry.
Prayer
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)
