Growing in Prayer (Daily Encouragement)
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth. – Psalm 54:2
In the last blog we talked about the 3 essential elements of prayer – the recepient (God), the source (the person), and communication (what is said). We talk to God and he listens. While the majority people I know struggle with prayer, the good news is we can grow and develop each of in each of these areas. From Richard Pratt:
God: The Recepient of Prayer – the Bible describes God as mysteriously and wonderfully multifaceted. He is love, holiness, justice, mercy, beauty, perfection, life, wrath—to name only a few of his characteristics. All of God’s attributes reveal different aspects of His personality. Depending on our circumstances, different dimensions of His character will mean more to us than others. Yet, at no time should the Christian be satisfied with a one-sided conception of God. For our prayers to be filled with life and vitality, we must always strive to deepen our awareness of God in all the ways He is revealed in Scripture.
Us: The Source of Prayer – Prayer always involves a human source. God Himself ultimately gives us the ability to pray, but the human instrument still serves as the creaturely source of communication. Prayer emerges from the human mind and heart…Because prayer finds its source in believers, we also should pay attention to ourselves as we pray. The more aware we are of ourselves, the more sincere our prayers will become. Self-understanding and self-expression are fundamental to all fruitful communication. Communication with God is no different. We must learn how to “speak for ourselves” when we pray…We must thoroughly assess what is going on within us: How do I feel? What am I thinking? What are my attitudes, ideas, and circumstances?
Communication: The Words of Prayer – Following the example of the psalmists, Christians should vary the content and form of their prayers according to their circumstances and their responses to them….Following the same patterns again and again will destroy prayer life, just as surely as it destroys earthly conversation. The same words, said in the same way, at the same time, over and over will drain all the life out of communication with God. Yet, if we learn from the psalmists and other biblical figures and begin to imitate the freedom and creativity of their prayers, then we can expect our communication with God to grow richer and more inspiring by the day.
We can start with small steps – simply growing in our awareness of God, ourselves and words will deepen our prayer life and relationship with our gracious God.