How to Pray: Enjoying Your Time With Jesus (Updated)

My wife and I are so cool that we chose a family theme song. The song we picked was an old Quaker song: Tis a Gift to be Simple. It is a great reminder to me when I want to make things more complicated than they need to be. Simplicity is also a great thing for a prayer life. Often when I am introducing my speaking ministry to pastors I tell them that my ministry is to speak to the person in the back row that thinks that prayer is intimidating. So with that in mind let me give you a short video I made a few years ago that we lost in “the crash” on how to start a prayer life.

4 Reasons God Hasn’t Answered Your Prayer (Updated)

One of the great challenges with prayer is when prayer is not answered. A specific request may come to mind. We ask God why He hasn’t answered us. But part of the problem with that is that we don’t figure out what our response should be to the fact that He hasn’t answered. Looking at some Bible stories may help you and encourage you.

  1. Mary and Martha- They asked Jesus to come but he waited till after Lazarus died. Jesus’ reason: Not yet, a bigger miracle is still coming. Abraham had a similar response when asking about a child. God did not answer till it was a really big miracle. What should we learn from those stories? The challenge to us: Keep asking!
  2. Jacob-I have been thinking about Jacob and his journey while Joseph was in Egypt. Jacob had to wonder about the dreams that Joseph had in the years Joseph was gone. We know that because when the stories of Joseph being alive comes to Jacob the dreams were part of what helped him believe it was true. So what could have God told Jacob during those many year? You don’t have the whole story. What should we learn from that story? Keep asking!
  3. Job-When we see the struggle of Job, he is seeking God for an answer. Why is he struggling so much? Now although we see behind the scenes at what is happening in heaven we are never told that Job figures it out. Basically God says, “I am God and you are not so it is really none of your business.” But even during that situation the lesson for us is: Trust God knows what He is doing and you keep asking.
  4. Daniel-When we read the story of Daniel there is a prayer that he asks that he doesn’t get an answer right away. When he finally gets the answer we learn that there has been a spiritual battle that has held up the answer. So spiritual warfare was holding up the answer. The lesson for Daniel and the lesson for us: There may be a spiritual battle so keep asking.

Looking at the lives of those who have gone before us the lesson seems to be: Keep asking. As we wait for an answer: Keep asking! Unless He comes back with an answer of no: Keep asking! Like Job you may never understand why, but keep asking anyways! What prayer request do you need to keep asking God to make a difference?

A Short Prayer to Help You Avoid Trouble (Updated)

How often do you pray that God would help you avoid trouble? I think that we can mess up simply by failing to pray this prayer. Jesus in His teaching on prayer encouraged His disciples to pray, “Lead me not into temptation.” I didn’t think too much of this until hearing Roger Stacy, one of my heroes in ministry, speak about this verse. He brought out the idea that by praying this prayer we are able to avoid needless temptation in our lives. It is easy to pray, “God, give me strength when tempted.” Maybe we should be praying to avoid the temptation in the first place. He is a couple benefits:

1.  God has the power to help us avoid certain tempting situations.

Maybe there are situations that you can avoid by living a life of prayer. Paul encourages us to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5). Maybe we can avoid certain opportunities to sin that way. In Luke 17 Jesus tells us that temptation will come, but He does say how much. I think I would like as little as possible please. Thank you very much!

2. It puts us in a right attitude about ourselves.

By praying and asking God to help me avoid temptation it reminds me of my own human frailty. One of the saying that we use at my house is, “There but for the grace of God go I.” We are all prone to make mistakes. That is why the story that Jesus tells about the Pharisee and the other man’s prayer is so powerful. The sinner’s prayer was, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” That simple prayer was heard because it was prayed with the right attitude. It is an attitude that all of us need.

Maybe a short prayer for you today and everyday is, “Lead me not into temptation.”

If you liked this you might also like: 5 Surprising Results of Not Praying