What is the best word to describe my prayer life right now?
What is the one word that describes my desire for my prayer life right now?
Prayer is with God.
1 Corinthians 1:9 NIV
God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 139:
“You have examined my heart.”
“You know everything about me.”
“You know my thoughts.”
“You see me.”
“You know everything I do.”
“You know what I am going to say even before I say it.”
pp.: “Wherever I go or whatever I do, you are there.”
“As prayer becomes more intimate and vibrant, we use fewer words. The many words that were once a source of intellectual stimulation become dry and painful, and our prayer life becomes very few words that are rich and meaningful.”
Romans 8:26 LEB
And likewise also, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as one ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unexpressed groanings.
I do not how to pray, but the does.
Get
Luke 5:16 NIV
Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
When you are , you are with .
“It is folly for a man who has a dead person in his house to leave him there and go to weep over his neighbor’s dead.” –Abba Moses, 4th Century
!
Habakkuk 2:20
The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.
“The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish; and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of the word is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.” –Chuang Tzu
Prayer is not a way of making God listen to me, but a way of making me listen to God.
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Psalm 46:10 NIV
Be still, and know that I am God.
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1: Start with awareness
2: Let the prayer come from your deepest longing.
3: Root it in God’s name.
4: Pray it with your breathing.
5: Let it become a rhythm
1 Thessalonians 5:17 ESV
Pray without ceasing.
6: Over time, allow the words fall away
“In learning to pray, there’s no laboratory that’s needed, but a room, no apparatus but ourselves. The living God is the filed of force into which we enter in prayer. The only really fatal failure is to stop praying and not to begin again.” –Douglas Steere
How Shall I Pray?
by Ted Loder
Are tears prayers, Lord?
Are screams prayers?
Or groans, or sighs, or curses?
Can trembling hands be lifted to you?
Or clenched fists?
Or the cold sweat that trickles down my back?
Or the cramps that knot my stomach?
Will you accept my prayers, Lord?
My real prayers?
Rooted in the muck and mud, and rock of my life,
And not just my pretty cut flower, gracefully arranged, bouquet of words.
Will you accept me, Lord?
As I really am?
Messed up, mixture of glory and grime?
For I do not know how to pray, really.
Help me become quiet enough to hear the prayer of the Holy Spirit.
Groaning on my behalf before your throne of grace.
Help me to believe that it is the right prayer,
And to join you in it.
Help me to rest from all my worried prayers, Lord.
And enter into that intimacy that is too deep for words.
Lord, help me.
For I do not know how to pray.
Amen.
Answer Key: communion; know, Spirit; alone; alone, God; shhhh; rest; breathe