Prayer, it's something that I get asked all the time to explain, even the disciples asked Jesus how to pray. In Luke chapter 11 verse 1 it says, and it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, LORD, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
The word pray spelled out itself can tell us what to do:
P- Praise God
R- Repent
A- Ask
Y- Yield
The Bible tells us in Luke chapter 19 verse 40 that the very rocks will cry out if we do not praise God, we don't want a rock to do our job, let us first praise Him. The Bible also tells us in Psalms chapter 150 verse 6 that everything that hath breathe is to praise the LORD! This is so important, God does so many miraculous things in our lives if we just spent our whole lives thanking Him for everything He has done we would never have enough time, there is always something to praise God about.
Romans 3:23 is one of my favorite scriptures because it reminds me that I am not perfect and that's okay, it says "For all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God;" so when we repent we should know that it's okay to mess up and everyone does it, but that shouldn't become an excuse to keep doing the same behavior. Even when we feel like we have done the most horrible thing in the world we can go to 1 John 1:19 and He tells us that He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. The definition of just is "based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair". God is a very forgiving God, all you have to do is repent, and truly mean that you are sorry and you are forgiven. He will help you to not do those things again. When praying for repentance it is vital that you ask for forgiveness for the things you know you did and the things you unknowingly have done because you might not have seen that you did something, you might now have known what you said offended someone but God does see these things and He will forgive you, as long as you ask genuinely being sorry. Matthew 6:14-15 says that you must forgive others or else God cannot hear your prayer, you have to forgive to be forgiven.
Ask and ye shall receive (Matthew 7:7) and whatever you ask in prayer believe that ye have received it and it shall be your. That's Mark 11:24! We are told to be careful for nothing in Philippians 4:6-8, that means to not be anxious, to just trust God. If we ask something of God we aren't to worry about it any longer. We just need to have faith and be careful or anxious for nothing knowing and believing that He will make a way and He will answer you for your good.
When we pray, we should yield to God. How do you do that you might ask? I'll explain with scripture. Matthew 26: 36-46, by reading that we should follow by JESUS' example. He prays in the garden with a very heavy heart saying that if He has to go to the cross to be crucified that He would, He asked God if it be possible if God could let this cup pass from Him of going to the cross. He told God though, it's His will be done not Jesus'. We have to have that kind of attitude even though our flesh is weak we must try to walk in the spirit because it's willing. We cannot expect everything to go the way we want, we have to ask for God's will to be done because He and only He knows what best for us, He knows what is going to affect us and how along with how we are going to handle it. It's a very powerful thing that JESUS didn't just demand God that He wasn't going to the cross, but He said "Thy will be done, not Mine". Isn't that a great example to follow?
God bless you all and I hope that this can help you when you are stuck while praying because there is always something to pray about, and sometimes it's hard to know how to begin.
