What does it mean to pray?

Have you ever considered what it means to truly pray?  Does prayer actually convince God to do things that he was not planning or the means by which He carries out His plans?  Our understanding of prayer is important because it impacts how and how much we pray.  If we believe our prayers are not that important because God already has everything figured out, I believe the result will be to a life that never experiences the powerful and dynamic prayer life God desires every follower of Jesus to experience.  If we think that God is waiting to meet our every desire then we will end up praying what we want instead of what God wants.

In Exodus 32:14 we observe the Lord relent from disaster in response to the prayer of Moses for the people of Israel.  Moses prays and the Lord responds.  It is important that we see how God is looking to work through people to carry out His purpose if we want to truly join God in seeing His kingdom come and will be done. 

I have been reading a short little book on prayer by Watchman Nee titled, Let Us Pray.  In this book he writes, “… the first step in our doing God’s will is for us to utter His will in prayer.  … There is no work more important than prayer because the latter accomplishes as well as expresses the will of God.  Hence all prayer which comes our of self-will is useless.”  The problem the majority of Christians find in prayer is that they are never able to move beyond their wants and desires as the focus of their prayers. 

Watchman Nee continues, “…our prayer should never be asking the Lord to do what He has no desire to do or trying to change His will.  It is simply a praying out of His will, thus enabling Him to do what He desires to do.”  For whatever reason God has chosen to partner with praying people in carrying out His will on earth.  God is looking for people willing to join Him in carrying out His will.  Are you that kind of Christian?

Praying for an hour?

Psalm 92:1-4, speaks of the wonder of praising God. This past weekend our worship service was focused entirely on praying. The whole service was one long prayer. We did not pray how we as people normally end up praying... you know, “God bless the missionaries” “God bless the sick people” kind of praying. Instead our prayer was focused on God’s presence, we were praying from our hearts in response to who God is. We were seeking God’s face and not just His hand.

That is the kind of prayer that is exciting. I may be a little biased, but I had an awesome time. It is not often that you hear people talking about the incredible time they had in prayer. But that is exactly what prayer can be, completely and totally exciting. God is incredible and spending time in His presence can be incredible if we move past our needs.

When we base our prayers in our needs it doesn’t take long for prayer to become boring and monotonous. After all, how many times can I say the same thing the same way before I get bored with hearing myself? Discovering God focused worship based prayer allows for prayer to become an exciting and dynamic encounter with God. My heart for every person at Trinity Church is that they would experience a relationship with God that is exciting and dynamic. Joining together in corporate worship based prayer is powerful. I can’t wait to do it again…

Looking forward to your thoughts and comments on corporate worship based prayer.