I’M SAVED, NOW WHAT? (part-51)

I’M SAVED, NOW WHAT?

PRAYING
One of the best uses of our tongue is praying. Prayer is how 
we communicate with the God of the universe (our Creator).
We can have many questions that pertain to prayer.

For instance, when should we pray? Should we pray in times of
trouble or when we have pending decisions that we need to make?
Should we only pray before meals and at night before we go to bed?
Should we keep prayer in reserve to be used during crucial times
of problems and illnesses, or to pray intercessory prayers for others
when they have a need? Is the “sinner’s prayer” the only prayer we
should pray? Should we use prayer to thank God for His blessings
and to praise Him? Should we use words like “Thee”, “Thou”, etc.
or should we use normal language that we would use when talking
to someone else?

The answer to the question, ‘when should we pray?’
is of course – anytime and all the time. It is God’s
gift to mankind for communicating with Him and
for showing our genuine concern for others, but it
is only useful when we use it (often).

Do we find it is easier to pray when everything is going right,
or when everything is going wrong? When things are going
right do we forget the importance of prayer because we don’t
feel we need anything right now? When things are going good,
we should remember to pray prayers of praise and thankfulness
for God’s blessings.

Although everything may be going okay in our own lives, we
should also remember to pray for others. We should never
forget the importance of praying intercessory prayers. When
we pray for others, it can help to distract us from our own
problems as we redirect our thoughts toward their needs.

When we pray for others, we also show that we are not selfishly
motivated in our prayers. We are praying for someone else
instead of focusing only on ourselves and our needs. I believe
that God loves it when He hears our intercessory prayers for
others.

When things are going wrong, we often pray because we feel we
have a need for God. We have probably failed with every solution
we have tried on our own, and finally realize that the only hope we
have is God (because He is the only one who can ‘fix’ what is going
on). When we are in dire need, it is probably easier to block out all
the distractions and focus on our cry to Him for help.

What is the easiest type of prayer to pray? Hopefully it is a prayer of
praise and thanksgiving. Whenever we praise and thank the Lord for
all He has given us, it can often become quite a lengthy prayer. We can
thank Him for the obvious blessings of food, shelter, clothing and good
health, but what about the many other things He has provided?

We can thank Him for our jobs and our autos for traveling to our jobs
and other places. We can even thank Him for our pets, our lawnmowers,
our tools, our vacuum cleaners, our answered prayers, our furniture, etc.
We can thank Him for His love and forgiveness, for the spiritual gift He
has given us to use in serving Him, and for the Holy Spirit He gave to us
when we received His salvation. Think about that for a moment, God has
given us His Spirit to help us navigate a sinful world as a follower of His
Son, Jesus.

See how a thanksgiving prayer can take a while? When we praise and
thank the Lord, we can discover that some of the things that have been
causing us misery, aren’t quite as intense as they were before we prayed.

There are times when it is difficult to pray. Probably at the top of the list
is when we are out of fellowship with God and we need to confess our sins
and repent. It is hard to talk to other people when we have feelings of guilt
and shame for something we have done to offend or hurt them. Of course
it stands to reason that we would have the same difficulty when
communicating with God when we have offended Him.

It is difficult for many of us to admit that we are wrong and that we have
failed to obey the Lord. Satan knows that when we confess and repent, it
can be a refreshing time for us (almost like a new start), so he will work
his magic to try to keep us from praying this type of prayer.

It can also be difficult to pray when we are angry or stressed. When we
are angry, we don’t have the right attitude for speaking to the Lord and
it can be even more difficult if our anger is toward God Himself. When
we are stressed it can be difficult to pray because we are distracted by
what is causing our stress. Although it may not be intentional, our minds
can wander while we are praying as we try to resolve the issues causing
our stress in the midst of praying. When we are experiencing stress and
problems it can be difficult to clear our mind in order to pray.

Praying may be difficult if we have a feeling that we are not going to
like His answer. For instance, let’s say that you are single and really
attracted to someone, but you have an uneasy feeling about spending
the rest of our life with that person. You may avoid praying and asking
God if this is the ‘right one’ because you are afraid He will say ‘No’.

If you are not currently serving the Lord in some capacity, it can be
difficult to pray and ask God how you can start serving Him. Why?
Because you can be fearful (or selfish) of the time you will have to
commit to Him.

If you are already serving Him in some capacity, it can be difficult
to ask God if there are additional areas where you need to serve
Him. Why? Because you could be fearful that his answer might
be for you to become a foreign missionary, or to do something else
that will take you out of your comfort zone.

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