In my walk with Christ, I screw everything up. But there is one thing that I seem to be headed in the right direction with. I’m not bragging about it, as you’ll see if you keep reading. I actually have a lot of work to do in this area.
Prayer. I love prayer. It’s not something I’m good at. But it’s something I really like to try to be good at.
I’m going to type out my favorite prayer verse, but first I want to explain where all this is coming from. When I left for college for the first time I was freaking out. The night before I was going to move into my dorm, I was laying in bed in a hotel in Nashville trying not to weep because my sisters were in the room with me. I missed my friends so much. I felt insane for going so far away from them. I wanted to hug them so badly, but I couldn’t, because I was 7 million miles away from them. And I knew I wouldn’t get to see them for about four months. It was really hard. I couldn’t hug them, so I prayed for them. And I have every single night since then. It started so simply. I wanted to be with my friends that I missed so much. God used my love for them to teach me how to pray. Now I love to pray for everyone about everything.
I pray in two different ways. The first has come naturally to me for a really long time because I’m a selfish human being. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray continually;” I take that literally. So literally, that God may actually regret ever conceiving the notion. I will not leave Him alone. It seems impossible to “pray continually.” Obviously, every second of my time is not taken up praying. I have conversations with people. I go to the bathroom. I take notes in class. I listen to music. I write papers for school. I do a lot of things, and every word that comes out of my mouth is not a prayer. But the majority of my thoughts end up as prayers. My average train of thought is too complex for anyone but myself to comprehend. Friends have told me that they’d be frightened to know my train of thought sometimes. But the train usually ends with a prayer of some sort.
When God says to pray continually, I think He actually wants you to say things like “God, I’m in a hurry, if that red light could turn green in the next five seconds, that would be great!” or “God, I am having a really hard time focusing in class right now because this is all a bunch of nonsense, please help me to focus!” or “God, I’m in a really bad mood right now, I really need some help thinking positively before I meet with my friend for lunch” or whatever. I think that’s what it means to pray continually. Every day we are all faced with so many decisions and problems and details that stress us out, and maybe even exhaust us. Why in the world do we think we have to handle it all by ourselves? God is there. I think He wants us to spit out sentence prayers while we’re running around doing things. I think God is so present in our lives. I think He does so much work in our lives that we never even acknowledge. He is so good with details. He probably does things for us we never think about. Maybe He does things like make one of your classes let out early because He knows you need a break. I’m sure He does. So, if He cares enough to give us all those little blessings, there’s no reason not to talk to Him whenever something comes to your mind, no matter how small it is. I think that’s what it means to pray continually. That’s why I say it comes naturally to me. I ask God for too much. Sorry God. So what I’m working on, is praying continually with other people in mind. If I see someone crying during a test, I can pray for them really quickly. If someone is giving a speech and I can tell they’re really nervous, I can pray for them. If it looks like someone in the library is developing a headache because they’re so focused, I can pray for them. If someone looks like they’re having a hard day, I can ask God to bless them. I think that’s what praying continually involves. And honestly, once you get into the habit of doing it, it’s so hard not to. You’ll be praying all the time before you know it. My struggle is to pray continually more for other people, and to spend more of my continual prayers praising God for all the details He works out in my life. You can pray for me about that. =)
The other way I pray is more “intense” I guess. It’s more focused, and definitely more than once sentence. You’ve probably heard of this method. ACTS. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication (requests). I’ll be honest. I really really stink at the adoration part. Part of it is because I feel like everything I say to praise God is so stupid and lame. There aren’t many words to really describe how cool God is. And the other reason I stink at it is because…prayer is really hard sometimes. Sometimes because of sin. But mostly just because it takes a whole lot more energy than people think. We’re humans. Our thoughts wander. And…you’re talking to GOD! Creator of the Universe. There’s no way that can be casual all the time.
These are my favorite verses about prayer:
James 5:13, 17-18
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.
…
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
That’s so cool! I can’t wrap my mind around that…Elijah is just like us?! Whatever. Prophet extraordinaire. But that’s what the Bible says. And if he could pray and see things happen, and he’s just like us, that means the same thing can happen to us. That’s so beyond my comprehension. I love those verses.
I am ashamed by how much of my prayers are devoted to me (confession and requests) compared to how little they aren’t about me (praising God, thanking God, and praying for other people). That’s definitely something I have to work on. No question. But I do pray for my friends and other people, and I can’t even tell you how much my love for them has increased just by praying for them. I can’t explain how that happens. It’s probably a safe bet to say that the people we love most in our lives is our families. I think praying for them can even help you love your family more. Praying for people is so incredible that way. Praying for people fills me with so much joy. I don’t spend enough time each day praying for other people, so I can’t imagine how much more I would love everyone if I devoted more time to praying for other people. My friends and family are still so far away, but there aren’t as many days when I feel that distance anymore. I’m sure part of that comes from adjusting to college, but the only way to explain how much my love has increased for them is the fact that I pray for them every day. I need to be more faithful in asking them for actual prayer requests, but I pray for them every day and it makes my heart smile so much. Maybe it’s selfish to benefit from prayer. But I do. It’s one of those mysteries.
Here are some verses about praying for friends that I also really like.
Philemon 1:4-7
I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.
Ephesians 1:16-17
I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Philippians 1:3-11
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.
I’m just going to end up typing the whole Bible in here if I don’t stop. There are so many verses about prayer in the Bible. I didn’t even type out the classic ones. These are just the ones that mean a lot to me because I see how much Paul loved his friends and prayed for them, and it’s exactly how I feel about my friends. But the Bible says a lot more about prayer! Mmmmm boy.
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