"Father Lord, thank You for today. Forgive me my sins and provide for me today."
I’m going to be sharing how I pray today. For the longest time, I found prayer difficult, and keeping my focus during this activity was even more challenging. My mind would wander all the time, getting caught up in my thoughts.
What I simply did was first create a prayer structure, which meant setting a specific time for it. I didn’t start out perfectly, and I wasn’t always consistent with timing, but with effort, my mind and body adapted.
Then, I asked myself, “Why do I need to pray?”* From studying my Bible, I have seen that my duty as a Christian is to pray—to always pray.
"What am I praying for?" I have come to understand that prayer is not just something I do when I need something. I pray to commune with God, to rant to God, to cry to God, to ask Him to save the unsaved. I intercede for my friends and family.
One thing that reminds me why prayer is so important is the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." The lyrics are so spot on—we bear needless pain because we don’t take everything to God in prayer. We tend to separate God from some parts of our lives because we think He won’t understand, or that certain matters are beneath Him, as if He has more important things to do than worry about our love lives, a friend that wronged us, a gang-up at work, a pain at the back of our necks, or a confusing situation.
But I can tell you—God wants to be involved. It’s a privilege to carry everything to Him in prayer.
Don’t let your worries consume you to the extent that you fail to see and acknowledge how great God is before ranting, like Job did. God is great. God is to be exalted. God is to be prioritized. So when you pray, you want to start with genuine exaltation, from the deepest part of your heart. You want to remember how great He is, how He has covered you with His feathers, and how you have taken refuge under His wings. You want to remind yourself that even when you cannot see Him, He is working. You want to remember that it is because of His grace that you are not consumed.
I have learned to list my daily prayer points, reading them in a way that keeps me engaged without feeling tired or bored. I take them one at a time. My daily prayer points cover:
- Thanksgiving
- Forgiveness
- Prayer for the day
- Prayer for salvation
- Prayer for friends and family
- Prayer for churches and evangelists
- Prayer for those I want to be saved
- Prayer for my career
- Prayer for people in need, etc.
One thing that has also helped my prayer life is listing out the different names of God and addressing Him according to my prayer direction for that day.
Just as different people in my life call me different names based on our relationship, I also address God based on my need at that moment. For example, when people call me Abbie, I know it’s a friend I made recently. When I hear Abigail, I know it’s my family or childhood friends. When I hear Tayo, I know it’s someone who knows me through social media. And when I hear Onion Cider, I know it’s definitely from social media.
In the same way, when I say Jehovah Jireh, I am calling on my God who provides for me. When I feel I have been cheated, I call on El Roi, the One who sees all and judges rightly. When I feel someone has failed me, I call on El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One.
Another thing I do is pray scripturally. I pray according to the Bible, citing examples of when God did tremendous things in the past, reminding Him that He never changes. He is still that same God. He remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.
To pray like this, you must be studying the Word of God constantly—living and breathing it.
I have also learned to exercise patience during prayer, and I end every prayer by saying, "Let Your will be done." Because at the end of the day, He is still God, and His ways are not the ways of man. You will learn to understand this and respect it. Remember that at the right time, God will make it happen. He never shows up late.
Praying like this makes it less of a chore and allows it to flow with ease
There’s still so much to learn about prayer, but I leave you with this for now.
Thanks for sharing this 🤗
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏