teachustopray – The Kedge Anchor

Welcome back again and thank you. Prayer is an important part of the Christian life. After all it is how we communicate with our Heavenly Father. “Never stop praying.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The KJV says “Pray without ceasing.” The greek word for ceasing is adialeiptōs , translated – incessantly. Makes me think of a pesky insect, like a fly continually landing on my food or buzzing around my face. It just doesn’t stop.

That’s what God is trying to tell us in Paul’s letter to Thessolanica, be pesky with prayer. Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” And Ephesians 6:18 – “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” Pray at all times and go to God about everything.

He wants to hear it all. The small things, like finding your lost keys, helping you with deciding where to go for dinner, He wants to be included in all you do. He wants to hear about how excited you are about finding something you lost, or how a memory makes you happy, and He wants to hear about your bad day, how a co-worker made you feel angry or how you messed up. Sometimes we don’t know what to pray. And the cool thing is, we don’t always have to talk. We just need to be present in His presence and listen. We can always find something for which to praise Him. Thank Him for all that He is doing, has done and will do because God is faithful. Thank Him when you get the perfect parking space, thank Him for finding a lost item, thank Him being able to tie your shoes and if you can’t thank Him for the person who could. Praise Him for His creation, for the song birds, the rain, the sun, praise Him for the small things and the big things. Thank Him for the person who delivers your pizza 🙂

So as you begin the weekend, be pesky in prayer, in all things, all the time and be present in His presence.

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Prayer can sometimes be a little daunting. We so often don’t know what to say. We have no words to express how we feel or what we want to see happen. We can feel inadequate, sometimes unworthy. We often feel uncomfortable praying in front of others and worse asked to pray on the spot. We can feel lost and start to question our faith when our prayers go unanswered.

We wonder, is God hearing me? Where is He? Why aren’t my prayers being answered? I’ve been praying for ______ fill in the blank, for years, what’s taking so long? We ask, “where are you God?” These are normal responses. We are after all human. We don’t have all the answers to anything. We don’t have infinite knowledege. We were not present when God created the universe.

So, let’s find out and dig a little deeper into what prayer is and isn’t. Let define prayer, practice it, share it. I am no expert on prayer. I have probably just as many if not more questions than you do about prayer.

Jesus gave a perfect model of prayer in Luke 11:1 and in Matthew 6:5-15. And that is just what it is a model prayer. It illustrates how to pray rather than dictating the necessary words to use. Even as a model prayer I still find myself praying it from time to time when I am at a loss for words, sometimes I pray it to calm my mind. I do believe God still hears my words, my unspoken words.

When writing about something, in some cases I was taught to start by defining what it is about I am writing. So let’s define prayer.

The Merriam – Webster Dictionary defines prayer as:

1a(1): an address (such as a petition) to God or a god in word or thoughtsaid a prayer for the success of the voyage

(2): a set order of words used in prayingb: an earnest request or wish

2: the act or practice of praying to God or a godkneeling in prayer

3: a religious service consisting chiefly of prayers —often used in plural

4: something prayed for

5: a slight chancehaven’t got a prayer

In Biblical terms, prayer can be defined as a conversation with God. However, I do believe that God has a love language and we need to know what that is. Just like your spouse or your family members, friends, boss, co-workers, anyone in who you have a realtionship with has a love language and to communicate best with them, learning their love language can make a difference. But, I still believe that God hear us when we can seem to find the words. Romans 8:26 – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.“

So you maybe asking, “why pray?” Stay tuned as we try to gain some insight to prayer. Please like and share and if you have any comments please share them.

Tag: teachustopray

Teach Us to Pray – Part 3

“Teach Us to Pray”- Luke 11:1 Part 1

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If you liked this post, please share. Thank you!