A Study on prayer

I Have recently read a book about Prayer that I thought would be beneficial to others as it was to me. It is called How To Pray, By Ronnie W. Floyd. It out lines the Steps of Prayer in which you are to follow.  First out lined in the book is The Talking Principles. In it, it says. – Many of you will be familiar with the talking principles of prayer. A real student of prayer is willing to be teachable because he or she is aware that God can always give fresh insights. Take time to think through these talking principles. Do not let your possible familiarity with them move you to skip this section. Talking to God and Listening to what God is saying to you. This is what prayer id all about. Since prayer involves talking to God in a genuine and transparent way, let us investigate the five talking principles of prayer. Although you may have learned these principles in a different order, in this section I usually begin with the talking principle of … Confession. The topic of confession is getting a lot of media attention today. At the writing of this manuscript, out country is going through a major dilemma concerning our president. Not long ago, the president confessed to the American people that he had sexual relations with a young White House intern. As a result, talk shows on television and radio have been bombarded with calls concerning the subject of confession. This confession travels along two avenues. The first area of confession that I like to make in my daily prayers is the confession that I am nothing without the Lord. I cry out to God, confession to Him my helpless state before Him. I declare that I am Inadequate and need this time of fellowship with Him in prayer. I often quote the words our Lord spoke to His disciples: Apart from me you can do nothing {John 15:5}. I confess daily to the Lord that without Him I am nothing. The other area of confession that I practice in my daily prayers is the confession of sin. This subject is getting a great deal of discussion among Christ’s disciples. There seems to be some confusion about this subject, due to recent teachings about confession of sin. It is quite obvious to me that Jesus instructed us to say to the Father in Prayer, Forgive us our sins {Luke 11:4}.  This statement indicates that Christ’s followers are to confess their sins to God. Many Christians are also familiar with the promise of 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. These words of encouragement notify believers of their need for personal forgiveness of sins. The word confess used in the Scriptures is the Greek word homolgeo, which means to say the same as God says. Therefore, when we confess our sins, we are saying the same as God says about our sins. As Bible teacher John Mac Arthur wrote: To confess our sins in the truest sense involves despising the sin, being grieved by it, and judging it. That is what it mans to say the same as God concerning our sin. Confession is more than just admitting to God that you have sinned, it is seeing your sin in view of God’s holiness and being as offended by and grieved by your sin as God is. Confession does not involve hiding the truth or shading the truth. True confession is coming clean before God and others about what you have done that is sinful. For years, when I have confessed my sins, I have attempted to gain God’s attitude about my sins. I am grieved that I have violated the privileges given to me by a loving and holy God. I pray, Lord, my sin deserves death, hell, and the grave. Thank You for judging my sin at the cross. Thank You for forgiving me of my sins. I take the time to ask the Spirit of God to reveal sins that I have committed before others and God. At that point, I ask God to give me His attitude about these sins. I know that God is more concerned about my attitude toward my sin than He is the sin itself. I have a deep respect and awe for God. Since I am aware of His holy nature, I pray more effectively once I confess my sinfulness before Him and receive His forgiveness. I thank God for the cross, which positions me before Him as a forgiven man. Once I have worked through the talking principle of confession, I move my prayer time into the principle of… Praise Once I have spent time before God, confession to Him my great need for Him and confession to Him about my sins, my heart is bursting with joy because I am granted His compassion. I am now ready to move into a period of time when I offer praise to God.Praise is expressing your love and adoration for who God is. The attention in praise is not on the hands of God for what He has done for you but on the face of God for who He is. I love to be around people who accept me for who I am as a person. This is so refreshing in comparison to the vast majority who may want to associate with me because of my title or position. Since we are made in the image of God, I believe that God wants to be praised for who He is, not just for what He has done for us. I find it very helpful to focus each day on three attributes of God’s character, such as His Holiness, His mercy, and His love. I take the time to Offer Praise to God for each one of these attributes. I believe it is also helpful to quote various scriptures to God that emphasize His character or His attributes. Once I have offered my love and adoration to God for who He is, I turn my attention to the talking principle of  Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is different from praise. Do not confuse these two talking principles of prayer. Thanksgiving is expression to God our gratefulness for all of the things He has done for us. Thanksgiving is offering God thanks for the way He has moved in your life and for how He has provided your every need. When I do something for someone, I like to hear the words, Thank you. I do not do something for someone for the purpose of being thanked, but I do something for them because I love them. God loves you. He moves in your life regularly. He does many things for you that you do know and some things that you do not know. He is always active in the life of a believer. Thank Him for a physical blessing He has given to you. Thank Him for a provisional blessing He has given to you. Thank Him for a person He has brought into your life who has blessed you. Thank Him for the spiritual blessings that he freely bestows upon you as you walk with Him and trust Him with the affairs of your life. Discipline yourself to have a thankful heart before God. The next principle of prayer is… PETITION  Once my hart is overflowing with thankfulness, I am ready to offer my life to the Lord. I do not think of my personal petitions in prayer as being selfish. When I pray, I am showing my dependence upon the Lord. I believe that God is very interested in me. He wants me to petition His about whatever is on my heart. I begin this time of petition by surrendering my entire life to God. I offer Him my mind, my will, my emotions, my spirit, my body, my present, my future, my family, and my career. I ask Him to control me with the Holy Spirit. I want to be a Spirit-intoxicated man who is consumed my the leadership and control of the Holy Spirit. I petition the Lord to make me an anointed man of God. I do not want to be known as Dr. Floyd, but I want to be known as a man who has a mighty and special touch of God upon His Live. I ask the Lord to anoint me with the authority of Jesus Christ so that I might see what He sees, hear what He hears, feel what He Feels, and say what He wants said in all situations of life. At this time of petition, I offer to God several personal requests that may be on my heart about my life, my needs, and my ministry. These might be various problems that I turn over to God and know God wants to meet. God already knows everything about me. I have tried to discipline my self to have a transparent and open heart before God in prayer. I believe God is attracted to my transparency before Him. Through the processes of confession, praise, thanksgiving, and petition, I am prepared to enter a very serious time of prayer that is built upon the talking principle of… Intercession. When I think of intercession, I imagine myself standing in the gap between the God of heaven and the person I am praying for at the time. I want my prayer to be used as the liaison between the two. I believe if God puts a person and his or her need upon my heart, He wants to move in that person’s live. I begin my time of intercession praying for my family. I present each of them and their particular needs before God. For example, my oldest son, Josh, is a senior in high school. I pray about his future every day. My younger son, Nick, will enter high school next year. This critical time of decision in his life is upon my heart as I pray for Him. One of the things I pray for my family each day is for the armor of God to be upon each one of us. I place the teaching of Ephesians 6:10-18 upon each one of us in prayer. This is critical! In the times in which we live, we need God’s spiritual armor upon our lives. Once I have interceded for my family, I move on to interceding for the needs of my church. As a pastor, I feel God has given me three priorities for my ministry: leading God’s people, feeding God’s people, and interceding for God’s people. I present the needs of God’s people before Him in prayer. In this time of intercession, I have developed a real burden to pray for people who do not know Jesus Christ in a personal way. I pray for people I know by name who do not know Christ. I pray for God to engineer circumstances in Their lives through which they will see their need for Him. I pray for God to give me opportunities to build my relationship with them so I might be able to share with them the good news of Christ. I also spend time praying for people I do not know personally who do not know the Lord. God has a heart for people who are lost. I believe I need to pray for their eternal salvation. I usually conclude this time of intercession by praying for people who have asked me to pray for them or for people whom God puts on my heart on a particular day. Effective prayer occurs when you talk to God. The five talking principles of prayer are confession, praise, thanksgiving, petition, and intercession. Practice them. Grow in them. Learn for others about them. However, do not forget that effective prayer also involves Listening to God. The Listening Principles As I said earlier, effective prayer occurs when you talk to God and listen to what God is saying to you. I want to relate the three listening principles of prayer. I hope you will consider them and begin to practice them in your prayer life if will consider them and begin to practice them in your prayer life if you are not presently doing so. The first listening principle of prayer is to…Be Still and Quite before God. Since I believe that the Bible is God’s primary way of speaking to me, I always attempt to have a Bible near me when I pray. If I want to hear Him, them I must read, know, study, and understand His Word. An open Bible should always accompany a bended knee. In our rapid-paced and noisy society, it is difficult to be still and quite before the Lord. Our minds are usually racing a thousand directions, so focus is usually a challenge. Discipline is the only way we can learn to be still and quite before the Lord. One thing I really attempt to do is to meditate upon the Scriptures, to think deeply upon His Word. Each day I ask myself this question: What is God saying to me? I need to know what God is saying to me through His word and through the circumstances in my life. I know that God is very committed to His relationship with me. He wants me to know what He thinks. He wants me to know His will. My challenge it to be still and quite before Him long enough to hear Him speak to me. At times, it might be healthy for me to have a change of scenery when I am trying to listen to God. Sometimes I just get into my car and drive, without any particular destination, for the purpose of discerning what God may be saying to me. Do what ever it takes to be quit and still before the Lord. He will say something to you about your life. This first listening principle of prayer is to be still and quiet before God. The second listening principle of prayer is to… Not Be In A Hurry In Your Time With God. You can grab a hamburger on the run. You can even drive through and get a dessert after you eat your Hamburger. On the way home, you can pick up your developed film at the drive-up window of the one-hour photo development store. You can rush here and rush there and become a victim of the hurry disease. But there is something you must never forget: You cannot be in a hurry in your time with God. You cannot grab a Bible verse like you grab a doughnut on your way to work or school. God does not work like that. He words in His own time.