The Prayer Practice - Talking with God

Praying premade prayers is a beautiful way to pray. It’s where we start our prayer journey, and it’s a place we revisit all through our lives. But at some point in our life of prayer, we each desire to pray our own words to God—to share what’s on our mind, our heart. Our pain, our joy, our hopes, and our fears. We can’t help but desire to interact with God in a more authentic, personalized way.

Weekly workout routines; Cardio, Arms, Abs, Lower Body, Rest

It can take a very long time to figure out your daily routine for prayer—where to pray, when, how long, etc. And it’s a moving target in the different seasons of our lives. So we’re always fine-tuning: What’s working? What’s not?

Prayer routine: Gratitude, Lament, Petition and intercession

Find an aid to “transition” in and out of prayer.

music, early morning coffee, walking, etc…

Use your body in prayer.

We have an embodied faith and a wandering mind, so posture matters a lot in prayer.

Biblically, the most common way to pray is not sitting or even kneeling but standing up and lifting your hands. But you can also pray sitting on the floor, kneeling, lying face down, walking, or, like Jesus did, climbing a mountain!

Different postures are more conducive to different types of prayer. For example, standing and lifting your hands is ideal for intercessory prayer. Kneeling or lying face down on the floor are fitting postures for confession, repentance, or surrender. Walking can be a great posture to unburden your heart to God. Sitting cross-legged on the floor or in a firm chair to aid deep breathing is very helpful for quiet, contemplative prayer. There’s no “right” way. Just experiment with your body and your daily prayer rhythm.

1. Gratitude.

Gratitude is talking with God about what is good in your life and world.

Psalm 100:4 NIV

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Generosity is at the center of the Gospel and God’s nature, making gratitude the primary way we relate to God.

Gratitude isn’t just the beginning of prayer; it’s the heart of our entire relationship with God.

Our spiritual maturity can be measured by our level of gratitude.

Here are a few ideas.

Begin your daily prayer time by giving thanks for three gifts of the day.

Give thanks during everyday moments like while you commute to work, take a shower, or walk your dog.

Keep a gratitude journal.

Go around the table at dinner with your family, spouse, roommates, or community and say what you are thankful for. However you do it, at least once a day, pause, and give thanks for at least three good things in your life.

2. Lament.

Lament is talking with God about what is evil in your life and world.

Two-thirds of the Psalms are lament.

We are invited to pray what is in us, including pain, be it anger, grief, or jealousy.

Lament is an emotionally healthy way of processing pain with God.

Praying lament can be a deeply personal experience. It’s about connecting your own feelings, experiences and situations with God. It’s about revealing the real you before the Father.

Hebrews 4:13 NIV

13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Psalm 42:1–3 NIV

1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

We will be praying steps to be honest Wednesday evening 6:30

3. Petition and intercession.

Petition and intercession is asking God to fulfill his promises to overcome evil with good.

Petition is when we ask God to do something on our behalf, and intercession is when we ask God to do something on someone else’s behalf.

When we ask in prayer, we are to:

Ask in Jesus’ name–as those in Christ and in alignment with Christ.

Ask like children–as those who are dependent.

Keep on asking–always pray, and do not give up.

While the kingdom of God’s will is not yet fully here, prayer makes a difference in what does–or does not–happen.

Philippians 4:6 NIV

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Prayer Cards

Make a list of the most important people and situations in your life.

Offer up specific prayers to God.

Generic prayers make it harder to see God’s hand in your life.

Pray the room.

This combines setting and listening for God. The goal is to pray what the Holy Spirit is already wanting you to pray from deep within.

Romans 8:26–27 NIV

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. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Why don’t we pray?

1. We don’t pray for fear of being Naive.

Prayer can’t be mastered. Prayer always means submission. To pray is to willingly put ourselves in the unguarded, exposed position. There is no climb. There is no control. There is no mastery. There is only humility and hope. To pray is to risk being naive, to risk believing, to risk playing the fool. To pray is to risk trusting someone who might let you down. To pray is to get our hopes up. And we’ve learned to avoid that. So we avoid prayer.

2. We don’t pray for fear of silence.

What if I actually strip away the music and the community and the sermon, strip away all the noise of my familiar faith expression? Left with just me and God, what if I discover there’s actually not much to just me and God?

Prayer means the risk of facing silence where we’re addicted to noise. It’s the risk of facing a God we’ve mastered talking about, singing about, reading about, and learning about. It means risking real interaction with that God, and the longer we’ve gotten used to settling for the noise around God, the higher the stakes. What if it’s awkward or disappointing or boring, or what if God stands me up altogether? When we’ve got that much to lose, prayer might be scarier than the avoidance of never being alone with God.

3. We don’t pray for fear of doing it wrong.

I’m not eloquent. I’m not confident. I’m not comfortable. I hear other people pray out loud, and it only furthers the insecurity. Many Christians spend years limiting their experience of prayer to sitting in a pew while a professional Christian talks to God in words they’d never use in normal conversation, leading to the misconception, “I must be doing it wrong.” Some of us don’t pray often, not yet anyway. Maybe one day we’ll master the lingo and learn the mechanics.

Why pray?

1. Pray because you’re overwhelmed.

1 Peter 5:7 NIV

7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

We live in a generation where we’ve become cynical. The result is multiple generations of people who find safety in pretending they don’t need either people or God—I can trust myself, guide myself, be enough for myself.

When we do this we just swap jail cells.

Constantly overwhelmed lives should drive us to prayer at its purest and rawest, but the tendency for many of us is to pray safe, calculated prayers that insulate us from both disappointment and freedom.

Our prayer’s don’t exchange overwhelmed lives for the peace that passes all understanding. We simply drag God into our overwhelmed lives, and we reduce him to fit our circumstances.

We keep praying but we lower the bar of expectations.

We kick like mad to keep our heads above water, all the while talking passively to an imagined God who is powerless to do most anything except give us the right perspective to make it through the day.

We dwindle God down to a divine Being just as overwhelmed and powerless as we are,

and our prayers to that God are understandably vague and infrequent.

2. Pray because Trust comes before Faith.

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Faith is the assurance of what we hope for. Trust is the confidence in the character of God.

Before we can have faith that God will answer a given request, we simply have to learn to trust the character of the God we’re talking to.

Trust allows us to say, “I don’t understand what God is doing right now, but I trust that God is good.”

unanswered prayers?

Jesus hasn’t revealed a God we can perfectly understand, but he has revealed a God we can perfectly trust. Trust is the certainty that the listening God hears and cares. I trust the God who, even when he doesn’t make the suffering go away, wears the suffering alongside me. Trusting the God revealed in Jesus means silence is real, but it’s not forever.

3. Pray because the only way to get it wrong is by trying to get it right.

“If you are praying, you are already ‘doing it right.’” - Roberta Bondi

“ Give us today our daily bread.”

What a simple request! Bring your felt needs to God—the needs of this day—and talk to him about them. How should we pray? The most straightforward response is to talk to God about what’s on your mind. That’s it! You talk to God like a friend. You vent. You ask. You laugh. You listen. You unload. You just talk. You don’t try to sound more holy or pure or spiritual than you are. Prayer isn’t a noble monologue; it’s a free-flowing conversation, and the only way to get prayer wrong is to try to get it right.

Philippians 4:5–7 NIV

5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.