Prayer: How and Why?

So this teaching started out based on what to be expecting this year in prayer. Dan Perkins talked about how some people may feel a little uncomfortable while praying, or having to pray for long periods of time and that is okay.

No one was born finding prayer easy. It is something you practice. Eventually "you begin to crave what you consume." The more you pray the more you will long for prayer, and to be in God's presence.

So here is the first little part..
- Why does God want us to pray?
- When we pray we are INVITED to be involved with what GOD is doing.
- We can change the planet from the place of prayer.

Prayer is extremely powerful. It is communicating with the creator of the universe, and guess what? He is listening. Our prayers go up to God and He answers them.. (only if it is HIS will).

2 Chronicles 7:14 "if my people, who are called in my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place."

We pray so GOD recieves His GLORY.

The example used was this,
Say you are out looking for a job and you can't find one and you are like "man.. i need a job blah blah blah.." so finally you HUMBLE yourself and say Lord I cannot do this on my own, provide a job for me. So then when you get a job the next day you exalt him for what He has done. If you went out and got a job on your own without asking God first then you receive the Glory (which is not your glory). So when we pray and look to God for our provisions and we receive then we would give God the glory; however, when we don't ask then we think we did it on our own.

Our prayers must be honest and have the right motive. We do not get any glory for our prayers being fulfilled. The glory must go to God.

Prayer Nature:
We must cultivate a mindset of prayer that is "let your will be done."
We need to have the attitude of Jesus when we pray just as it says in Philippians 2:5-11
"Your attitude shoud be the same as that of Christ Jesus... Therefore God exalted him tot he highest place.. name that is above every other name.. to the glory of God the Father."

We pray so God gets the Glory. If not then we must reconsider our prayer motives.

Matthew 6:9 How to Pray
Begin prayers with Jesus what is YOUR will? and then listen. Prayer is dialogue not monologue. That means it is a CONVERSATION.. which means you must LISTEN haha. Weird right?

You can pray and then pick up your bible and pray scriptures and ask God how that scripture relates to you and then once you get an answer keep going and it is back and forth back and forth.
If you really start to do this then we will begin to crave scripture.. if you ask God what he thinks about it. Suddenly leviticus and deuteronomy are less painful to read and then..
"GENEOLOGIES BECOME AWESOME!" (I thought that was hilarious)

We need to want to pray Gods will not our own.
- If you spend time in prayer your heart will begin to tell you what to do.
- Your heart seeking God and your emotion seeking Him are different.
If you read the Psalms there are times where King David is about to be attacked my spears and invaders or who knows what really but yet He still longs to know the Lord. It is an overall desire. Not just time to time or based on how you are feeling. God is always worthy of praise. God is not based on our emotions He is always Perfect and always righteous and will be forever. Just because we don't feel good or something does not allow us to be pardoned from worshiping Him.

- "Solitude is the furnace of transformation." More than a good sermon, more than a good book, alone time with God is more crucial to your growing in Him than anything else. Get to know Him. Seek His face. God is longing to reveal Himself to us! "seek and you will find, knock and you will be answered" If you begin to spend time with God and get to know Him on an individual level then that good book will end up getting even better because you are just feeding the fire that is already lit! Same thing with a good sermon. Discover the Lord for yourself!

When we PRAY God WILL move.
"God does nothing but answer prayer." - if this quote is true, then we better start praying!!! Because the Lord is waiting on us to ignite His will!
Prayer is just a catalyst for the inevitable. God's will WILL be accomplished. But we can be a small part of that!

** The God of the Universe can do anything He wants whenever He wants but He decides to wait on us to pray for Him to do it.
Prayer is humbling but also dignifying. Think about it. God could do anything He ever needed, yet He wants us to partner with Him! What a relational God! We get to play a small part in God's amazing power. (But we must remember to give Him the Glory)

Apparently some like awesome teams football coach said this to one of his recruits.
"I am going to win with you or without you, but I rather you be a part of it though."

SAME thing with God. Ultimately His will is going to be accomplished. God just wants us to be on His team.

So.. that was kind of why we pray.. Here is How.

1. Pray by yourself. Matthew 6:6 "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Don't use prayer to show off. Pray to God. Don't pray to show how good of a prayer you are, or only pray in groups to look "cool." Get before God alone. Just like what was said earlier.. "solitude is the furnace of transformation."
- Even jesus prayed alone to recharge himself! Mark 1:35
If Jesus got alone before the Father (who clearly had a pretty good connnection) then I think we most definitely need to spend that alone time with the Lord.

2. Just make a list of things to pray for.. that makes praying easier. Super simple! Done!
3. Pray in Groups!!! Again.. if two or more are gathered in my name I will be in the midst of them.
So when we pray in groups we KNOW God is there.. awesome!!1

Things to rember.
Prayer is CRUCIAL. We must pray for God to move, or just to speed up the process of His will..
"Satans strategy is to make you think to put everything else before prayer and make it seem less important."
Satan understands the power of prayer. Satan cannot interfere with prayer. We CRUSH the enemy through Jesus! So lets pray it up!

Keep prayer simple also.. it doesn't need to be complex. Jesus was humble, he liked simple.
One of the most powerful prayers was when the guy was next to Jesus on the cross.. all he said was,
"Remember me."
Those two words probably changed his eternity.
Give prayer time.. you don't have to be an awesome prayer the first time.
Prayer is something you cultivate and crave the more often you participate in it.