Prayer should always be a central part of our everyday life. It is our one most important form of communication with Almighty God Our Father, Christ Jesus Our Saviour,Redeemer, and Brother, and, with The Holy Spirit of The One True and Living God.
But in order for us to be certain that not only are we being heard as we pray, but more importantly that God is understanding our prayer and receiving it in a manner that is within His Godly Will, we must be certain that we have taken proper steps. We must also remember that prayer is not going before God with I need, I want, fix this, do that.
In my experience, throughout my prayer life, it has always been important to me to choose a time where I can give thirty minutes to an hour, sometimes maybe longer, that I dedicate strictly for communing with Almighty God. It can be anytime during the day or night, that you specifically set aside for prayer and prayer only, with no interruptions.
The next thing you want to do, is to choose a location, a spot where things are relatively quiet, where you and God can feel free to openly communicate together, it might be in your bedroom, or in your backyard garden, maybe on your balcony, whereever you can feel comfortable, and will not be interrupted, remembering that this is not to be a onesided thing you are doing. I usually like to go to my balcony early in the morning, always with my bible, sometimes with my first cup of coffee for the day.
I usually will lay down my bible on a nearby chair, and with out giving it any thought, simply open it anywhere, to any page, then prepare myself by clearing my mind of all the clutter, by taking 4 or 5 really deep cleansing breaths.
As I stare off across my surroundings, observing mother nature, I will begin my prayer, my conversation by announcing that it is me, David, their beloved son and brother, bidding good morning, first to My Father, and then to My Brothers, Jesus and Holy Spirit, welcoming them into another day on earth with me, and thanking them for bringing me into yet another day to serve as son and brother, here on earth, and offering, promising to submit myself and my day to serving them, with all my heart.
At the same time I invite Them to join me and take part in every aspect of my day to follow. I always finish this portion of my praying with the words of Jesus my brother, "Father, yet not my will, but thy will be done in me always."
I know that whether I am at work doing my daily work, or working on some project, or helping someone with their project that day, it will be whatever God has asked of me for that day and that God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, are right there by my side, and will lend a hand if needed, and often they areneeded.
Now for me comes the most important part of my prayer time for I spiritually prepare myself for my day ahead, by donning my spiritual Holy Jesus Armor, in order to protect myself from any and all of satan’s followers, by reciting from memory and from my heart, PSALM 23, which acknowledges my belief and dependancy on My God for everything in my life. I then follow this with The Lord’s Prayer.
Knowing that it is God’s Holy Spirit, that works in my life, to guide me and teach me, as well as being the one who inspires me, with my Hub writings, or my music, my fun cooking, I ask his will and inspiration. If Holy Spirit chooses for me to write something, in the glory of My Father God or Jesus, I ask Holy Spirit to use me as He sees fit, to do His will.
Now come the second most important part of my daily prayer time with God. I sit down and pick up my bible. Sometimes I start reading at where I first flipped it open. Othertimes, I’ll close it, and Holy Spirit will instruct me to turn to a specific passage and verse to start reading.
As I read quietly, my spirit and mind await for God to speak to me that which He desires me to know, or do. I learned quickly how to develop patience for waiting on The Lord, as His answer doesn’t always come immediately. He might ask me to read several different passages from my bible, before his answer becomes clear for me.
My mind might be immediately flooded with that which Holy Spirit wants me to write for the day, or it might be a simple quiet reminder of something I must do for the day, or even a tugging at my heart to make amends for something that I said or did the day before or a few days earlier. What ever it happens to be, painful, or easy, or fun, I give but one answer, "Yes Lord".
As you may have noticed, I never once begin by telling God what I need or want or expect. To begin with, God already knows all of this, because even though I have not turned in prayer for anything specific, God knows exactly what I need, and what I don’t, and he will provided it in His perfect time anyway, so why bother asking and begging for it. Also I have not asked fix this, or help with this, or cure this, for others for God already knows about these things and will handle them. This is what Almighty God has taught me over the 65 years of my life.
You see for whatever the reason, people seem to treat God as someone who hasn’t got a clue as to what’s going on and needs to be reminded and pleaded with and even begged for things.
No No No! Before the thought ever reached your mind to ask for something, it was in God’s mind, and He is already working out things. What God needs to know is that we love Him, are willing to serve Him and only Him, and not reject Him.
There is one, three word phrase, that constantly comes out of my mouth, that sometimes people think is a lack of caring or indifference or apathy or what ever, "I don’t care!" I use this one phrase or sentence in many and any a circumstance, during a conversation, and my reason for it is "I don’t care!" whatever the hardship, whatever the difficulty, whatever the pain or hurt, for myself or with regards to others, "I don’t care!" because The Lord my God is in control of my life, and your life, my surroundings and your surroundings, hardship pain or suffering, God is incharge, therefore we should not care about what is happening in the moment because God is incharge and in total control and will work everything out to His satisfaction and His way and will. Therefore, "I don’t care!" My wife hears this constantly from me, but the truth is she hasn’t learned to give things up to the Lord God, like I do.
If you can learn to take this approach to life, you will remain healthy while others around you get sick. You will be able to be calm, composed, rational, and have peace of mind always.
To quote or para-phrase one very special Baptist Pastor from Atlanta Georgia, "No matter the difficulty, or problem, or sickness, or whatever, if you can’t handle it simply offer it up to God, then walk away and forget about it, and in God’s time, He will provide the perfect answer and solution." Now I’m not a Baptist, but I am a Christian, and this makes sense to me, and it works. I know this for a fact, because I practice it.
After you have spent as much time as you can possibly alot for your prayer time, to commune with God before you go about whatever, simply thank God for listening and communing with you, then go about your business. Throughout your day don’t be surprised when God speaks to you for something, and your answer should always be "Yes, thy will be done."………………………………………….Amen!