Personal Requirements of Prayer

I have always been one to pray while a prayer is being said by someone else. Usually I'll be listening and be in agreement with them, or I'll be praying about the same things at the same time and other things that come to my heart and mind at the time. You probably do that too. But once in a while, I'll just listen to someone's prayer. I remember when Bruce and I started going to Faith, we struggled with knowing for sure that this was where God wanted us. It took a long time for us to join, even though after the first visit we couldn't imagine being anywhere else. Then 9-11 happened and that Wednesday night Pastor Goodman had a special alter call before prayer service. I will never forget gathering around that alter with God's people and as I finished praying, I just listened to all the men of God raising their cries to the Lord. But I also remember hearing a prayer coming from the platform that sounded muffled and anguished. I looked up and saw my Pastor flat down on the platform with his body completely stretched out and his face on the carpet. I had never seen anyone pray like that before. I had never heard anyone pray like that before. It blessed my heart to know that the man who would most likely become our spiritual leader was that close to the throne of God. Not perfect, mind you, just close to the throne. He was a praying man! I have GREAT respect for the man of God that KNOWS how to pray and humbles himself before the Lord, taking no pride in himself on what he says or how eloquently he says it. He's just praying and talking to God!

There are several general requirements in the Bible on how to pray, but I wanted to focus on some personal requirements of prayer mentioned in the Bible. These have helped me to stop and examine my prayer life.

*Purity of heart ~ Psalm 66:18,19 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer:" Have you ever heard something like, "The way they live their prayers won't pass the ceiling?" In other words, their life is full of sin that we all know of and see. We know God is not hearing their prayers! But you know, sometimes we have sins hidden in our hearts that keep the Lord from hearing our own prayers. On the outside we look like Christians and we act like Christians, but in our hearts there are things that hinder our relationship with the Lord. We need to let those things go and keep our hearts pure. He longs for our fellowship and it is our own fault when something hinders that.

*Believing ~ Matthew 21:22 "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." I can not tell you how many times I have prayed for something, not believing that the Lord would answer that prayer. It seemed so unreachable for me, but you know, nothing is unreachable for God. He can do ANYTHING! He created the world in six literal days, saved the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace, fed Elijah by using the ravens...and my requests are too big for Him? And yet, I still have a hard time believing. Why is that? Because I bring Him to my level of humanity instead of seeing Him as the almighty God that He is. What an insult it must be when we do not believe He can answer our prayers! There's an old saying that says, "If you're going to pray for rain, carry an umbrella."

*Praying in Christ's name ~ John 14:13,14 "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." I have a really difficult time with those who just end their prayer with a simple "Amen." I want to ask them just who exactly are they praying to? Jesus? Buddha? Mohamed? Make yourself plain to me and to those who don't know any better. If it wasn't important for us to pray in His name, it wouldn't be in our Bibles. Can you imagine the prayers that would be answered by men of God if they would just pray in His name instead of being stubborn about it? I ask them, please show me in the Bible where we are not to pray in Christ's name. Do you not respect Him enough to do that? Do you think yourself equal to Him? Can you tell this one gets under my skin a little bit?

According to God's will ~ I John 5:14 "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us." Prayer was always confusing to me as a child. "...ask in His name and He'll do it...ask for His will to be done." Well, what if my request for Him to do something didn't line up with His will. The two go hand in hand. When our hearts are pure, we want God's will in all things. Regardless of the outcome. If we continually seek His will, He will hear us. If we just keep pestering Him for something, even though it's painfully obvious that it is not His will, He may just go ahead and give it to us. When that happens, it always ends up being a bad thing. The Bible has many stories that end up like that. God is good all the time and we need to trust His will for everything in our lives. He sees what is ahead of us. Trust Him to lead and guide.