How Do You Pray?

We live in such a fast paced world, where the motto of most people's lives is "get it to me as fast as possible". Have you noticed how fast everything has become in your life? We can just swipe our card and get gas, download movies, music, and games straight to our televisions or computers. Smart phones have propelled this speedy society into hyper-drive. We can literally get almost anything and everything we want quick, fast and in a hurry. While in one sense this is a huge benefit, it does not bode well for our spiritual disciplines.

A friend mentioned to me the other day that one thing he was trying to do in his life was to SLOW DOWN! I have been thinking about that lately and I started to realize that all the spiritual disciplines we struggle with, come as a result of our lives being so fast. Reading and studying Scripture takes time and effort, it is not something you can rush through and still get the full benefit of learning and thinking deeply. Prayer is another one of these disciplines that suffer due to our lack of being able to slow down. Scripture tells us to "pray without ceasing", but we will never get to that kind of attitude because most of us cease to pray.

Why is it so hard for us to pray? Have you ever thought about that? We know that there is great spiritual benefit to being people of prayer, yet we struggle so badly in this area. While I believe that there are many reasons for this struggle, one glaring problem is that we do not know what to pray. If you are like me, then most of your prayers are just a grocery list of things we think we need. I find that most of my prayers are completely focused on myself. I struggle with how to pray.

But I have been learning recently about the power of praying Scripture. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this in relation to praying God's words.

The child learns to speak because the parent speaks to the child. The child learns the language of the parent. So we learn to speak to God because God has spoken and speaks to us. In the language of the Father in heaven God’s children learn to speak with God. Repeating God’s own words, we begin to pray to God. We ought to speak to God, and God wishes to hear us, not in the false and confused language of our heart but in the clear and pure language that God has spoken to us in Jesus Christ.

God’s speech in Jesus Christ meets us in the Holy Scriptures. If we want to pray with assurance and joy, then the word of Holy Scripture must be the firm foundation of our prayer. Here we know that Jesus Christ, the Word of God, teaches us to pray. The words that come from God will be the steps on which we find our way to God.

If you struggle to know what and how to pray, let me encourage you to go the Psalms and pray the Word. Praying the Psalms is so beneficial because of the wide range of emotions that are involved that you will find yourself identifying with. As one author said, "I feel like I know this writer", and you will probably feel the same way. In our speedy, fast-paced world of smart-phones there should be no excuse for us to not know what to pray. Download a Bible app. and starting praying the very words of God today.

N.T.S.