Prayer is an intentional spiritual conversation between us to God, a way to acknowledge him for what he has done. Prayer can be praising God for who he is, confession and asking for forgiveness, thanking Him for who what he has done or what he will do, and asking for our daily needs. We pray around four to seven times a day, to bless our meals, a goodnight prayer at bedtime, devotion prayer, there’s random requests that we send up whenever.
The physical actions of bowing your head, closing your eyes is that what praying look like? The Bible did not say what our body should do when we pray. We bow our head to show honor and we close our eyes to avoid distractions. The purpose is to focus and humble yourself before your creator.
Prayer is a daily reminder of our faith and why we are here. It begin with our father in heaven, we call God Abba because we are his children. He is the father who provides earnestly for his children. We ask daily for forgiveness, to repent from our sins.
When I was preparing for The World Race, one of the biggest things was prayer! I asked for prayer over my fundraising, health, spiritual growth; as well as, being thankful in many small things over God’s provision. It was a great concern that now that I’ve sent my prayers up to heaven, when are you going to answer? Are you with me? Isn’t this the plan you have for me? Are you going to fulfill it? God said keep on asking, God will provide. Prayer requires a whole lot of faith. Sometime we ask and receive an immediate answer, other times six month later he answers. God always knows when is the best time to answer. In this society we ask so much, even me ask, ask, ask. When do we actually thank him? God’s will for us is never stop praying and be thankful in all circumstances.
Oftentimes, when I pray it is like I am doing a Christian checklist. Sometime after I say amen, I think to myself, “Did I really mean that?” Do I really thank him for providing the meal for me? Then those prayers would be meaningless, it didn’t come from the heart. Just the same way when we hurt our sibling, saying sorry is just for show. When we pray, we should prayer with good intentions, with our whole heart.
We pray in two ways, privately and publicly. I do not have a problem with praying in private, no one can hear you or what or how you are praying in your mind. The thing I struggle with is praying publicly. When someone asks to pray in a group, there’s always few awkward seconds, or no one wants to, then you have to appoint someone. You know that when we are appointed, we never say no. That would be me, I hate praying publicly because my prayer does not sound like poems, rather I sound like a middle schooler. I know my prayer doesn’t need to sound like poems because I do not know how I ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. (Romans 8:26) No matter how cheesey my prayer are, God knows what you mean.
Tikki
