Prayer Attitudes (Part II)
This is the second part of our study on Prayer Attitudes. These refer to the right posture we must have in communing with God, which is what prayer is; these postures are responsible for an effective prayer life. In this study, we shall consider the second of the three postures I call: Sincere Prayers
ATTITUDE 2: SINCERE PRAYER
You’ll probably be amazed to discover that most of our praying is anything but sincere. Jesus in John 4:24 say we have to worship or commune with God the Father in Spirit and in truth. One may replace ‘truth’ with ‘reality’ or ‘sincerity’. It means we’re either fooling around or sincere because praying (which is communing with God) is serious business.How to go about it
a. Pray From Your Heart (Ref. James 5:16)Have you ever found yourself forgetting the very last words or sentence you made while praying? Many have and it’s because we’re not praying from our hearts; most times it was our heads talking, our focus wasn’t on it. Anything that comes from your heart usually gets your attention. The above text in the Amplified Bible describes a fervent prayer (an expression used in the King James Version) as “heartfelt”. It means if your prayer doesn’t touch you; it didn’t touch God!
This definitely has nothing to do with the gyration of one’s body or how much he perspires; chances are that those who think this way don’t pray from their heart (rather from their body)! I think God deserves our unreserved heartfelt attention in prayer. James tells us that such prayers always work.
b. Keep it Simple – don’t stretch it! (Ref. Matthew 6:7, 8)
Almost all of us are culprits here. We claim sincerity in prayer yet ever so often when we are through saying what we have to say and it seemed too short; we get into our old habit of repeating the same things either in similar or different ways.
In the above text, Jesus addressing this issue says such prayers only come from people who do not know God! Ouch… that is a low blow. Believe me we all need that blow! We equate our effectiveness in prayers with either the length or the verbosity of it. God loves it when we just say what we have to say and believe that He heard.
Is it at midnight or noon; or is the weather cold or hot? Coming to God in prayer is His delight. He never gets bothered with it. Left to God, we are not praying enough; we are not coming to commune at His feet enough and He’ll be glad if we acknowledge Him in all we do.
I find it difficult to believe, though most of us do it, that we are sincere when we assume that talking with God about minute details of our private lives is ‘bothering’ God. With God there is no ‘call waiting’ or ‘busy schedule’, He is there for you to come talk with even on intimate issues.
Its Benefits
a. It Frees One From Doubt.Stretching our prayers we have discovered is a testimony to our unbelief that God heard the first time or better still God will not act until we ‘get on His case’. Anyway we see it, it boils down to unbelief. So keeping a sincere prayer life speaks leaps and bounds about Faith. Do you ever wonder why the prayers of children do not go unanswered?
b. It Helps Check Wrong Motives
Keeping honest hearts helps us to admit failure or inability even when we pray; it also is a safeguard to wrong or selfish motives. If we knew God knows everything we think, say, or even hope to imagine, we wouldn’t be dumb enough to be insincere when we pray.
As long as one is not sincere in prayer, there is little he can receive from God because such a one will not obey the instructions he may get. Sincerity is pre-requisite to being willing and obedient. God does not risk His leadings and directions to the dishonest. Click HERE for the previous part of this study.
Expect the concluding part of this study October 2006!