Prayer: Do it Yourself

begin with God.

Pause.

Remember that he is Creator and Lord.

Remember that he is holy, and ask his forgiveness for the sin in your life.

Remember that he is Father, concerned to listen to the stumbling words of his child.

take a good look.

Think of the main aspects of your life (those you love, the demands of home and work, your hopes and frustrations) and draw them together before God. This avoids the hypocrisy of holding a polite conversation with God in, as it were, the smart front room of your life, while barricading him away from the secrets of the kitchen and the horrors of the store room!

remember Jesus.

For Jesus, prayer was a way of life. It was basking in the Father's love, a fresh commitment to the work of his Kingdom.

remember the Spirit.

"The Spirit comes to help us, weak as we are, for we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express."

Ask God to "catch up" your prayer in the prayer of the Spirit.

be secret.

Jesus taught that prayer is essentially private, between you and God. "When you pray," he said, "go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen."

be honest.

When we come to God in prayer we come as we are. There is no point at all in trying to come as we aren’t!  God does not judge us by what we are pretending to be or by what other people think us to be. He knows us through and through.  And he loves us all the same!

be brief.

When we pray, there are no marks for long words and no bonus points for overtime. Indeed, it is interesting to note that when Jesus taught his disciples a prayer, it was quite short. Think before you pray; don't be afraid to get to the point, and pray "little and often" - at least to begin with.

finally, be thankful.

Thankfulness is the keynote to which we tune our prayers. As Paul says: "Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart."

do it!