Young Adults' Group

The Practice Of Prayer

by Pastor Mark
July 25, 2018

The challenge to practise praying more meaningfully

We thank God for the many wonderful lessons learnt at the recent Spiritual Retreat. The challenge is for us to apply these lessons into our life as we seek to go deeper in our prayer life.

As we reflect over these lessons, there should be a greater consciousness of the need for us to pray. There should be a greater understanding of how we should pray. These are some of the significant lessons that have ministered to my heart and has helped me further in my prayer life.

1. A consciousness to practise praying

“for behold, he is praying.” (Acts 9:11)

One lesson that Pastor Charles taught was how Paul was praying even before he began ministry. As God was speaking to Ananias and calling him to go to the house where Saul was, he commented, “for behold, he is praying.” God highlighted this fact to Ananias by using the word “Behold”. There, he was praying. The word “praying” in Greek is written in the present tense. This means that Paul was consciously seeking to practise praying. He had a devotion to praying even before he began ministry.

Also, we are given a glimpse as to how God sees us when we pray. He knows whether we are praying or not. Can God say the same for us…“Behold, he is praying?” Personally, I was challenged to pray so much more…to be found by God praying. Let us be so much conscious about practising prayer.

2. Consistency in praying

Pastor listed for us the many prayers of thanksgiving that Paul made in his different epistles. He prayed in his epistle to the brethren in Rome, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all,” (Romans 1:8) The word “I thank” in Greek is “eucharist” which means “good grace”. We have been given much grace and we should respond with good grace by giving thanks to God.

Paul also wrote to the Corinthian church, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (2 Corinthians 1:3) The word “blessed” in Greek is “eulogetos” where we get the English word “eulogy” which means “good words.” Paul sought to offer good words to bless the Lord. Consistently, Paul sought to write his prayers of thanksgiving in his epistles to the different churches. We can appreciate his consistency in prayer. Let us be challenged to have greater consistency in our practice of prayer.

3. Communing with God as an inspiration for prayer

A most striking lesson that I learnt about praying is that our relationship with the Lord should prompt and inspire us to pray. Many of us tend to be moved to pray to God when we are in need of His help and blessing. Yet the most important motivation for us to pray should be to commune with the Lord. We should cultivate a loving and dynamic relationship with God through prayer. The Holy Spirit would always lead us to pray and to cry out “Abba Father”. (Rom 8:15) Our desire should be to enter into prayer as sons of God. Let us seek to pray just for the sheer joy of being in communion with the Father. Let us be challenged to practise praying consciously and consistently as we are inspired to commune with our heavenly Father.

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