How We Pray

It led me to remember one night when I was in Hannah’s room when she was a baby, nursing her in the rocking chair. It was in the middle of the night and I was crying and asking the Lord when I would have time to have a quiet time with Him and when I would have time to “serve” Him. It was then that it seemed as if He spoke to me in an audible voice! “You are serving Me! You are doing the most important work that anyone could be doing. You are raising children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There are seasons of life. At this time, you need to be at home with these precious girls. When they are grown, you will have the time to do other things.”

Well, now I have the time to do other things. I am alone much of the time. Physically I can’t do certain things due to really bad joints, but I can pray and I give honor to God in that! I am learning so much about prayer!

The Order of Prayer

I am in our Wednesday morning Bible Study with the book, “Pray by Faith” by TW Hunt and Claude King. I have read a number of books about prayer and have done a number of studies on prayer and I am convinced that this is the best study on prayer that I have ever seen. TW Hunt used to go to Two Rivers Baptist Church at one time and did a prayer Conference there once. I think he is the godliest man that I have ever met. He used to get up at 3-4 am every morning to go out to his garden to pray.

One of the things that I have been reminded of is that if we don’t first confess any “new” sins in our life that God can’t even hear our prayers. I was taught early on to use the Acts method (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) of praying and I am now convinced that is not the best way to pray. I think we should confess before we do any other praying. Otherwise, I don’t think God will hear those other prayers.

In James 5:15-16, it says “and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

In Nehemiah 1:6, Nehemiah prayed,” let Your ears be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. ”

2 Chronicles 7:14 says, if ” My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, ‘then’ I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Do you worry? Do you gossip? Do you overeat? Do you dwell on negative thoughts? Do you talk down about yourself? If you do, that is a sin, because you are made in God’s image. There are so many sins that I must confess every time before I pray!

Pray without ceasing!