Do you ever feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling? Are their times you fall asleep praying? Do you ever wish your prayer time was more exciting?
If our prayer times are boring, the problem is with us, not God.
Our God is an amazing God. When we pray, we are talking to the God of the universe: the One by whom everything was created and continues to exist.
Our God is not boring. He is the giver of miracles: the One who sent fire on Mount Carmel in response to Elijah’s prayer; the One who caused the sun to stand still when Joshua asked; the One who protected the three men in Nebuchadnezzar’s fire and shut the mouth of the lions for Daniel.
He is the One who “does great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number” Job 5:9.
Learn to approach your prayer time with excitement and expectation. The following ideas may help you:
Realize you are praying to an awesome God.
“For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God …” Deuteronomy 10:17
Begin your prayer time by acknowledging how awesome God is. Tell Him you know that He is all-powerful, all- knowing, and always-presence. Address Him as Lord God Almighty and the Holy, Holy, Holy One.
Pray verses to Him like Isaiah 40:28 – “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faith or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.” and Psalm 147:5 – “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.”
Other verses you could pray are Jeremiah 10:6, 1 Chronicles 29:11, Nehemiah 1:5, Psalm 47:2, Jeremiah 32:19, Luke 1:49, Ephesians 3:20, and Revelation 1:8,18.
Do your own google search for Scriptures that talk about how great God is.
Appreciate the privilege of coming before a holy God.
Our God is a holy God. His presence is so awesome that He proclaims in Exodus 33:20, “No man shall see Me and live.” If we entered into the presence of the Holy God in our sinful state, we would fall dead.
But God, in His love and mercy, provided a way that we could come before Him.
“In whom (Jesus) we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith” Ephesians 3:12. Through the blood and body of Jesus Christ our Savior, we now have the awesome privilege of entering His presence with boldness (Hebrews 10:19).
We should be humbled every time we come to prayer. When we come before the Holy God, we do not have to fear death. We also do not have to fear rejection. Ephesians 1 tells us that those of us who are in Christ are blessed, chosen, accepted, redeemed, and forgiven.
Enjoy and practice the privilege of prayer you have been given.
Talk to God like you would a friend.
Some times when we talk to God, we use ‘churchy’ words. We seem to think that there is a proper way to talk to God. God is the One who gave us the gift of language. He wants us to use that gift to communicate with Him.
Right words do not cause God to listen to us. In fact, God is more interested in our hearts than our words. We need to learn to pour out our hearts to Him. When we called a friend to talk to them about our troubles, we are not concerned with using the ‘right’ words. We simply tell them what is bothering us and trust that they understand how we are feeling.
God knows us better than any friend. He knows our thoughts and feeling even before we express them. He wants us to come to Him and “cast all our cares upon Him; for He cares for us” 1 Peter 5:7. We can express anguish, frustration, fear, confusion as well as joy, excitement, amusement, and thankfulness.
Many of us are stoic in prayer. We forget that God created emotions. We need to be honest with our words and emotions in prayer.
Expect God to talk to you.
God promises that He will answer us when we pray. “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” Jeremiah 33:3.
God created prayer so that we can talk to and hear from Him. We need to learn to listen. Hearing form God is just like hearing form anyone else: if we don’t listen we will not hear what He says.
We can prepare ourselves to hear from God by doing the following:
- Ask Him to open our spiritual ears.
- Sit quietly before Him and listen for His voice.
- Ask Him to teach us how to hear His voice.
- Read His Word expectantly listening for Him to speak.
- Record what He says in a prayer journal.
God will speak to us.
Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” If we are His sheep, we will know His voice and we will follow Him.
Knowing and hearing the voice of God makes for an exciting prayer time.
What are some ways you energize your prayer time?
Made Ready 