How to build a prayer life

We talk a lot about prayer… but do we do it? There’s more unreality in this area than in most other parts of Christian experience! This session aims to get you doing more than talking about it, and propel you into regular, rewarding times of prayer every single day…

The key verse: Col 4:2: Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

This little verse really nails the three big mistakes that Christians make when their prayer times crash and burn:

They aren’t “devoted” to it but take it on half-heartedly
They aren’t “watchful” and so they give up easily and start neglecting it
They aren’t “thankful” and so it becomes mainly a shopping list – not a joyful celebration of everything that God has done for them already

Three vital facts

FACT ONE Your prayer time needs to be wrapped around with worship at the start and thanksgiving at the end

It’s what Christians have always done: prayers in the Bible always go back to God in worship, even at times when there’s an urgent problem to solve (e.g. Acts 4:24-30, or 2 Chr 20:20-22).
It’s when we focus properly on who God is, and how much we can rely on him, and how much he can do, that we start to pray in genuine faith. And it’s when we take time to appreciate him and praise him that we are drawn closer to him (a bit like people who love each other talking about how great the other one is) and the relationship with him grows.
Also, if we spend long enough in worship we’ll be much less likely to treat the exercise trivially or get bored… we’ll start to sense the importance of what we’re doing.
Giving thanks is part of prayer, and probably a great way to finish. “Counting your blessings” is important; otherwise you don’t realize just how much God has done for you. It’s easy to be like the nine lepers who were healed and didn’t come back (Lk 7:11-19); but they missed out on the experience of leper no. 10.

If you don’t know how to do it properly it doesn’t matter. None of us know how to do it properly anyway, but the Holy Spirit gets involved to make our prayers right (Rom 8:26-28).

FACT TWO Prayer is dishonest if you don’t confess your sins as part of it

Confession is important because it gives us the assurance of God’s cleansing and forgiveness, and gets us ready to serve him in faith once again.
We should never allow our relationship with God to be clouded by unconfessed sin, but sort it out as soon as we’re conscious of it (1 John 1:9).
Our regular daily time with him gives us a chance to review how we’re doing and allow him to speak to us about stuff we may not have noticed yet.

FACT THREE We can ask God for all our needs – he wants us to

Why do we need to ask, if he knows our needs already? First, it reminds us that all we’ve got comes from him, and helps us see our lives properly.
Second, it reminds us of things we need help with, which we’d otherwise forget. And it makes us think: do I really need this? Why am I praying for this? Are my motives right (James 4:2-3)?
Third, it’s a tremendous thrill to see God responding and answering. It shows us again and again that we’re dealing with somebody who is really there, really powerful, and really listening!

WHERE NEXT?

Go to the review to check you understand and remember

Go to points 4 and 5 for additional teaching

Go to another three important Bible passages on this topic

Go back to the main resources page to do something completely different