The 3 P's of Prayer

Prayer is vital to the Christian. Just as someone who is living must breath, someone who has been made alive in Christ MUST pray; not out of duty or obligation, but rather as a natural response to a humbling and awe-inspiring Gospel. If we are honest with ourselves, many of us, myself included, will admit that our prayer life is not consistently where it should be. There seems to be a desire, and yet in those precious moments when we sit down to focus and talk to our Savior, the phone rings, the baby starts crying, or the to-do list for the day comes into our minds. And then there are those moments where we actually DO focus, and begin praying and yet fail to pray in accordance to the Father's will. Our agenda takes a front row seat to what God wants, and somewhere in the midst of it all the focus has been taken off of Christ and put on us...what a shame.

So the next time we go to sit and talk with our Father, let's realize what exactly is going on and seriously evaluate our own prayer lives according to the Word of God. Here are three things God has really impressed upon my heart in relation to my own prayer life...I hope they will encourage you in your pursuit of your own understanding of yours.

(1) PRIVILEGE of Prayer

Stop for a moment and recognize WHO you are talking to when you pray...are you humbled? When a child of God comes to the foot of the Father's throne, he/she is in the presence of the One who created ALL the universe. What an astounding thought. What a privilege. We not only get to talk to the King of Kings, but HE listens and responds. What an amazingly incredible reality that is for the child of God. Each time we come into His presence in prayer, it should bring us to humility; like Isaiah we should recognize who we are coming before and rightly worship. And beyond that, we should express never ending gratitude to Christ for the intercession He provides so that we CAN come before the Father in prayer. We have a one-way line of communication...what a privilege. I love the Psalmists recognition of this powerful truth as displayed in Psalm 116:1-

"I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy."

Oh believer, what a privilege we have...the Lord hears us!

(2) PURPOSE of Prayer

Why do we even pray? Often we pray because of OUR wants or needs, and although there is nothing wrong with this, this must not be our focus. Prayer was never intended to be a one way communication to the "santa claus" in the sky, instead, it was meant to be a vital life line to our Father in heaven to sustain us during our earthly pilgrimage. We pray for the glory of God, we pray that His will might be done, and we pray to communicate with Him! Our hearts should be like that of the disciples in Luke 11:1:


". . . one of His disciples said to Him, ’Lord, teach us to pray . . ."

Oswald Chamber said it well, "God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature." May we pray that we would be conformed more into the image of Christ and desire more of what His will each day.

(3) PATTERN of Prayer

There is so much we could say about "how to" pray. The Bible is full of examples of what to pray for and how to pray, and although these are useful resources and encouraging exhortations, I believe Jesus himself gave us a very specific command when it comes to prayer, and precious promise in that he says in John 14:4,

"Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!"

This verse, and similar ones, have been taken so far out of context to give people the assumption or assurance that they can ask God for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they want and as long as they say "in Jesus name", they are guaranteed it. What foolish and sinful thinking. Jesus is not commanding or promising anything of the sort, instead, he is teaching the disciple that prayer should be focused on HIS WILL. When we ask God for something, it should be directed toward the glory of HIS name and the purposes of His plan, not our own. We can rest assure that when we pray in this way, HE WILL DO IT!

So believer, let's throw off everything that hinders us or distracts us from this precious privilege and purposefully pray according to the pattern laid out in Scripture...and then stand back and watch God work!