How to pray

I used an outline format for my sermon this week instead of a full manuscript. I hope it still makes sense. Read Matthew 6:9-13

How to pray

I. Intro /overview – last week in prayer series

a. Week 1 - "What is Prayer?" prayer is two way communication with god.

b. Week 2 - "Why Should We pray?" Lots of things prevent us from praying but we should pray because Jesus prayed and expected that his followers would be praying.

c. Week 3 - "What should we pray about?" We should pray about everything. If it’s important to us, it’s important to God.

d. Now we are at the question, “how do we pray?”

II. When we talk about how to pray it’s important to remember that there’s no magic formula to prayer.

a. Max Lucado once said “The power of prayer does not come from the one who speaks it but the one who hears it.” Prayer isn’t effective because we find the perfect words or because we’re in just the right position. Prayer is effective because God, the One who hears it, is able to change things.

III. Practical suggestions: Keep it honest. Regardless of how or what we’re feeling. The bible gives us permission to voice it to God:

a. Angry at God – Job, many of the prophets – Jonah, Jeremiah

b. Praise of God, life is happy – songs of thanksgiving after deliverance, Moses, Miriam, Deborah, psalms

c. Confession - David

d. Intense grief – Psalms, David, even Jesus in the garden

e. Petition – asking God for help.

IV. So how do we communicate that to God? Should we pray silently or outloud? Alone or together?

a. Whatever is most natural for you.

b. When thinking about prayer, most people probably think about praying silently alone

c. You can pray outloud even if you’re alone. This is what I do because it helps me feel more connected to God.

d. You can pray outloud with other people.

i. Classes, with family or friends, prayer partners

e. Sometimes there are no words – just listening.

V. How long and how often should we pray?

a. Bible says we can not pray too often. Pray continually (1 Thess 5:17)

b. Start where you are. Don’t try to pray for an hour if you have trouble staying awake for a five minute prayer. If 2 or 3 minutes is all you can do then start there.

c. Breath prayer – The same Hebrew word is translated into English as wind, spirit, and breath. The Hebrew word is RUAH. This simple fact reminds me that we are each breath we take is breathing in the breath or spirit of God. Breath prayer is a form of prayer where you repeat a short phrase while breathing in and a different phrase while exhaling. (breathe in)“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, (breathe out) have mercy on me, a sinner.” Can use any phrase that’s meaningful to you.

d. Conversational prayer – little prayers as you go about your day. Thanking God, asking for help, whatever is going on in your day.

e. Reminders to pray – passwords, sticky notes

f. There are as many variations of prayer as there are Christians. Prayer is about communicating with God and we all do that in different ways. We all communicate with each other differently, why would we think we will all communicate with God the exact same way? Sometimes prayer is sung, painted, sculpted, or carved. There’s no one perfect right way to pray. Remember prayer is effective because of God, not because we find some magic formula.

So pray! Prayer is one of those things that we can only really learn by doing. We can talk about it, read books about, do lots of research about it, but ultimately we learn the most by actively engaging in prayer.