Prayer... Pray-er... Praying

The title of my next book is: “It ALL starts with Prayer”. Now… why would I write a book on prayer and titled it that way when there are millions (not an exaggeration) of books on prayer - all the who, what, where, when of praying? You have to admit that’s a logical question. 

But in my world, an ongoing prayer group has an identity just as the individual pray-er, a vision of who they are as a person AND as a group. This should never be interpreted as there is only one way to pray. Prayer is as varied as the pray-er. We all have our own attitudes and beliefs about prayer. Let me give a rather trite example: personally, I dislike the ‘unspoken prayer’. Why? Because of two main reasons: one is that if the prayer is unspoken, how do I know if I’m in agreement (the strongest prayer I know - see point 6 in https://www.bible-knowledge.com/prayer-of-agreement/) And reason 2 is because I’m expected to trust the person requesting prayer though they obviously don’t trust me with the request. And yet, there are denominations that not only support but teach on the unspoken prayer. But... is the unspoken prayer even implied in scripture? 

When you get down to basics... what is prayer (to/for you)? How do you go about the way you as a pray-er pray? When you consider prayer you need to start with the beginning - who are you praying to? Granted... that's an easy question. But your relationship with the 'who' is the basis on your 'how'. 

We have our model given by Jesus. We’ve (mankind) called it the Lord’s Prayer. Using the Matthew scripture (6: 9-13) from the Message Bible:

   “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and He knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

        Our Father in heaven,

        Reveal who you are.

        Set the world right;

        Do what’s best— as above, so below.

        Keep us alive with three square meals.

        Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.

        Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.

        You’re in charge!

        You can do anything you want!

        You’re ablaze in beauty!

            Yes. Yes. Yes.

Do you see the action words, which imply the pray-ers beliefs: reveal, set, do, keep (x3) and then stating who the Person you are praying to is and does. And this begins our journey and adventure into discovering - Prayer.

There’s a lovely scripture that says: “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) Problem is that most of us are not good still-ers. That’s the first issue. Issue #2 is ‘know’. Do we know what we know? Or … what we need to know? And the 3rd issue is to define ‘God’ the way He shares Himself.

Very briefly, this is not exhaustive... I'm going to give some hints, some ways for you to find your answer to these 3 questions.

1. Being a 'still-er'
   Actually... that's your determination. Read Psalms 46 in its entirety but do so in the Amplified or Message to get a different perspective on being still and why. When our thoughts are fixed on the Father, there is a greater possibility that one's behavior will follow too. We can be still or we wouldn't be asked to. But when our thoughts are focused on our 'to do' list or something equally disengaging - then we are preoccupied or scattered or any number of different mindsets. This is the time to really let your heart lead.

2. Know

   Big word - know. Do you know what you know or think you know about prayer, you as a pray-er, and the One you are praying to? If you are new to praying then your experience base is being built. If you have prayed for years, you are still in the process of building your praying base. We aren't asked to be mindless in praying but it's crucial to have a relationship with the One being prayed to - FIRST. Formula praying really isn't based in a relationship. So HOW is your praying style?

3. Person

   According to https://christiananswers.net/dictionary/namesofgod.html God has  given Himself 967 different names! Wikipedia has granted God 72 names (sarcasm for those reading this who don't know me). The number is not the point. The point is - Why? Why would God give Himself so many names? My simple answer is that He knew we would have problems wrapping our heads around the concept as well as the Person - God. So He manifested Himself in smaller bite sized pieces as Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, etc. And as we begin to know Him as our provider, our healer we begin to know Him. (And yes, this is my answer and no, I have no scriptural proof/substantiation.)

Praying is really quite simple and gentle and life changing and complex and complicated, and, and. But it is never insignificant. Discover who YOU are in prayer, as a pray-er and praying.