How to pray as a Christian

“Guest Post By Eren McKay”

How to pray as a Christian – are we truly depending on God or is our prayer life dwindling?

There is no way to truly live the Christian life without prayer.

Prayer is the essence of a Spirit filled life. Now I want to ask you a question and I want you to really think about it:
How many times have you prayed in the last month? Have you spent at least 10 minutes a day praying?
We need to apply God’s word to every aspect of our lives and meditate on encouraging inspirational Bible verses throughout our day.
Living the Christian life does not mean being “religious” — not at all.
But you will invite the Lord to be an integral part of your life.

1 Thessalonians 5:17
“Pray without ceasing.”

Each moment should be placed before Him and each decision should include Him.

What is a real Christian?

There are Christians who ONLY pray in church. They’re missing the whole point of living a Spirit filled life. The point of being a Christian is to depend on Christ. In fact that is what the word Christian means – a follower of Christ. Now how can we be following Christ if we never stop to talk to Him or listen to what He has to say? This is what prayer is essentially- communicating with God. It’s not a repetitive memorized mantra that we mindlessly say over and over again.

What are we saying to the Lord?

When we don’t spend time praying we are (without noticing it) declaring something to the Lord. We’re saying that we are capable of fulfilling His will in our lives and that we can do it —-without Him! How illogical is that? I can just hear you say: “I would never say that I can do things without God. I believe in God! I just wouldn’t say such a thing.”

There are 2 ways to say things to someone. You can say things with your words and you can say things with your actions. An action or a lack of an action can declare just as much (and even more) to someone than your words. If we spend hardly any time talking to God and trying to listen to what He has to say we are essentially saying that we don’t need Him.

Stop and think for a moment.

If your prayer life is not going full force – why is that? Do you trust your capacities more than you trust God? Do you think that you are capable to steer the boat (your life) without the Captain (God)? Or even worse have you placed yourself in His position of Captain?

Even though we would never declare this with our words the fact that we don’t pray is quietly declaring that we don’t need Him. That is precisely what our actions are saying.
Of course all of these things that I’m talking about don’t happen in our conscious mind- they happen subconsciously. I want to make it clear here that there is no finger pointing in this article. The Lord really compelled me to write this as a wake up call not as a guilt trip. I’m asking these questions so that the truth may come into your conscious mind if your prayer life has weakened, maybe you have shifted without noticing.

Who do we trust?

Taking the time to pray shows the Lord that we are not trusting our brain-power or capacities to achieve His goals in our lives. We may have all of those resources that He has given us but they are not what we lean upon. The Lord gives us the resources to do His will. And we must use these resources- but we must not place our faith in them. When we pray we are saying: “Lord I depend on you. I trust You. I need You.”

Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge him,
And he will make your paths straight.”

Sometimes without noticing things we end up depending on circumstances to achieve contentment and peace. The fact is that we need to apply biblical principles for spiritual Christian contentment to really happen in our lives. It’s so important to ask ourselves the honest truth. Doing this brings us back to Him. It aligns our minds to His Word. We need to let God lead and be authority over our lives. When we rest in Him, His peace takes over our hearts and we begin to experience what it is like to walk in the Spirit.

God wants to form an eternal bond with us.

We need to open our hearts and be sensitive to Him when He is talking to us. We can call upon God throughout the entire day. If we do this our relationship with Him will only grow.

Have you found your prayer life dwindling? Separate a special time each day to be just with Him. This is your quiet moment with the Holy God of the Universe. Talk to Him. Listen to His beautiful voice- He has so much to say to us. Do you want to listen? Is your heart burning with desire to hear the voice of the Almighty? Open your heart to hear Him speak to you.

Eren Mckay is a Christian wife and mom to 3 boys. She loves to write Sunday school Bible object lessons for children and encouraging others in their Christian walk.

• Spirtual Warfare
• An Overcoming Church

Tagged as: prayer