What does the Bible say about prayer?

"Pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results." James 5:16

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TahoeJazzLover
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What does the Bible say about prayer?

Post by TahoeJazzLover »

"Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father. Yes, ask anything in my name, and I will do it!"
from John Chapter 14

We need consistent times of prayer. The Bible tells us to "Bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ". God hears us when we pray. He may not always answer our prayers the way we think they should be answered, but when humble ourselves and pray according to His will, He hears and answers in His perfect timing.

Pray with me:
"Heavenly Father, sometimes I don't even know what to pray, but I thank You that you know all things & you know what is in my heart. I come to you now to surrender my will to Yours. Come into my heart and fill me with Your Holy Spirit to guide me in my life. Thank you for hearing my prayer. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen"

Give it a try... miracles happen!
The greatest thing that you will ever learn
is just to love, and be loved in return.
-Nature Boy Eden/Ahbez
Tessababes
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Post by Tessababes »

Amen, sister.
"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you"

"Whatever I face, God is with me"

"Girl, recognize game before game recognizes you!!"-Chingy

"Hey dont hate the player, hate the game!!"- Will Smith and Tessa!!
BigGunna
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Post by BigGunna »

Wait a second, I'm not going to just pray because that is empty to me. I've never wittnesed a miracle, and I needed one really really bad once. I probably prayed harder than anyone else on this earth. I'm not bitter about it, I just took the realist perspective. I realize It's about the feeling of belonging to something greater. It's about sharing those insecurities with others and having someone grasp a hand to get over the mountian.

Allot of people get it confused. True instead of worrying you can pray, but instead of praying you can strive. You can never pray and hope and wish everything was better. That is not enough, isn't there something about a days work and the feilds being sown? You have to take steps within yourself and out into the world to make things happen. Allot of people would be free if they "stoped looking for a savior" at all times and tried to handle allot of things themselves. God can move mountians, but he needs a better reason than a change of scenery.

I just think we pray sometimes for a conclusion rather than an understanding. There are just times when the burden is too strong for one person alone. I can feel that power kick in when things get at their worst, sometimes it gets me cocky but I now realize that I can't do everything alone, be it supernatural or people around me. But understanding is ultimate, often times as futile as conclusion because there is always that grey area. So don't take anything I say with conclusion because we find our own character within.
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Post by RoRo »

Well, there's a lot to what Bigguna says that I agree with. I agree that too many people fall on prayer as a crutch and a way to get through things, which isn't a bad thing, but it doesn't get you anywhere if you don't know what prayer is. Prayer just ins't telling God all of your problems and issues and whatever it is you are going through/dealing with and expecting that its all going to be magically fixed because God is powerful enough to fix it or whatever. Not saying He isn't that powerful, I just don't believe that's the way He works...

To me, prayer is so much more than downloading all of the junk I've been dealing with or all of the stuff I want to happen or see resolved. God already knows what I've been going through, He knows what I'm dealing with, what I want to see done, how I want things to work out, etc. I always feel like I'm being redundant when I sit there and explain to God what I am going through, becuase He already knows! He went through it with me!

Something I've learned about prayer that has helped me understand it better is that prayer is not just a request line that's always there when you need it. Its more like an open conversation line. Prayer is being able to have a conversation with God. There are so many things everyone faces throughout life that are crappy, God obviously knew that when He created us...so why would he send us here to just have to suffer with all of that burden? I believe that prayer is the answer He gave us to be able to not only download our problems, but to be able to talk to God and have a conversation with him that will help you get through whatever it is we're going through with the knowledge that we are not alone. God doesn't only want to hear from us, He wants to talk to us as well! I think most people focus too much on the talking part of prayer rather than the listening part and that's why so many of us don't feel like our prayers are being answered.

In order to have a conversation with God, and to be able to hear His voice when He speaks, we have to find that quiet spot in our lives. That time we can just let everything that distracts us fade away, so that we can truly focus and actually hear God's voice, which you can't hear if you are listening with worldly ears. Jesus said, "those who have ears to hear, come listen." Otherwise all of this is just gibberish...it doesn't hold weight or merit.

Overall, I think that prayer is having a relationship with God. Getting to know Him as He knows us and the only way to get to know someone is to spend time with them.
"If I had a star for everytime you brightened my day, I'd be holding the galaxy!" -Unknown
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THY will be done or MY will be done?

Post by TahoeJazzLover »

To pray we need to know God's will. The Bible says:

"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is."

Romans 12:1–2 is what's called a conditional promise. The promise is that you can know what the perfect will of God is for your life. The conditions are that you must present yourself to God and that you must not be conformed to this world. Notice the order. First, surrender your will to His, and then you will know the will of God. We tend to want to know God’s will first and then decide whether we want to give ourselves to it.

It reminds me of when I was little. My mom would ask me "are you hungry?� I'd ask her, “What are you cooking?� If it was vegetables, then I wasn't hungry. But if it was ice cream, I was starving.

In the same way, we will sometimes say, “Lord, what is your will? Before I am going to surrender to it, I would like to know what I am getting myself into.� But God may tell you something that you don’t want to hear. The question is, are you going to do what He says?

It has been said that the condition of an enlightened mind is a surrendered heart. Are we asking God for "THY will to be done or MY will be done?" If you want to know the will of God, then you must have a heart that is surrendered. Present yourself to Him. Then accept His will, no matter what.
The greatest thing that you will ever learn
is just to love, and be loved in return.
-Nature Boy Eden/Ahbez
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