A Beginners Prayer-Guide For Christians Who Do Not Know How To Pray: PART ONE

This Prayer-Guide is designed to help and encourage Christians to develop a deeper understanding of prayer and why it is important to pray.

In Part One, we will look briefly at defining what prayer is and how and when to pray.

In Part Two, we will look at the types of prayer that can be prayed and what the Bible has to say about this subject, as well as providing some suggestions about what to pray for. 

Christians can pray wherever they may be.

PART ONE

Understanding our personal need for prayer, and knowing how to pray, as well as being aware of what to pray for, and knowing when and where to pray, can often be a very daunting and scary practice for some Christians.

Even the thought of how to behave in our approach to God - what stance to take and what posture to adopt: Kneeling (1 Kings 8:45), Bowing the head down (Exodus 4:31, 2 Chronicles 20:18, Matthew 26:39), Prostrate, Sitting, Standing (1 Kings 8:22), are all common difficulties that many Christians face at one time, or another.  

When we consider the practice of praying, these thoughts can make a person very fearful of ever coming into the presence of God to 'Pray'.

For the Christian who does not know how to pray, or what to pray for, please rest assured that prayer need NOT be the mysterious practice of an apparently select and religiously devout few.

Furthermore, prayer need not be the verbalized outworking of cleverly speaking individuals, be they members of the Clergy, Pastors of a denomination, or the oration of eloquently educated members of a church, or other oganization.

WHAT IS PRAYER? - How should we define it?

Prayer is simply communicating with God. Communicating with God is a two-way process in which, we not only speak to God but that we also pay careful attention to listen to His response to us.

Communicating with God helps us to grow closer to Him and enables us to become more intimately connected with Him.

Praying is the act, or practice, of addressing God in words but also the act of waiting patiently for God to respond to you.

Praying can also be the result of being in a meditative state in the presence of God and can also be an action brought about by the movement of the Holy Ghost upon a person so moved.

Whatever the circumstances may be, praying is something that is accompanied by, or may be in addition to, an act of praise, thanksgiving, or worship.

Praying need not be the result of specially worded forms that some churches prefer to follow in their addresses to God.

In fact, the Bible shows that prayers that come directly from the heart of the person praying, are far more effective with God than those prayed with the mind alone.

Praying is essentially an action of the spirit of a person rather than the flesh (to add a Biblical perspective).

HOW AND WHEN TO PRAY 

Christians should therefore, pray to God devoutly and frequently so that their lives can be refreshed and sanctified, characterized by a heart that is conducively fervent towards God in a loving and prayerful manner.

Prayers that make use of Wordy or Impressive speech, or which are constantly repetative, are deemed to be ineffectual forms of prayer and should be avoided (Matt. 6:7, Eccl.5:2).

If you feel that you really cannot pray and that this is in some way a barrier to your communications with The Lord, then you should ask the Holy Ghost to help you overcome this difficulty in your life (Romans 8:26-27).

THE BIBLE: The Basic Truths Of Everything.

Whether or not You believe in The Bible, or whether You may have personal doubts about much of it, there are many people who have the same difficulties as You, but nevertheless are genuine seekers who are at least prepared to actually look at what the Bible says, as opposed to just debunking it without really examining it in the light of what it actually says.

The following article is based on an extract from the book Right With God, written by John Blanchard and first published in 1971:

"... If you want to locate a particular town [or City], you look at a map of the region concerned; if you want to know a person's telephone number, you [might] look in a Telephone Directory. Then surely, if you want to know something about God and Your relationship to Him, the sensible and honest thing to do is look in the only book in the world, which claims thousands of times to have God as its author.

That book is The Bible. Perhaps you have never fully realised [that this book], The Bible, speaks so plainly - but it does.

Nearly 4,000 times in the first section of The Bible - The Old Testament - you will find words like 'the Lord spoke', 'the Lord said', 'the Lord commanded', 'the word of the Lord', 'God spoke all these words, saying' and so on.

When you turn to the second edition of The Bible - The New Testament - you will find the many similar statements there summed up like this:

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).


But need we accept that? Could not The Bible have been written by very good men who wanted to spread their teachings throughout the world, or could not The Bible have been written by wicked men with some evil motive?

There have been no lack of ideas on this subject: somebody once calculated that between 1850 and 1910, critics of The Bible had advanced 747 different explanations of The Bible's supposed origins. Hardly any two agreed, and most were contradictory! Yet all the arguments against The Divine Authorship of The Bible fail to answer one simple piece of logic.

John Wesley, who founded the English Methodist Church Movement in the 18th century, put it like this:

'The Bible must be the invention of either good men or angels, bad men or devils, or of God. It could not be the invention of good men or angels, for they neither would nor could make a book and tell lies all the time they were writing it, saying "Thus saith the Lord", when it was their own invention.

It could not be the invention of bad men or devils, for they could not make a book that commands all duty, forbids all sin, and condemns their souls to hell for all eternity. Therefore, The Bible must be given by Divine inspiration'.

There are many other ways to show that The Bible IS God's Word, but these would take volumes. I ask you, as a genuine seeker, to accept The Bible's own claims that it Is the Word of God, and to test that claim by following through its teachings with an open mind.

Once you accept The Bible as the Word of God, two important things follow:

Firstly, The Bible is completely true
Many people have the wrong idea about The Bible because they fail to understand exactly what it is. It is a collection of 66 books, written by about 40 authors over a period of more than 1,600 years. It has one central theme, expressed in many different ways. It includes History, Prophecy, Poetry, Biography, Ethics, Philosophy, and Science, and in each of these subjects, is infallibly true.

Take just two examples. The Bible contains a great deal of History. Is it accurate? Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern science, had no doubts about its authenticity.


He once said: 'There are more sure marks about The Bible's authenticity, than can be found in any [external] profane history!' Again, listen to Professor Robert Dick Wilson of Princeton University in America, who spent 15 years studying Oriental Languages and dialects, 15 years studying Ancient Inscriptions, and 15 years studying Ancient Manuscripts and versions of the Bible.


He says: 'The History given in The Bible is reliable, but in external profane documents, there is an almost universal innacuracy and unreliability'.

The Bible is not primarily a scientific text-book, though it does include statements that can be looked at from a scientific point of view. Is its Science accurate? Listen to Dr Irwin Moon, Principal of The Moody Institute of Science in Los Angeles, USA - ' I have covered every word from beginning to end many times, and , so far as I know, there is not within the pages of this book [The Bible], one single scientific innacuracy, contradiction, absurdity or blunder'.

No expert has ever disproved a single statement in The Bible. What The Bible says on any subject is true!

The Bible is primarily a book about God and our relationship with Him - the subject that concerns YOU at this very moment. This is how it is put in Psalms 19.7-9:

"The Law of The Lord is perfect, concerning the Soul: the testimony of The Lord is sure, making wise the Simple. The statutes of The Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of The Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of The Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of The Lord are true and righteous altogether".

Secondly, The Bible is constantly true
Many people vaguely believe that The Bible is 'God's Book', but suspect that it is now out of date. 'After All', they say, 'we live in a scientific age, and even the most recent parts of The Bible were written nearly 2,000 years ago'.

But why should that make it out of date? Truth can never change. One of my sons came home from school one day and said: 'Daddy, do you know, two and two make three!' That was certainly new to me! - and I had to correct him... Truth never changes, and The Bible claims not only to be completely, but constantly true:


Here is what it says about itself: "Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever" (Psalm 119:152).


"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:8).

This answers the strange argument that 'Science has disproved The Bible'. How can truth disprove truth? None of the truth being discovered today through scientific research can disprove truth previously discovered, either in its own field, or in any other. Men's theories and opinions constantly change, often in the light of new discoveries, but truth  is united and final.


Were The Bible a collection of ideas about religion - even the ideas of good and holy men - then we might say that their ideas were now out of date, or mistaken. But the human authors of these 66 books [of The Bible], wrote by direct and Divine Inspiration in such a unique way that we call the whole collection of books 'The Word of God'.

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by The Word of God" (Romans 10:7).

"...The holy scriptures...are able to make one wise unto Salvation..." (2 Timothy 3:15).

Are You a Genuine Seeker?
Are You a genuine seeker? Then put aside your prejudices and your pre-conceived ideas, come to The Bible and ask God to make [His] truth clear to you. Perhaps this prayer will help you to express your thoughts:

Almighty and Eternal God, I am out of touch with You and need to find You before my life can have real meaning. There are many things in The Bible that I do not understand.

Enable me to come to it [The Bible] now with an open mind. Speak to me through what I read, showing me who You are, and how I can come to know You.

Help me now to seek You with all my heart, and to find You.

Is that what you want? Then STOP and think it over carefully.

Now read that prayer again, making it your own, from the depth of your heart, but before you do, listen to this wonderful promise, which God makes to all [those] who are in earnest in their search for Him:


"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).

So then, we can see from the evidence supplied by John Blanchard, that The Bible is indeed the basic truth of everything and clearly the central component to Christian Thought, Living and Worship.


In truth, The Bible is God's own revelation to us concerning Himself. It is God's way of making Himself and His creation and His Laws known to mankind.


Furthermore, It is God's revelation about those things He cannot abide, such as the sins of mankind, which separate us from His love, and it is about His universal method of Salvation, which is the most central theme in The Bible, which He has wrought for us through the life, death, and ressurection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
 
What do You think about this extract from John Blanchard's book?
 
Do you agree with his conclusions about the The Bible being the basic truths of everything?