It won’t be long before the devil will come along and try to condemn you because you didn’t spend 60 minutes in prayer today. He’ll remind you that you didn’t shout and tear down strongholds for your nation or family. Don’t fall for his condemnation. God loves you as much as He ever will through Jesus Christ right now. There are numerous misconceptions about Christian prayer and a lot of it is impossible to actually carry out in everyday life.
Don’t Be That Person
Have you heard of a mother of small children who placed her kids in front of the television and then locked herself in the bedroom so she could pray for an hour or two each day? This is simply irresponsible. God’s will when it comes to prayer isn’t for us to separate ourselves for prolonged periods of time while our children are left unsupervised. Leaving your young children to themselves while you go and commune with the Lord is not spiritual. God has given us all the ability to pray any time of day, all day. Yes, even in the midst of the busyness that each day can bring. We can be in constant communication with the Lord and He loves every minute of it.
Prayer Can Fit Into Any Schedule
Praying to God should be something we all slip into our schedules, every day. If you do have time to be alone, spending specific time dedicated to communing with God, go for it! Just keep in mind that prayer does not have to be something spectacular to be effective. We should be able to pray while we are walking to work, driving the kids to school, working out, doing laundry, etc. Ask God to help you be creative in order to find ways to pray with Him all throughout the day.
How In The World
You simply cannot live life in the world we live in the way many are teaching about intercessory prayer! Many teach to stay up late or get up early in order to reach new levels in prayer. There are times where this is necessary but not every single time we desire to spend time communing in prayer with the Lord.
Look, if you can do it then great! But if you are working 2 jobs, have kids, work during the day and have school at night, praying all night or in the early morning hours just won’t work for long. God wants you well rested and healthy. He wants your time in prayer to be peaceful and about spending time with Him, not trying to impress Him or others.
Take a Nap If You’re Sleepy
We all have a desire to seek the Lord and bring Him glory. Like all things in the life of a Christian, be led and let God lead the way. This goes for how we pray as well.
Don’t be led astray by those who teach that you absolutely have to get up early or stay up late in order to step into the Presence of God. Too many times condemnation sweeps in because we fall asleep while trying to pray beyond our limits.
God wants you rested then you won’t fall asleep while praying. So if you feel sleepy while praying or studying God’s Word, just take a nap. Yes, it’s that simple. Then once you feel rested go back to what you were doing.
God is not impressed by our ability to not fall asleep while praying. Prayer should not be about how long we pray or what time of the day or night we pray to Him.
Praying to God is not about impressing Him or others. Any who do pray this way are doing so in order to soothe their conscience. They genuinely feel that because they went through a tough time in prayer that by doing so that will force God to give them what they want.
God is not a vending machine and He doesn’t work that way.
God Already Knows Before You Pray
Another interesting misconception of intercessory prayer is that time spent with God is not about informing Him about how bad your situation is. God already knows before we ask Him.
How many times have we described a problem to God in detail like He was unaware. The Lord understands the situation better than we do. He doesn’t need us to spend a lot of time going over the details numerous times. It’s simply not necessary or helpful to give God a detailed description of problems. We can certainly mention them but there shouldn’t be a lot of time spent in doing so since He already knows.
God Isn’t Too Busy For You
Surprisingly, many Christians imagine that God sits behind a big desk in Heaven that is piled high with more prayers than they can count. They believe He has to go through many of them before He has time for theirs.
They assume He’s too busy and it might take weeks or even months to get their prayers answered. Naturally, they run into their prayer time to Him with urgency as if to try and get His attention and an agenda to perhaps put His arm behind His back and speed up answers to their requests.
The bottom line is that this mental image and all that goes with it is wrong and unscriptural. God is not tired, stress about all the prayer requests, and unaware of what goes on in our lives. Again, intercessory prayer is not about informing God and bringing Him up to speed on how difficult situations are.
With this mindset, a lot of Christian’s time is spent praying about the problems, their needs, and the emergencies they face. That’s simply too much time spent on what is not necessary. If we took away all that time spent informing God there would be little left said during that time of praying.
Watch Your Tongue
God makes it clear in His Word that there is power in the words we say. Our words can produce life of death. It’s important to use most of our prayer time praising and worshipping God for His divine solutions. This releases His power and life into our situations.
Praying negatively and focusing on our problems simply strengthens and empowers them. It’s true.
Imagine how many times God wanted to interrupt what we call prayer which was really only a time of complaining. We have all been there.
Many Believers think they are praying but truthfully, they are only whining and complaining. They are releasing the power of death into their situations through the words they spread while praying.
It’s time to face the music, as they say. Christian prayer can very easily become religious if we don’t watch it. We need to recognize these hypocritical prayers quickly and stop them. After we get rid of praying wrong, we can start praying right and effectively.
Look At Your Results After Praying
We have all heard of all-night prayer meetings. Although the intention can be genuine, what often happens is that not everyone stays awake and a number of people leave before the clock strikes twelve!
It has never been about how long we pray. It has always been about our hearts.
We should all take time to look at the results from our time in prayer. Is there any fruit? Perhaps it’s worth considering changing in areas that are not producing.
God loves us more than we love Him. He wants to have a relationship through prayer with us. He wants us to commune with Him daily. Until we start getting better results, maybe we should all consider making changes to how we pray. Make an effort to search for online prayer websites like this one that can help you learn to pray better.
What Would Moody Do
Dwight L. Moody was a Christian who produced enormous results in his life. With only a third grade education, he began as a poor shoe salesman who taught Sunday school to little children. However, due to his enthusiasm and zeal in leading others to Jesus, throughout his life, God opened the door for him to preach on every continent and in front of many famous people of history. Many report that hundreds of thousands of people were born again through his ministry.
With a decorated Christian walk, looking at his spiritual life will reveal some interesting insights into his success. Moody was known to have a disciplined life. It was through this commitment that allowed him to accomplish as much as he did.
He spent 45 minutes a day in prayer and bible study at noon every day. That was all. The rest of his day was spent ministering and traveling to preach the Gospel. In comparison to what is being taught as required for effective prayer, it would be impossible for Moody to garner such impressive results. Yet he did and still does over 100 years later.
We have some serious misconceptions about what true intercessory prayer is all about. It’s time to change that and realize that there’s more to prayer than we realize.
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