Lesson #1: Prayer

I used to think praying was really boring….borderline a waste of time. Growing up, I didn’t fully understand the depth of prayer because all I could think of was how long they were or how many times repeated a certain phrase and things like that. But I’m grateful that my personal relationship with God has completely changed my view on prayer! Now I see it as one of the ways I can communicate with and grow closer to God.

I see prayer as one of the basics of a relationship with God. There’s no way to grow if you do not pray and I’m glad that this is something I understand now. I think a lot of us know prayer is so important, but I’m sure that some of us who were never really taught how to pray. Well, isn’t it great that we serve a God that doesn’t leave us hanging?!

In Matthew 6, Jesus gives us some things to keep in mind when we go into a time of prayer:

Our prayers are to and for God (vv.5-6).

God doesn’t need to be impressed. I used to think that I need to say all these fancy words and pray in certain public settings because it would make people think I’m spiritually mature or really in touch with God. What I didn’t realize is that it’s pretty much the opposite. I don’t need to put on a show or prove to people that I can pray. I don’t pray to entertain them.

Our prayers can be simple (vv.7-8).

It can be so easy to fall into the desire of wanting to pray like someone you know or someone you’ve heard then try to imitate their style. This can often lead to empty prayers or us using words we don’t fully understand. We don’t need to use a thesaurus when we go to pray. It’s not about using words beyond our vocabularies, it’s about the position of our heart’s when we pray. It’s okay for our prayers to be simple as long as our intentions are pure.

Our prayers can clear our hearts (vv.14-15)

It’s important for us to be honest in our prayers. One of things that is asked of us is that we forgive those who have hurt us. We do this so that God will forgive us of our own wrongdoings. If you think about it, it really does not make sense for us to hold grudges against people, because we also make mistakes, all the time. And if God would pile up our sins, instead of forgiving us and clearing our debts, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Forgiveness helps us clear our hearts of any unnecessary weight. It’s not always easy. It’s okay to ask God to let God know you’re struggling to forgive someone and ask for Him to help you through that process. Again, it’s about the sincerity of what you’re asking.

As we grow in our relationship with God, we’ll find more ways to grow our prayer life. It’s important that we’re consistent in our prayers because it’s one way for God’s glory to be revealed to us.

Hope this post was helpful! Have questions? Need prayer? I’m here to help!

Much love always,

Kumam ❤️