Devotions: Prayer is the major component

Prayer lies at the heart of my daily devotions.

“Prayer does not prepare us for the greater work; it is the greater work.”

~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

It’s a conversation between a man and God. Genesis 3 indicates God walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening after their work was done.

He expected to see them and spend time with them. God wanted to hear about their day.

Jeremiah 33:3, NKJV. “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

 The Jeremiah passage indicates God calls us to talk with Him. He wants to show us things we don’t know or understand. Communications with us and being engaged in our lives is the point.

Because I often talk to God about what I’m reading in the Bible (which is how I begin), segueing into prayer is easy.

Hundreds of books can teach us how to pray.

Jesus himself gave the best example in the Lord’s Prayer as found in Matthew 6: 9-13

How to use PRAY in prayer

As an outline for prayer, PRAY leads me through my quiet time with God.

PRAY

P= praise

R= repent

A=ask

Y= yield.

The anacronym helps me work my way through those four areas.

Praise

First, I praise God for what he has done in my life; answers to pray, his character.

That enables me to remember I am talking about my life and the situations of others with the Creator of the Universe.

I’m not talking to a friend so much as someone who really does control everything.

Blessed be His name!

Sometimes I  sing a song or a hymn, anything to focus my mind on the majesty, character, ability, and creativity of God.

Repent

I need to clear my heart before Him—confessing sins I recognize.

It’s also a good time to tell God what’s bothering me.

Maybe I’m irritated with a friend because she always complains.

Perhaps someone upset me.

Often, when I complain to God about an individual or a situation, He reveals the sin in my life.

Hmmm.

I don’t like having to confess.

But if I don’t . . .

I’ll be locked up and unable to live in peace with others, not to mention God.

Unfortunately, I spend a lot of time repenting.

Ask

Once I’ve got set in my mind who I’m talking to and my soul is clean before Him, I can ask for things—both for myself and for others.

It feels like God can hear me better when my “slate” is clean.

I ponder what I’m asking–because I cannot ask God to do anything that is not in line with His will as demonstrated in the Bible.

If my prayer request isn’t something God would honor, there’s no point in asking.

As Father Tim says in Jan Karon‘s Mitford book, Out of Canaan, he and his wife Cynthia liked to pray “The only prayer that never fails: Thy will be done.”

Yield

I give the day, the situations, and my life over to God to use to His glory every day.

The day usually goes better as a result!

“To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.”

~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Tweetables

The heart of devotions: prayer. Click to Tweet

PRAY as an acronym for prayer. Click to Tweet

Daily prayers and daily devotions. Click to Tweet

This part 3 of a series. Part 1: Devotions or Quiet Times?

 2: Devotions: Bible Reading.

 4: Devotions: How to Use a Devotional Book