by Angela Moreno

Looking back at my prayer life, I can say it has been pretty one-sided and weak. Many years ago, I didn’t look at prayer as a way to further my relationship with my Father God. If I was truly honest, I could go days without talking to God, only reaching out to Him when something wasn’t going the way I wanted it to.  Prayer was just a way to ask for what I wanted or needed or to gripe about what I didn’t think was fair.  My prayers had a lot of give me, help me, take this, and why are you doing this to me.  It lacked one huge aspect. Thankfulness.

Driving to work one day, I heard a statement that changed my life.  If you woke up tomorrow morning and only had what you thanked God for on a regular basis, what would you have?  That question shook me.  If I was honest with myself, at that time in my life, I would have been naked standing on the street without one person in my life or one possession.  I hadn’t thanked God for what I had in a very long time.  And I had many wonderful blessings that I should have been thanking Him for.

Prayer should be an extremely important part of our lives.  Many situations can be resolved and avoided if we chose to prepare ourselves for the day ahead by taking one moment to speak to God and ask Him for His guidance for the day ahead. We are going to face many challenges each and every day.  I can’t think of a better way to prepare for what I may face than to seek God first and look to Him to guide me.

The devil wants to make sure that we don’t enjoy our daily lives. He creates problems in people’s minds and deceives them by creating an atmosphere of chaos. The devil does anything he can to make us doubt ourselves and God. But the good news is that the Bible says that we are overcomers, and we must be ready to overcome any obstacle or situation that is trying to hinder our growth in Christ and us loving people.  If we believe and accept what the Bible says as the truth and we apply it to our lives, then we will have the ability to enjoy the day no matter what is thrown our way. We will be focused on what really matters — loving people and seeing them the way Jesus sees them.

In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus gave us a guide for going to the Lord in prayer.  I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer.  If you are not, take a moment to read through the prayer in your Bible or online. Jesus gave these words to His disciples because they needed to be prepared every day to face their assignments. Jesus taught the disciples the importance of communicating with the Heavenly Father daily to guide their actions.

The Lord’s Prayer has specific guidelines on how to pray. Each line gives us an idea of what we should pray for daily. Let’s breakdown the Lord’s Prayer into parts so we can discuss its true meaning:

• Our Father in Heaven. This begins our relationship with God. It’s a place of worship and a place of authority. We are acknowledging who God is to us.
• Hallowed be your name. We have communion with God in all of His holiness. We are showing our respect and admiration for the One True God.
• Your kingdom come.God’s kingdom is manifested through us and our belief in Jesus Christ.  We look forward to the day that His kingdom comes down to this Earth.
• Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. We are acknowledging that God’s will should be the most important action taking place. God’s will should be done in our lives and in the lives of our families.
• Give us this day our daily bread. Read the word of God and let the word be the nourishment for our bodies daily.
• Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. Ask for forgiveness and chose to forgive before hurt is done to me or to those around me. Release those hurts to God.
• Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Engulf your hand God in mine so I don’t fall. Deliver me from the evil one and set a trap for my enemy.
• Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. You and God were meant to be together forever in worship for eternity. Ask Him to use you for His kingdom every day.

The Lord’s Prayer walks us through each step that we need to acknowledge when speaking to God.  We need to be thankful, we need to forgive, and we need His wisdom.  I know what you might be thinking.  Where do I ask for my request?  You can ask for God’s help at any time.  We should always start each and every prayer thanking God for what He has done for us and what He will do for us in the future.  God isn’t looking for a formal request.  He is looking for a relationship with you and for you to seek Him daily.

I do realize not all prayers are going to follow the Lord’s Prayer exactly.  I’ve had times that I’ve been so distraught and upset that my prayers look nothing like the Lord’s Prayers.  Sometimes tears are streaming down my face and I don’t even know what to ask God for.  Those are the times you ask the Holy Spirit to advocate on your behalf.  Take these words from Romans to heart:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.  Romans 8:26-27

The Holy Spirit knows exactly what we need and will act on our behalf in times of struggle.

I want to remind you that prayer doesn’t always have to be a formal meeting with God.  I sit and chit-chat with God throughout the day whenever I feel like it.  Driving down the street, staring out the window, whenever I see something so beautiful that I can’t help to cry out to God and thank Him for the beauty He puts all around us.

God likes to hear from us and He isn’t looking for perfect prayers.  God is just looking for you!  He also likes it when we take time to be quiet and listen to Him speak to us. So make sure you take those moments to be still and listen for God’s voice.  He will speak to you!