Prayer Life

Prayer is the most important part of the Christian life and I know for myself, it's the thing I neglect to do the most. I know this can be said for others of you as well (maybe, maybe not).

Recently I have been getting better about my prayer time because it's our direct connection with God. It's how we build our relationship with Him, and I know this has been said about prayer many times, but how much do we actually pay attention to it?

There are some things I have always wondered about prayer, and have had questions about. Of course, the bible is th primary source for questions on prayer.

Matthew 6:9-13 "This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

This is the model prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples. I always find this interesting because I was reading someone else's blog (can't remember :p) and they said the disciples asked him this because obviously they had never seen Jesus pray. Every time Jesus was recorded in the gospels praying, he was off by himself in the wilderness pouring his heart out to the Father.

You know one thing that cleared my mind up about prayer lately has been focusing on that one thing. Communicate with God. Conversation with God. Acknowledging his awesome power and mercy.

But far too many times, I found myself getting aught up in praying for THINGS all the time.

"Father I need this"
"Father I need that"

yes we are to make our requests known to Him, but what about just TALKING to Him. Which brings me to my next point.

Where did "prayer language" come from? What I mean is, if prayer is our communication and conversation to God, why don't we talk like it is a conversation (by the way where we should do most of the listening)? Why do we all of a sudden take on this sort of, prayer accent, when we no longer sound like who we are? I would say that it is our passion and desire to be closer to Him, but everybody sounding the same?

God is the creator of this universe and he deserves all the praise, so I am by no means saying we should just come any ol' way, but when you have a conversation with someone, do you say their name 100 times in a paragraph?

ex:

Father God, in Jesus name, I just ask that you protect Sister Susie Father God, and Father God, I just pray that you continue to keep Brother Bob on the good track and Father God I just ask that I pass the job interview tomorrow Father God, and to open doors for my other brother Father God

Would you talk to your friends or relatives like that?

How ya doin Susie? Everything alright Susie? I just want to make sure Susie because things are crazy around here Susie, and I'm just looking out for you safety. And oh yeah Susie, did you still have that lawnmower you borrowed? That' be great if you could return it today Susie. Well bye Susie!!

And I just call it an accent because, mostly everybody does it. I guess you could say it's like being raised in West Virginia for the first five years of your life with a distinct accent, and then moving to New York City and you start saying things like "caw-fee" and "tawk" (no offense New Yorkers). By being around believers, do we just automatically pick it up?

I've heard several instances from other believers who never want to pray in groups because of the pressure in a sense, to pray this way. One person was even told that they didn't know how to pray. Me in particular because when I do pray, I always try to come straight from the heart, and talk to God like he is the loving Father that he is. When praying alone, I try to talk, like it's a conversation, and then listen, but when I'm called on to pray in groups (which now I know why I dislike), I'll be the first to say that most of the time it's not the way I pray, and I fall into the prayer mode above because that's what would seem acceptable. Also there is the fact that thoughts in my mind tend to get jumbled before I speak them out, so I constantly get tongue tied and out of words. To tell you the truth, if I really prayed the way I normally pray when alone, the people I'm praying with would be there for days lol. I will overcome this through Jesus and just not care about how I sound though anymore. But I have to admit, it is hard most of the time.

I mean think about it. If we were to actually talk to God like I mean really talk to Him and not at Him, we would feel kind of dumb in front of all those people (idk maybe it's just me)

Now these are in no way condemning anyone's way of praying. These thoughts just came to me as to where did this style of praying come from? I have more on the subject for later posts, so I'll just call this part 1. :)

God bless