How to Pray (1)

'...the Spirit pleads for us...in harmony with God's own will.' Romans 8:27 NLT








Thank you to everyone who prayed for my mom's surgery. Now we need to pray that the Doctor got all the cancer. She will start radiation soon, so its not over unless God has healed her. As we head into the fall season, I'm asking everyone of you to make prayer a priority in your life. A praying church will do great things for Christ. Last Sunday we had someone give their heart to Christ. God is ready to even more if we are ready. You ask, how do I start? There is someone already at work on your behalf helping you in the area of Prayer. ‘...the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us... [and] pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.’ (Romans 8:26–27 NLT) Notice, the Holy Spirit ‘prays for us’. Sometimes we’ve a hard time being ‘fully present’ in prayer. We all know what it’s like to be with another person when their mind is a million miles away. What’s the answer? Try jotting down what goes on while you’re praying. The two most common hindrances to praying successfully are: (a) your mind gets easily distracted by other thoughts; (b) you get tired. When author John Ortberg shared these two frustrations with a friend, he suggested that John go outside alone and simply invite Jesus to come along with him. Ortberg writes: ‘The next day I went to the ocean, took off my shoes, started to run and invited Jesus to come along. I found the strangest thing. When I thought I was supposed to be talking to Him, I found it effortful and difficult. Now that all I had to do was invite Him, I couldn’t stop thinking about Him. My mind kept reflecting on His being with me. I found myself wanting to point out the pelicans and the waves to Him. People and concerns would pop into my mind, and I would find myself telling Jesus about them. Everything changed.’ So, invite Jesus to come along with you today and share each thing you do with Him.