How to pray

Prayer is, simply, talking to God. Anybody who knows God can talk to Him at any time, in any place, in any situation. Although people "say prayers"— the most common one is the Lord's prayer, taught by Jesus — prayer is much more about saying what you want to say at the time, in your own words. One reason Jesus gave the "Lord's Prayer" was as a pattern to guide how we pray.

Many people find the simple acronym ACTS to be helpful. It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication (ie, asking for things). The pattern that Jesus taught in the "Lord's Prayer" begins with praising God and recommitting ourselves to His will. It goes on to asking for our needs, and asking for forgiveness for sins, alongside a commitment to forgive other people their sins. Finally, it asks for the future, asking not to be led into difficult times, and to be protected from the attacks of our enemy the Devil.

Jesus also teaches us to pray short prayers when we pray in public, but to spend most of our prayer time alone with God. He tells us to pray persistently, and he tells us to pray in faith — in fact, he says that faith as small as a grain of mustard is all that is required to move mountains. We are also called to pray together — and to pray agreeing what we are praying for.

Praising God — and thanking Him

It's always good to begin by praising God. Praise can be recounting what God has done, or it can be praising Him for who He is. You can also praise God for what He has done in your life — especially when he has recently answered your prayers for something you've asked for.

Recommitting

When we pray, we have to recognise that God has a plan for our lives, and for the entire world. Even if we are going to ask for something (and God does want us to ask), we need to recommit ourselves in front of God for whatever he wants us to do and to be.

Asking for things

Some people think that it's 'unspiritual' to ask God for what we want or need. Some people think we should only ask for big things, like revival, or an end to world hunger. Jesus, on the other hand, tells us to ask God for something as simple and necessary as our daily bread. Elsewhere he says that we can ask for anything, and that, when we've asked, we should keep on asking until God answers. Probably the biggest weakness in the Western church today is that we don't ask! When we ask, we should ask specifically, and in such a way that we will know whether they have been answered or not. Although this is slightly scary (what if God doesn't answer — where would my faith be then?), faith only grows when we start asking, because God really does answer.

Forgiving and being forgiven

All Christians sin. You can't become a Christian without admitting that you are a sinner, and you can't contiinue as a Christian unless you are willing to go back to God and ask His forgiveness when you do sin. And God will always forgive. But there is also a requirement: we have to be willing to forgive other people. Sometimes we can be very angry because of what other people have done, especially when it's other Christians who have done things to us. But God insists that we forgive them — just as He forgave us.

The future

"Do not lead us into the time of trial" Jesus says in the "Lord's Prayer". Sometimes we have a fairly clear picture of what is ahead of us — exam, job interview, court case, surgery. Other times we may have a vague fear of the future. Jesus says that we can always go to God and ask Him to look after our future. For the rest, Jesus says that we shouldn't worry about the future. Having put it in God's hands, we know that it is safe.

The evil one

Jesus Christ was quite certain that the Devil existed. We don't know that much about him — the Bible is about God, not about the Devil. We do know that he is more powerful than any human, but infinitely less powerful than God. There is no 'eternal battle of good and evil' as there is in some other religions. Evil is purely temporary, God is for ever. But, in the mean time, the Devil is a powerful enemy. He uses temptation, guilt feelings, fear, and doubt, as well as other techniques to try to damage us. And the Devil is a liar — the ultimate con-man. Jesus doesn't suggest that we become experts in unarmed spiritual combat. Instead, he says that we should simply ask God to protect us — and He will.

Stechford Baptist Church • Victoria Road • Stechford • Birmingham B33 8AH. Map. Stechford is in the Stechford and Yardley North Ward, and is close to Hodge Hill.