How Do I Pray and Draw Closer to God?
Over the years, I’ve come across a number of people that have asked the same question. How do I draw closer to God? They also tell me that they pray and yet nothing seems to change. How am I supposed to pray?
I think the answer to the first question has to do with not only prayer, but obedience as well. We can’t expect to be off doing our own thing and actually believe we will draw closer to God. That’s just not going to happen. Let’s take a look at what Jesus says:
Over the years, I’ve come across a number of people that have asked the same question. How do I draw closer to God? They also tell me that they pray and yet nothing seems to change. How am I supposed to pray?
I think the answer to the first question has to do with not only prayer, but obedience as well. We can’t expect to be off doing our own thing and actually believe we will draw closer to God. That’s just not going to happen. Let’s take a look at what Jesus says:
John 14:15-17 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
John 14:23-24 “Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
Notice the consistent theme here? Obey! We must look to please our Father in heaven with obedience. How does this happen? Through submission to Jesus.
Heb 12:8-10 “If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Without true submission to God, we cannot expect we will begin to grow closer to Him. So we ask the next question, “How do we submit?”
The first and foremost answer I have is through prayer. This is conversation with God. He longs to hear from us. He wants to hear what’s on our minds, even though He already knows!
Eph 6:8 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
Philip 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
1 The 5: 16-18 “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
2 The 1:11 “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.”
These are just four example of prayer mentioned in scripture. In fact, there are more than 360 references to prayer in the NIV. As you can see, this is a mighty important item that should be on the top of our list of things to do!
Now you may note in the third and fourth examples, we are encouraged to pray constantly and that Paul says he is praying constantly. Is this really true or even possible? Not for us. But there is one that can pray without ceasing on our behalf. That is the Holy Spirit!
Rom 8:26-27 “And 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 with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”
Prayer is powerful and even God’s Holy Spirit is praying on our behalf. So it is essential that we do our part and pray. Now we might wonder if the Holy Spirit is praying for us, why should we?
Well, I agree with Dr. Charles Stanley on this point. I firmly believe there are things God will do or not do if we ask Him. And there are things He will do or not do regardless of what we ask. How do you tell the difference? Don’t know, can’t tell, so you better pray!
So how do we go about praying properly? The answer to our second question is that Jesus gave us a model to follow in Mat 6. Most of us know it as the “Our Father”.
Mat 6:9-13 “This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
The only problem here is that when we become so familiar with something, it becomes rote, without meaning. And Jesus warns us against empty words. Jesus calls this “babbling” in verse 7. So how do we pray this prayer without babbling? We do so by finding the meaning within each verse of the prayer.
“'Our Father in heaven”, This is acknowledging God as supreme. He is our Father, the one we answer to and the one we submit to, there is no other! It is also acknowledging His place above all in heaven. He is the one that sits over all things. Nothing, no one is greater than He!
“hallowed be your name”, His name is holy. It is not to be taken lightly. It is to be considered and said with reverence, love and joy. Remember the third commandment?
Exo 20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
This is pretty important to God and we would do well to remember that!
“your kingdom come” We are imploring God to hurry the days. We long for Jesus to return! Some may say that the Kingdom is already here. It arrived when Jesus rose from the dead or certainly by Pentecost. Well, this is true. But the kingdom is only partially here at present. Rather like climbing the stairs and stepping one foot on the porch of your home. You can make the argument that you are on the porch and to an extent it is true. But most of you is still on the stairs leading up to the porch. I don’t know about you, but I want to be all the way in the kingdom!
“your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” We look for submission not only from ourselves but from all on earth. We long for them to know the joy of serving the Lord. To feel His peace and love. To experience His very presence with His creation. In other words, we want to share Christ with the world and we want the world to experience Him.
“Give us today our daily bread.” We ask God to meet our daily needs, ever mindful that He already knows what we need before we ask. Yet we ask because it pleases Him to hear from us and to use our faith to create the miracles we need for our sustenance.
“Forgive us our debts,” We plead with God not to hold our sins against us, but to grant us mercy and grace. We want the blood of Christ to wash us clean so that The Father only sees the Son’s righteousness, not our sin stained garb. Yet there is much more to consider in the rest of this passage.
“as we also have forgiven our debtors” We gloss over this part of the prayer so easily that we miss it. “As we ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN our debtors.” We are asking God to forgive us in the exact same way that we forgive others. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you want to be forgiven, you must forgive. Some of you may be thinking you don’t know what so and so has put me through. How can I be asked to forgive them? Let’s look a little further on this point.
Mat 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
It can’t be any more clear than that! If you don’t forgive others, God doesn’t forgive you. He doesn’t say unless you have a good reason, He just says forgive. Why? Because He will forgive us unconditionally, no matter what we have done. In God’s eyes, we are all evil. It is only through redemption in Christ that we are justified. What He is asking of us is to forgive as He forgives. And that is what we are asking of Him!
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” We ask for protection from Satan and his minions. Let’s face it. Demons have been around a long time. They are smarter and stronger than we are. We don’t stand a chance against them on our own. Only through God’s strength and power can we overcome them. And I sure want to overcome!
Now please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am not suggesting that this is the only prayer to you should ever pray. God wants you to speak from your heart. But I believe the model and principles I’ve outlined are sound. If you use them, I cannot believe you won’t feel a difference in your prayer life. And when we look to focus our attention, not only on prayer, but on the one, true God, it helps us to draw closer to Him. It is almost like a form of meditation. Your mind is not wandering. It is fixed on the Lord while you’re submitting powerful petitions, doing so in a way that is pleasing to God. He becomes first in your mind and first in your heart. And after all, isn’t that what it’s all about?!
In His name…
© 2010 Church of Hope, Inc.
John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
John 14:23-24 “Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
Notice the consistent theme here? Obey! We must look to please our Father in heaven with obedience. How does this happen? Through submission to Jesus.
Heb 12:8-10 “If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Without true submission to God, we cannot expect we will begin to grow closer to Him. So we ask the next question, “How do we submit?”
The first and foremost answer I have is through prayer. This is conversation with God. He longs to hear from us. He wants to hear what’s on our minds, even though He already knows!
Eph 6:8 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
Philip 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
1 The 5: 16-18 “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
2 The 1:11 “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.”
These are just four example of prayer mentioned in scripture. In fact, there are more than 360 references to prayer in the NIV. As you can see, this is a mighty important item that should be on the top of our list of things to do!
Now you may note in the third and fourth examples, we are encouraged to pray constantly and that Paul says he is praying constantly. Is this really true or even possible? Not for us. But there is one that can pray without ceasing on our behalf. That is the Holy Spirit!
Rom 8:26-27 “And 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 with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”
Prayer is powerful and even God’s Holy Spirit is praying on our behalf. So it is essential that we do our part and pray. Now we might wonder if the Holy Spirit is praying for us, why should we?
Well, I agree with Dr. Charles Stanley on this point. I firmly believe there are things God will do or not do if we ask Him. And there are things He will do or not do regardless of what we ask. How do you tell the difference? Don’t know, can’t tell, so you better pray!
So how do we go about praying properly? The answer to our second question is that Jesus gave us a model to follow in Mat 6. Most of us know it as the “Our Father”.
Mat 6:9-13 “This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
The only problem here is that when we become so familiar with something, it becomes rote, without meaning. And Jesus warns us against empty words. Jesus calls this “babbling” in verse 7. So how do we pray this prayer without babbling? We do so by finding the meaning within each verse of the prayer.
“'Our Father in heaven”, This is acknowledging God as supreme. He is our Father, the one we answer to and the one we submit to, there is no other! It is also acknowledging His place above all in heaven. He is the one that sits over all things. Nothing, no one is greater than He!
“hallowed be your name”, His name is holy. It is not to be taken lightly. It is to be considered and said with reverence, love and joy. Remember the third commandment?
Exo 20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
This is pretty important to God and we would do well to remember that!
“your kingdom come” We are imploring God to hurry the days. We long for Jesus to return! Some may say that the Kingdom is already here. It arrived when Jesus rose from the dead or certainly by Pentecost. Well, this is true. But the kingdom is only partially here at present. Rather like climbing the stairs and stepping one foot on the porch of your home. You can make the argument that you are on the porch and to an extent it is true. But most of you is still on the stairs leading up to the porch. I don’t know about you, but I want to be all the way in the kingdom!
“your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” We look for submission not only from ourselves but from all on earth. We long for them to know the joy of serving the Lord. To feel His peace and love. To experience His very presence with His creation. In other words, we want to share Christ with the world and we want the world to experience Him.
“Give us today our daily bread.” We ask God to meet our daily needs, ever mindful that He already knows what we need before we ask. Yet we ask because it pleases Him to hear from us and to use our faith to create the miracles we need for our sustenance.
“Forgive us our debts,” We plead with God not to hold our sins against us, but to grant us mercy and grace. We want the blood of Christ to wash us clean so that The Father only sees the Son’s righteousness, not our sin stained garb. Yet there is much more to consider in the rest of this passage.
“as we also have forgiven our debtors” We gloss over this part of the prayer so easily that we miss it. “As we ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN our debtors.” We are asking God to forgive us in the exact same way that we forgive others. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you want to be forgiven, you must forgive. Some of you may be thinking you don’t know what so and so has put me through. How can I be asked to forgive them? Let’s look a little further on this point.
Mat 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
It can’t be any more clear than that! If you don’t forgive others, God doesn’t forgive you. He doesn’t say unless you have a good reason, He just says forgive. Why? Because He will forgive us unconditionally, no matter what we have done. In God’s eyes, we are all evil. It is only through redemption in Christ that we are justified. What He is asking of us is to forgive as He forgives. And that is what we are asking of Him!
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” We ask for protection from Satan and his minions. Let’s face it. Demons have been around a long time. They are smarter and stronger than we are. We don’t stand a chance against them on our own. Only through God’s strength and power can we overcome them. And I sure want to overcome!
Now please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am not suggesting that this is the only prayer to you should ever pray. God wants you to speak from your heart. But I believe the model and principles I’ve outlined are sound. If you use them, I cannot believe you won’t feel a difference in your prayer life. And when we look to focus our attention, not only on prayer, but on the one, true God, it helps us to draw closer to Him. It is almost like a form of meditation. Your mind is not wandering. It is fixed on the Lord while you’re submitting powerful petitions, doing so in a way that is pleasing to God. He becomes first in your mind and first in your heart. And after all, isn’t that what it’s all about?!
In His name…
© 2010 Church of Hope, Inc.