The Pursuit: Chasing After Your New Life in Christনমুনা

“Getting Down the Basics: Prayer” What are the building blocks of a good friendship? Common interests? Likes? Dislikes? Common background? Maybe, but the trouble with that theory is, you can continue to like the same things, and have much in common, but when you stop being connected to that other person, what happens? Well, when you stop connecting to someone else, stop contacting them, stop spending time with them, and stop talking, you cease having a healthy friendship. Amazing how that happens, isn’t it? One day the conversation just comes to a close. That can happen with you and God too. God is not going to wake up one morning and decide not to speak to you anymore. He wants to talk to you every day. The thing is, you need to talk to Him as well. After all, who wants a one-sided conversation in a friendship? Talking to God is what we call prayer. What should prayer sound like? The disciples asked Jesus that same question one day. When you look at the prayer in today’s Bible reading, we see His answer? You can see that Jesus’ model prayer breaks down into several parts that we can model our prayers after. First, our prayers should give recognition to God for who He is. When you pray, take time to thank God for being a holy and righteous God who was willing to send Jesus to save us. Second, our prayers should seek God’s will for our lives. When we ask that God’s “kingdom come,” we are praying that God’s desires may be accomplished in our lives. Third, we should take our requests and needs to God. God is kind and compassionate. He wants us to bring our needs before Him, knowing that He will give us what we need. God wants to answer our prayers. Fourth, we need to ask God to forgive us from our sins and to guide us away from temptation to sin. It’s important that we continue to bring our sins and failures before God. We are not perfect, but He desires to forgive us. Don’t let anything keep you from praying consistently. Take time out each day to pray. Build prayer into your daily routine. When opportunities to pray with other people or for other people come up, pray. Don’t miss an opportunity to talk to God. He wants to spend time in conversation with us. Take some time now to pray. Also, before you are done with today’s time with God, plan a time later today when you will pray.