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SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER

PRAYER.

Priority 1

"My house shall be called a house of prayer...."-Jesus

Priority 1 in the Christian life is seeking God the Father with all of our heart.
God spoke to us through the life, death, and resurrection of his son Jesus.
God speaks to us still through the Holy Spirit who points us to Jesus, reveals to us his will for our lives, empowers us, and discloses to us his personal presence.
Our part in this ongoing dialog begins with prayer....

Prayer

What is prayer?
Prayer is simply talking to God.
Prayer may include:

Adoration-- reflecting on God himself.
Praise him for his love, his power and majesty, and his wonderful gift of his son Jesus Christ.

Confession-- admitting your sins to God.
Be honest and humble.
Remember he knows you and loves you still.

Thanksgiving-- telling God how grateful you are for everything he has given--even unpleasant things.
Your thankfulness will help you to see his purposes.

Supplication-- making specific requests, both for others and for yourself.

Prayer Requests

Prayer ministries at Lamplighter Ministries have been developed to meet the needs of different people at different times.
For example,there is a prayer chain for immediate prayer needs.
If you have someone you'd like us to pray for, including yourself, or have some praise you wish to share, please email us.

PRAY FOR ME.

Your name:
Your email address:

Type in your Prayer.
Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Thank you for your Prayer.

PRAYER

If you can imagine the sermon on the subject of prayer, I think I have heard it.
If you have heard of the book on prayer, I think I have it in my library.
Many times, the subject of prayer is made attractive by describing its power and Biblicalbasis, while, at the same time, it is made unavailable by the approach taught.
For instance:
"For power in prayer, one hour is the minimum!"
"For power in prayer, physical discomfort is necessary to keep you awake."
"For power in prayer, you must 'travail' as a woman would in childbirth."
"For power in prayer, you need to be on a mountain or in a cubbyhole."
"For power in prayer, you must pray loudly (quietly,together,etc.)."
All of these prior requirements push prayer further from me.
Sometimes I lose track of which rule might be missing.

WHAT CAN PRAYER BE?

Apparently, Jesus did not overtly display his prayer life which prompted the apostles to ask him to teach them how to pray.
Could it be that Jesus' conversations with his Father were so natural the apostles didn't even notice that he was praying?
Could it be that his most intensive moments with the Father were private ones when he escaped to lonely places and the disciples couldn't find him?

Surely prayer is part of God's attempt to restore the fellowship of Eden when he walked with Adam in the cool of the evening.
I doubt that the conversation in the garden included much of what we now call prayer.
Would Adam have yelled at God?
Would Adam have screamed for God to come near?
Would Adam have bowed his head and closed his eyes to validate the conversation?
I think not!

We know that God is closer to us than a brother.
Indeed, through His Holy Spirit He dwells in us.
What, in that scenario, guides our relationship and our form of prayer?
We know from Jesus that God is not impressed with repetition as a method nor is he responsive to Prayers for public consumption or as an expression of arrogance or greed.
What then might He want?

Surely, he simply wants us to talk to Him.
Fellowship demands that the method of conversation result from the degree of closeness felt.
I expect God wants us to be honest in our prayer and comfortable in our own language.
I don't think fellowship with God requires some sort of physical posturing in order to be effective.
I'm sure that He appreciates our believing that He is and that He is waiting to reward our belief.

From the words of Jesus, we know that God cares about " private time" with us ("closet") and promises to reward us for that.
It is also obvious that he wants us to understand and honor him as God, to submit ourselves to him ("thy kingdom come") and to seek his intervention in our world.

God obviously doesn't want us to approach him greedily (" daily bread") and does want us to adopt his attitude of forgiveness toward others.
He wants us to be concerned about anything that would break our fellowship and be willing to talk to him about it (" deliver us from evil").
Jesus' teaching on prayer is a glorious model of simplicity.
Finally,if I read Jesus correctly, God wants us to pray in keeping with what Jesus would pray ("in my name").

So, what should our conclusions be?

What physical position should I be in when I pray'
Any position you wish.

At what volume should I pray?
At whatever volume you feel is "close".

Where should I pray?
Wherever you are.

How long should I pray?
For as long as you want to talk to your creator and best friend, perhaps " without ceasing".

Isn't there something I can do to improve my chances of prayer being answered?
Not likely.
He is hard to fool.
Just love Him and let Him love you.

Will he listen to me if I'm not perfect?
God has a centuries-long track record of listening to people with mixed motives.
If you are talking to Him, it is a good indication that your heart is turned His direction.

The beautiful thing about prayer is that it moves you to be more like Him.
Doesn’t this make prayer too simple and childlike?

Amen, amen, amen!

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