Teaching Me To Pray

The Lord is teaching me how to pray. 

I grew up in a home that prays, my parents taught me from an early age. Just recently though, with some of the new situations Eric and I find ourselves in, I've been learning to pray more directly for what I want. 

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. That we may find mercy and grace in time of need." Hebrews 4:16

I've been thinking and studying that verse a lot in the past few weeks and just the meaning of coming boldly to the throne. We can come with confidence when we ask the Lord to satisfy a need. I've been praying for Eric but in a sense of "Help him" and then I thought why am I not praying for what I want God to do specifically for him? Then I did and I got specifically what I had asked for (which wasn't good either because I didn't ask for the Lord's will to be done). And that's the other part to the story. We think we know what we want and have the answer to all our problems. 

Money seems to be the answer to all our problems but I know it's not. I know new issues arise with large amounts of money. So now I pray that the Lord's will be done. Here's what I want, but only if it's in your will. 

PRAYER occupies a most important place in the life of the Christian. “Behold, he prays, was one of the first and also one of the surest indications of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. No one begins to live the life of faith who has not also begun to pray—and as prayer is necessary at the commencement of the Christian career, so is it necessary all through. A Christian's vigor, happiness, growth and usefulness all depend upon prayer. It is—His watchword at the gates of death, He enters Heaven with prayer. I suppose that even there we shall continue to pray. At all events, we read of the souls under the altar crying with a loud voice and saying,

 

“How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

 

I imagine that in Heaven we shall still lift up our hearts in prayer for the spread of Christ' s Kingdom, though our principal occupation there will be that of praise. But prayer is always needed here—every day, every hour, every moment we have cause for crying unto the Most High—

“Long as they live should Christians pray,”

Boldness at the Throne - A sermon published on Thursday January 27, 1910. Delivered by C. H. Spurgeon.