PRAYER Pt. 1: Definition of Prayer

I guess that the best way to start off a series on prayer would be to define prayer. After all, it is hard to talk about something if we do not have a good idea what exactly we are talking about. So, what is prayer? Here are the definitions found on dictionary.com:

1. a devout petition to God or an object of worship.
2. a spiritual communion with God or an object of worship, as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration,  or confession.
3. the act or practice of praying to God or an object of worship.
4. a formula or sequence of words used in or appointed for praying: the Lord's Prayer.
5. prayers, a religious observance, either public or private, consisting wholly or mainly of prayer.

Over the course of this series we are going to talk about the Christian concept of prayer. So we can rule out object of worship. Based on several scriptures we can also rule out formula or sequence of words. Honestly these definitions work, but not well. To learn about the concept of prayer to God, we should see what He says about it in His Living Word. So, what does the Bible say about prayer?

1 John 5:14-15 says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him."

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray continually."

John 16:23, "In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."

We have made prayer much more complicated yet easier than it needs to be. I know that I suffer from this. I have no problem praying on my own, but get really nervous when I am praying outloud in the midst of others. I get nervous when I pray over food if the table has people I do not know at it. It is even more nerve-wracking for me when I am doing intercessory prayer (praying on behalf of someone else) in a group or I am praying with someone else out loud.

Prayer should not be this way. Prayer is not that difficult a thing to do, but in order to do it it must be understood. I fear things that I do not know or understand well. Math and spiders are the two examples I have. One of them I do not understand well, and the other I have never had any reason to learn about. Therefore I am intimidated and scared by them. I no longer want to be intimidated by prayer. 


This series is an opportunity for me to learn more about what prayer is and share that knowledge with you. It is me realizing that not only do I not know enough about prayer, but that I am pretty sure I do not pray often enough and need to pray more. But in order to pray, I should understand what prayer is. So what is my definition of prayer?

Prayers are frequent conversations of meaning and purpose with our Heavenly Father in the name of His Son Jesus Christ that are sincere and filled with an attitude of gratitude, reverence, love, faith, humility and thanksgiving which allows us to let our needs be known while deepening our relationship with God.

The bottom line is this: Prayer IS an ongoing  conversation with God. Plain and simple, prayer is talking to God. Imagine having God on speed dial, "Siri, call Jehovah." Instantly, I have God on the other end and I can have a conversation with him where I pour my heart out. Just like your best friend, you should want to talk to God over the course of the day and share your life with Him. Prayer is showing that you are dependent on God. You are confiding in God, building your relationship and letting Him know that you need Him. Not praying is trying to live independent of God, telling Him that you don't want Him and you don't need Him.

Our Father Who Art in Heaven: Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee PRAYER Pt. 0.5

It seems that we have a lot of people who no longer pray. They have stopped praying because they do not get their prayers answered. The reason for this is that they are praying wrong. I know what you are thinking, that there is no wrong way to pray. But there is, and many have forgotten the how and why of it. Most of us start our prayer with our hands open and we end prayer with our hands open. We expect God to give, give, give and we are offering nothing in return.

Then there are the prayer habits that many of us have. We may only pray first thing in the morning or again in the evening, plus with our meals. Some of us may only pray at our meals if someone is watching, and others may only pray when people are not. We probably only set aside a couple of minutes every day to pray, never praying for long periods of times. Prayer is hard work and it is time consuming. If we only are praying when it is convenient for us or so that others may see us, we are praying wrong!

This is the beginning of a series on prayer that will be ongoing the next several weeks. Each week we will look at another piece of the prayer puzzle. Among what we will be looking at are: what is prayer, how are we to pray, how often are we to pray, why should we pray and why are my prayers not answered. That said, we will also look at the opposite of these questions. If there are things we should do, then there are things that we should not do.

My hope is that this coming series, although merely an overview, will be able to get you thinking about prayer. It will allow you to begin examining your prayer life, how and when you pray and the reasoning behind your prayer. We are not called to be comfortable, but to be ever vigilant. Prayer should be as needed for our spiritual life as air is for our physical life. If it isn't, then I am hoping that this series will make us question how we are living our lives and insure that we make prayer a major gear in our daily functioning.

This Ain't No Game Living Free #3 A Blog by Scott

What happens when we go where we are not welcome? Simply put we are asked in no uncertain terms to leave.  It becomes evident when we have strayed from our fenced in lives and head into territory that is claimed by Satan himself that he will pay attention and rise up against us.  The last several weeks have been the hardest but most rewarding of my life.  Starting Living Free at our church during the training process basically felt at times like a social club of sorts.  Yes we all had a common mission and goal to serve but the truth is during our training period we were serving ourselves. Its not that its bad to focus inward before you minister outward but it just doesn’t feel real.  Brothers and Sisters it got real today. 

My family almost died tonight coming home from Living Free.  I was so excited to talk about my group and how we were connecting as a family.  I was so passionate in telling everyone in the car that my group is awesome and I know God is doing amazing things.  That is when "It" happened my little car encountered a turn that I was not ready for because I was on cloud 9 and not paying attention.  I went through a ditch hit a pole kept going did a hairpin turn in a field with weeds not less than 8 feet high came back out the same ditch and back onto the road.  IT DID NO DAMAGE.  I had a trunk full of food and supplies from group IT DID NOT SPILL OR UPSET ANYTHING.  God completely protected us from harm. We sat in shock and after investigating this miracle we as a family gave God  a prayer of thanksgiving.  To him be all Glory for this Miracle.

This “Ain’t no game” and I see now two things.

 #1- People are praying for us and God is protecting us

 #2- God is bigger and has more power than Satan and HE is protecting us. 

We in the ministry of helping others should never forget that this is WAR and we the people who chose to fight this “Holy War” will NOT QUIT, NOT SURRENDER, AND NOT LAY DOWN.  We are going to take back souls from Satan and they will impact their own lives, their family legacy, and their worlds. 

It is an honor to serve God in Living Free and I know we are protected and we will take back what Satan is trying so desperately to steal. 

“Gods Got this”

Love and Respect

Scott

Stepping Into Freedom, second blog From Scott

I’ve got everything together……or do I

Well it happened again another great session of Living Free at our Church. Living
Free is a Living Breathing thing that has a tendency to be much more tedious than
anticipated. Please don’t read into this a complaining winey attitude. I am just expressing
that the elements are many, there are so many moving parts to a program like this it’s
amazing and at times overwhelming. We have 24 adults registered so far, that sounds
easy right? Well… not so much. You see we have a meal before our sessions (For 50)
There are copies to make, attendance and contact information, Bibles that need to be in
place, Facilitators that have there own lives and families, Set up of three rooms, Video
preparation, copies of materials, lesson book sales etc. The list goes on and on and on.
Truthfully without the excellent support of my amazing wife Rachel who serves as Co-
Coordinator, our Core Team of Facilitators, my daughters who serve as teachers for the
children, the workers who assist with Babies and children, and last but certainly not least
our prayer warriors, Oh yes and the support of our church it just couldn’t happen.

Living Free Kids
Beyond the adults thee are children, 18 so far to be exact that we are privileged to serve
we feel strongly not to make this a daycare, watch a Disney movie, setting. Our Kids
have a teacher, an assistant and a lesson with a purpose. Going into this I would have
never suspected the fringe elements to helping people it’s so much bigger it’s helping
families as well as individuals.

I serve this program not only as Coordinator but also as Facilitator for “Stepping Into
Freedom” that is a Christ Centered Scripture Based 12 step program. Sitting in my group
it hit me this week that we have been so focused on starting a program that I feel we
forgot the objective really is to help people by running a program with excellence. This
is so much more important than the many elements it takes to make this run smoothly it
comes down to impacting lives in a group setting. Thank God he gave me a wake up call
as to why it is we do what we do. I’ve got everything together…… or do I – Answer --- I
Do Not. God does and what he started he will not let fail.
“Gods Got This”
Blessings and RespeCT-
Scott