Talking to God: Prayer

How strong is your relationship with God? How often do you talk to God? – Well, talking to God, spending time with him, and understanding him will help you grow in your relationship with God. In this post, we will be discovering the ways prayer can help you grow in your relationship with God, what the Bible says about it too and discover the meaning behind the story of Samuel, who heard God calling him while he was asleep. We will also look at the three important steps in prayer; asking for forgiveness, presenting your requests and being thankful. 

Prayer in everyday situations – Part 2

This is part 2 of a post we did a couple of days ago and I strongly advise you to go and look at part 1 before reading this post. You can find part 1 here.

In part 1 we talked a little bit about how prayer is like a phone call, in that we phone people through out our daily lives to say thank you, sorry, ask questions and for help. In this post we are going to look into what the Lord’s prayer means to us in modern life.

The lords prayer can be found in the book of Mathew 6, verses 9 to 13.

⁹ “This is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.

Jesus states just before saying the Lords prayer, “This is how you should pray”. This is Jesus telling the disciples, that this prayer, is how God wishes they pray. The Lords Prayer is almost a template for prayer. It can be divided into five prayer sections.

       1. Praising God

The first part of the Lords prayer is praising God. It says “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” This reminds us that we should praise God. Because when you pray you are talking to the creator of the universe.

       2. Praying for God’s work in the world

The next part of the prayer says ” Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This reminds us to pray that Gods work continues. It also says that your trust should be put in God as we should let his will be done.

       3. Daily Life

Verse 11 says “Give us today our daily bread.” This is telling us to acknowledge the fact that god is our provider. Again this is telling us to put our trust in God and he will provide.

       4. Forgiveness

Verse 12 says  “And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” This is about asking for forgiveness and a reminder about forgiving others.

       5. Daily Struggles

Finally verse 13 says “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” God does not deliberately tempt us but he does allow us to be tested by it. This tells us we need to pray for help to resist temptation and Satan.

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“I want”

Sometimes in life we just need to step back, and take a minute. Take some time to think about how lucky we are. All of you reading this post are extremely lucky, wherever you are in the world. This is because you have an electronic device to view this post on. We can browse the Internet, find out what is happening on the other side of the world and connect with people, we might never be able to meet face to face.

Jesus died for you

As we come up to Easter, I would like to ask you one very simple question. Have you ever thought about the extent of that Jesus did for you, when he died on the cross? He endured pain, suffering and numerous beatings. Jesus didn’t deserve to die, he had lived a perfect live and was God’s only son. But he still dies for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” He chose to send his only son to die. He did it for you. “So that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” – John 3:16. 

Joshua Eugene Harris is an American pastor and author, perhaps most widely known as the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, in which he explains what he believes to be the biblical approach to dating and relationships. You can find his blog here. Joshua Harris has written an amazing short story about a dream he had of a room filled with filing cabinets that contained all the actions of my life, both good and bad. You can view the story in video form below or if you would like to read the whole poem, click on the ‘Continue Reading’ link below.

As we come up to Easter there will be more posts, trying to get you to think about what Jesus really did for you, on that fateful day. However, don’t feel bad if you have never really considered this in great detail and you have just enjoyed Easter Sunday and resurrection. That is fine. But this year, follow RCG to find out more and spend some time, just contemplating what Jesus really did for you.