"On" Series-On Prayer

Prayer as we know it in the 21st century has changed from where it was during the time of our ancestors. Not only have we changed the way we pray but we have also changed what we pray about. For example prior to the Azusa street revival of the 20th century most Protestant denominations prayed according to a strict outline. Enter with thanksgiving and praise, acknowledge that you are a sinner and ask for forgiveness, pray for others’ needs, then your needs, and then close with more praise and Amen was the typical outline. For the Catholic and Orthodox churches prayer was a repeated chant, song, or mass that went from 5 minutes and could last for hours. During and after the revival with the aid and gifting of the Holy Spirit people’s eyes were opened and they became more aware and more educated about prayer. With people praying in the Spirit (in unknown tongues) people began to stand on such scripture as Jude 1:20 “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit” We began to realize that God had been telling us through his servant Jude that prayer isn’t always to be used in such a manner where it becomes a ritual but it should be used to encourage yourself and others around you. Today, for those of us who do have a close and personal relationship with God and have accepted Christ as our savior and especially those who are walking under the gifts of the Spirit prayer has become more informal as our lives become more and more informal. In yesteryear there were certain formalities in life that a person would go through. For example in the church atmosphere generally everyone would attend church on a regular basis and prepared for church the night before. There wasn’t much of a “come as you are” policy as there is today simply because people thought that God would not accept certain people because of their lifestyle or they way they looked or even the color of their skin so if you wanted to come to church and be accepted you had to dress a certain way and depending on your denomination you even had to act and believe a certain way. If you were Baptist, you carried your Bible at ALL times to church. If you were sanctified, women were not allowed to wear pants or makeup to church. If you were a Jehovah’s Witness your entire family had to be a JW and you weren’t allowed to celebrate any holiday or set foot in any other church except the Kingdom Hall. However in today society a lot of those formalities are gone because we are more educated than our grandparents and our ancestors were. So with formalities gone we learned to see God in a formal yet informal way just like he intended us to see Him. While we have a fear and awe of Him we aren’t ritualistic with him when we pray simply because we have a greater understanding of His loving nature and his willingness to meet us where we are. So, is there still a set formula to prayer? Yes there is. All you have to do is to talk to Him…no fancy fill-ins, no extra drama, just conversation with God.

Speaking of the “extra drama” I understand that there is a time and place for everything. Sometimes intercession does call for a long prayer especially when you are trying to pray for people in a corporate setting and people have made specific requests, sometimes the Spirit really does move in such a way where to anyone on the outside looking in it may look like real travail in prayer. However, there are also times where the extra add-ins isn’t needed. The old church had a mentality of if we wanted something we had to call on the name of Jesus in such a way to get Him off the throne. In reality God is already concerned about your needs even before you pray. If prayer is supposed to be a faith builder then you should enter into it thanking God for things that he has yet to do. Romans 4:17 told us to “….call into being things that were not” When you do that you begin to realize a peace that comes over you to the point where there is no drama involved and you just begin to flow into his manifested presence in your life!!