How To Pray

How To PrayBonnie St. John After spending hundreds of hours interviewing women about prayer, this simple sentiment from Kelly Hoke, a stay at home mom, stands out in my memory:"I used to pray with an expectation, telling God 'this is what I need' or asking for help with specific things. I realize that I was always telling God what to do, giving God a 'to do' list. Now I deal with uncertainty more easily. It works much better when I open my heart and let God teach me how to live." Like Kelly, I struggled with actually letting go and letting God. What helped me grow the most was simply trial and error. All the begging, pleading, and bargaining to get what I wanted never did much good. It left me feeling tense, stressed and unfulfilled--even angry at God. Alternatively, when I prayed for God to change me instead of changing my circumstances, the results were swift.Now my prayers might sound more like:"Give me clarity and wisdom to handle this problem your way." Usually within a day or two after a prayer like that, I will find myself saying, "Wow, I have so much more clarity about this problem!" and then I remember...oh yeah, that's what I prayed for! (slap forehead)Or I might pray:"Give me the strength to be loving. My heart is too small and filled with petty jealousy and dislike. Expand my heart, Lord, that I may see this person in my life not as a thorn in my side, but as you see him, as a child of God."When I am stuck in a bad attitude, afraid, or confused, I am truly amazed at how fast God can change me once I make myself truly willing to be changed. If you have the courage to pray that way, you will see the answers to your prayers faster and more powerfully than when you pray for God to solve your problems and change the rest of the world to suit you. After all, Jesus taught us to pray by saying, "Thy will be done." (Matthew 6:10) Nowhere in the Lord's Prayer does it say that we should ask for more than our daily bread and the strength to avoid temptation.In 1 Kings 3:5, when God said to Solomon, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you," he requested only a discerning heart and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Verse ten tells us, "The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this." So much so, that God gave him riches and honor as well as wisdom. Do you have the courage to pray for God to make you a better person today?Think about the problems and challenges you are facing. Close your eyes now and ask God to give you the wisdom and strength to be a solution to your problems and to the problems of His many sheep. Ask to be God's solution in a turbulent, frightened world. If you have the courage to pray this, I can't wait to hear what happens!