Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ingredients
For
Prayer
A practical approach
to maximizing your
time with God.
May your prayer life and prayer time expand you into Kingdom
life.
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CHAPTER 1
What Is Prayer?
“Our Father…”
situation our way rather than pray that both of us see it God’s
way. This is a result of our concept of prayer being self-
centered.
You can become liberated in the area of supplication
when you understand that if I have it, then I need it; if I
don’t have it, then I don’t need it or I’m not ready for it and
God loves me so much He won’t give me what I’m not ready
for. Can you imagine God giving you what you are not ready
for and it becoming an emotional, psychological and spiritual
nightmare? You would be unhappy. God knows how a
person will be in thirty years. He cares so much about you
that he will begin to open trap doors so that you may see
some things about them. He will let you see their true
character and attitude; they will begin breaking your heart
regularly. Yet, you remain connected to them. God is letting
them hurt you, but you stay connected because you believe
that is the person God has giving to you. Understand, God is
saying “I have told you no. I can’t grant this request because
I love you and I know that the situation is only going to get
worse.” Nevertheless, you continue to pray that God will
change his mind. Unfortunately, many Christians are
determined to have what they want and not what God wants
for them.
When we look at “Give us this day our daily bread” our
supplication should be “give us what we need”. What do you
need? The bible says if you have clothes and shelter, be
content. Have you ever walked past a car dealership and said
“Look at that Jaguar, Father in Jesus name I claim that car.”
Have you ever noticed how we claim the car, but we do not
claim the payments, the insurance, or any of the things that
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread 31
answer is yes. “Can you afford the house – the upkeep, the
taxes, replacing the roof if it leaks?” If your honest answer is
no and that you are buying it by faith then God didn’t tell
you to buy it. At this point, the right thing to do is to buy a
house you can afford by faith, because the one you can’t
afford is presumption. God is not obligated to support
presumption.
Now, I know that many of your views are formed by the
cultural reality that God wants His children to have the best.
However, I must ask you to define the best. Do you think
that God wants you to have what is best for you or what is
best for the Kingdom of God? I also realize that you are
being exposed to many theories about prosperity and having
abundance. Many of the theories we hear today simply
reinforce our reasons for writing this book on proper prayer.
We should spend more time in God’s presence than in God’s
pocket. What does the Lord really desire for us and from us?
Have you considered prayer is designed to be more than a
time for shopping? Did you ever think that our Father
wanted prayer to be a time of spiritual connection?
I only ask these questions because Christians must begin
to move beyond a relationship with our Father based on
receiving “goodies”. I cannot imagine Jesus asking the Father
for stuff. I believe that He simply waited for directions and
He knew the Father would provide. Prayer must be
dedicated to getting closer to the Father and receiving His
will instead of accumulating more stuff. I urge you to move
beyond the cultural expression of prayer and begin to think
more about the will of the Lord.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread 33
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For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do
not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive
your sins (Matthew 6:14-15 NIV).
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and
slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving each other,
just as in Christ God forgave you (Ephesians 4:31-32
NIV).
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In this great passage, we are told that the Holy Spirit helps
our infirmities because we don’t know what to pray for. The
word infirmities mean weaknesses. This scripture does not say
we do not know how to pray; it says we don’t know what we
should ask for. Let me give you an example. A person is
lying in a hospital bed and their health is deteriorating and we
don’t know what we should pray for. Do we go in and say
“Lord heal them” or do we go in and say “Lord I release them
into your arms.”?
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Now that is prayer. Think about the words not my will but
your will be done. Do you pray in that fashion? Do you pray
for the will of the Father to be carried out in your life or do
you simply do whatever you want to do for your own
pleasure?
Jesus is praying in the spirit through his personal battle
until the mind of God is so solidified in him that he utters the
words thy will be done. This is the phrase that God is looking
for. God is not looking to hear you speak in tongues, God is
looking to hear you say, “Father, your will be done. I have a
will, I have desires, but I’m going to pray until my will is
broken and I say ‘your will be done’.” The will of God may
require that you love someone who does not love you. The
will of God may require that you bless someone who doesn’t
want to bless you. God may require that you give to
someone who is actively trying to destroy you. God may
require that you stay in a marriage that looks bad. Again, it is
not “your” will, but “thy will be done.” When we finally give
in to the Holy Spirit and say “your will be done” then we
have prayed through the situation.
The phrase, “we don’t know what we should pray for,”
suggests that when we are confronted by needs we don’t know
how to specifically pray regarding those needs. What do we
say? How do we pray? These are legitimate questions that are
on the mind of every believer at some time or another. A
specific situation unfolds before us but we don’t know what
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Peace of God
Don’t Be Anxious
The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our
refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works of the LORD, what
desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to
cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and
cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted
among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The
LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah (Psalm 46:7-11).
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around our life. This constant activity can affect our prayer
time. Believe me, while I am engaged in the work of ministry,
I can easily become distressed and frustrated. When I am
confronting the multitude of problems involved in ministry, I
sometimes feel like “hitting the rock a second time.” This is
the result of anxiety and I must do the same things that I
teach others to do. I need a moment to reflect on the
greatness of God and rest. The life of an adult can be very
stressful and there are times when we need to revert to the
peaceful, trusting mindset of a child.
Remember as a child how you would open the refrigerator
and stare into it for fifteen minutes. You would hold the
door open so long that the ice would begin to melt. Yet, you
didn’t worry about it. You would go to school and not worry
about lunch money. You would go to your parents and ask
them for lunch money. You heard them say last night on the
phone that they were broke, but that did not stop you from
asking. Why? You knew that they would find a way to take
care of you and your needs. Parents were our first magicians;
they could make a “money” rabbit appear out of thin air.
You never worried about a thing.
I watch children playing at our camp during the summer
and they aren’t worried about a thing. They are running
around the playground, laughing and playing. They aren’t
thinking about war and economic calamity; they don’t have a
fear of terrorism. In contrast, as a parent, you are working
your fingers to the bone planning for a college education for
your three year old and he is outside wondering if he’s going
to get more cookies. Children do not worry, and it is this
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Lord, I don’t know what they’re doing every day but you
know. I put my child in your hands; I’m not going to
worry about my baby anymore. I’m going to put my
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Now, you know what you were told and you know what is
waiting for you. Will you give up and go back home?
Hopefully, you will not go home because someone
upstairs called you. You are not going to let the security
guard keep you away. So, why do we let the enemy keep us
from what we know is ours or what we want? We want to
hear clearly from God about our request. You would have the
guard call the human resource department. If the line is busy,
you will tell them to try again until they get the person you
spoke with. Finally, the person you are there to meet with
picks up the phone and apologies for your name not being on
the list.
PRAYER IS WORK! Daniel said he prayed for an answer
from God for 21 days. The angel sent with the answer finally
arrived. He had been held up by the ”prince of Persia” and
he had to wait for reinforcements to be sent. Why did God
send reinforcements? The text tells us it was a result of
Daniel continuing in prayer. I want to encourage you not to
give up when you know it is God’s will that you get an
answer. Keep asking God until you have results, until you
have an answer. Please understand that you may not get the
answer you want but you will get an answer if you keep
asking.
Sometimes prayer can result in a physical confrontation
with the adversary that will test your resolve. Jesus prayed
until the pressure of darkness rose up, “And being in agony he
prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great
drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:4). The
very life was being squeezed out of him. Have you ever
prayed until you stirred up the enemy? I do not think that
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Pray Often
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he
went into his house; and his windows being open in his
chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees
three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his
God, as he did aforetime (Daniel 6:10).
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