I don’t know about many of you, but this past several months have been a real time of seeking the Lord on decisions and paths that are in front of us. When I say, “us” I mean my wife and I. Before I was saved, my wife was the spiritual head of the household. She did all the things she possibly could do to maintain the presence of God in our home. It was a battle for her, a real struggle, especially since I was in the camp of the enemy. So here you have this spiritual struggle in a home, a home divided against itself, while all the time, our children were trying to figure out what their role was in all this. Prayer is not an easy task, and quite frankly I don’t think it’s supposed to be. The act of “praying” is easy. Assuming the position of prayer, head down, eyes closed mumbling away the prayers that you have listed out that day or come to mind at that moment, and then I’m done.

Here let me outline the prayer I do with my wife in the morning to give you a better perspective of what I mean;

Father we thank you for this day; I ask that you watch over and keep us, guide and direct us, be with us as we go about the task of the day. We ask that you watch over. Watch over our two children and their spouses, watch over our 3 grandchildren.  Watch over our parents and family members. We lift up our home, our vehicles and our finances. Help us to be good stewards of those things you have placed with in our hands. Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear what You are doing in and around us so that we may follow the path You have for us this day. We thank you Lord for your sacrifice on the cross for our sins and help us to be in remembrance of that as we go out this day. We thank You and give You the glory, in Jesus name, Amen.

Now I don’t think that is a bad prayer, I covered all the bases as far as our personal life and gave God the glory at the end. So I should be set for the day, right? Problem is, if that is my first conversation with the Lord in the morning when I first wake up, I am missing so many facets of Him, and the very essence of who He is. I am never really getting a true sense of direction for the day that lies ahead. What I am doing is hoping that He will hear what I am praying and answer those prayers according to my expectations.

I still believe that Jesus was giving a command when He spoke the following words, “This is how you should pray.”

⁸ “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. ⁹ In this manner, therefore, 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 this day our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
¹³ And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen”

When Jesus refers to “them” he is speaking of the heathens who use vain repetition hoping to be heard (Matt 6:7). Prayer to me is an intimate communication between myself and Jesus. Prayer isn’t just asking for something selfishly, but it’s aligning my heart with the heart of the Father. Yes there are moments when we can come before the “Master to Petition Him” (Luke 18) He listens to His children and would never turns His back on the elect which are covered in the blood of His Son. Selfishly praying will not yield a fruitful prayer life, but only disappointment and eventually mistrust in Jesus that He will not accomplish anything in your life. This is a direct assault of the enemy against the body of Christ. When we see our prayers not answered, the enemy, who is Satan, will begin his assault on our hearts and whisper to our spirit man, “You see, He doesn’t care about you, He won’t answer you because He has no time for your request.” The enemy is relentless when it comes to attacking the body of Christ, he will never cease, there is nothing he wants more than to draw your focus away from God, and onto yourself.

Finally here to me is the clearest direction on how we pray and how we can align our hearts with His and to know without a shadow of a doubt what the Fathers heart is concerning any situation in our life.

³ Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

This is the best description in my opinion of what it means to have the desires of your heart answered. Because it’s not about us at all, it’s about the Fathers heart for us. When we line our hearts up with His heart and His will, the Holy Spirit will cause our hearts to line up with His heart. At this point, His desire will become ours and we will be praying in line with His will for us. The keys to this are in the scripture I just shared, “Trust in the Lord, Feed on His faithfulness, Delight yourself ALSO in the Lord, and THEN He will grant the desire of your heart.”

If we as Christian really do give our lives to Jesus, then we are saying we trust in fact that Jesus knows a better way for us to pray and ultimately serve in a “right spirit” in His kingdom.