Prayer should be restful right????

So prayer is important. That is a pretty easy statement for any Christian to agree with. I have struggled with having times where I focus on one or two things and pray about them, my mind wonders. But I have enjoyed a pretty good conversational prayer life. What I mean by that is that I pray as I think of things while walking around or doing anything. So what I want to do here is talk a little about some of my thoughts on prayer, but also about something I have been learning recently...

Prayer is pointless if you do not trust God with what you are talking to Him about.

So to set up how I got to his point, my thoughts on prayer.

Prayer is communication with God. It is a conversation with our Father. Meaning I see 2 mistakes commonly made, myself included.

1. We do all the talking.

Many times when I pray I pray until I am out of things to talk about. Then I move on to whatever else is going on. We would never do that (or rarely, lol) to a friend. They would get tired of it.

"Hey, Dave, can you help me with this project for class. Ok cya later."

That isn't waiting for a response, or giving a change to start helping. But so many times we say

"Hey, God, can you help me with school/ a relationship/ other issue. Ok cya later."

I think we miss out on hearing his voice when we do this. I mean for Elijah in on instance God's voice was a whisper, check this out.

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ~1 Kings 19:11-12

I think we get so caught up in life that we forget to listen for that soft voice. Don't get me wrong God wants to hear what is on our hearts and minds. He wants us to talk to him. We have this awesome and confusing relationship with him where he is our Lord and King, our Father, and our Friend at the same time, we should honor him, but we also get to approach him in a intimate manor. I can give a few verses for this, ask if you want them. We just need to balance talking and listening.

2. We forget to give thanks and remember who he is when we ask for things.

I do this all the time too. I start and go straight into my needs and wants and problems. Part of this is ok, in John is says:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ~John 15:16

He says he will give us whatever we ask. Granted for that to happen we have to remain in him, but the promise is here as in Luke, "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Luke 11:9) But I think the main part of prayer we miss in this aspect is not that we are to be abiding in him for our request to fall under this promise, and it is absolutely not the idea that we will be soooo holy by being in him that we will only ask for people to be saved or for his kingdom to come. I mean I pray those things, but I think this is also covering immediate personal needs and wants too, like food, rest, strength, and even relationships. But He won't grant us sinful or harmful requests, I think Romans 8:28 supersedes His promise to grant our requests. But anyway back to my point, how should we pray? I think the Lord's Prayer is more than just something to be recited.

This, then, is how you should pray:
'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
~Matthew 6:9-13

If you are like me you have seen this many a time, and recited it. But I wanna look at this a little. I see phases in this prayer that are to be emulated (my words but this idea was in a book I read a year or so ago, thanks author).

1. Naming and Glorifying God
2. Submitting to his will and plan
3. Asking for our needs
4. Confessing Sin and asking/ receiving forgiveness and doing the same for those who we have to forgive
5. Asking for protection and guidance

I really like this plan, thought I don't always do it. The biggest point here is we glorify and honor God before we ask for anything. This is HUGE. It helps us to trust him, and remind us to trust him. If you remember who God is and what he has done before you ask him for something prayer is a restful and enjoyable activity. If we forget to do this it is little more than worrying about our troubles.

There is a fundamental belief I have about God. He gave the law to point out our sin. That is straight out of Romans (chapter 7 if you are curious). But, especially the food laws, the law (and in the new testament Jesus' commands) are also created to care for us to help us live happy and God focused lives. The food laws for Israel kept them safe from foods that were not able to be properly cleaned until the last 100 years or so. And I think part of prayer, why it is important and why Jesus gives us a model is God who created us knows how to encourage us and how we work, and doing it that way is the best way for us to do things. Let me explain.

Not only is God worth glorifying because of who he is and what he has done, but it is good to glorify and worship him because it helps create and reinforce the trust we have in him. If we do that in the beginning of our prayers our mindset shifts from just another way to worry about our lives and problems to a place where we are taking these problems to a God who has shown that He is trustworthy and powerful enough to handle our problems. We can say them to him, and leave them at the cross, leave trusting him to take care of him and being able to do whatever is before us that day.

Our reason to pray is to communicate with God. But I believe he gave us guidelines for how because it is much "how is should be" and honoring him as it is a practical way for him to remind us who he is in our own words.

The last few weeks I have been actively letting God know what I want and what is bothering me. But I have forgotten to remember to tell him who he is and remember what he has done and can do. Prayer became a drain and not the restful and encouraging thing it had been for me in the past. I was just telling a God I had forgotten to trust what was up. I was just sitting there stewing in my fears and problems and concerns and not receiving the rest and comfort God wanted me to receive from him. Recently I started to remember who he is and what he has done first in my prayers, and I noticed a substantial change almost after the first prayer.

Prayer is meant to be a way for us to communicate with our loving heavenly Father and to be an encouragement. If it isn't something is wrong.

Thank God it has become both again for me.