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How to Pray
by Seeking Christ in any way possible, especially through prayerfully spending time with Him, is the most basic obedience I can imagine. On the same note, failing to seek Him through prayer is the most blatant disobedience I can imagine. How to pray is also important. This must be true if the Spirit of God Himself goes out of His way to intercede on our behalf with His own unimaginable kind of praying, too deep for us to comprehend. Not only does the Spirit intercede on our behalf, He also teaches our hearts how to pray and approach Him better. It is good for youthful believers to pray for whatever is on their minds, no matter how "unspiritual" these things may seem, so long as they sincerely and consistently keep praying for them. Do you want some excessive car or self-centered career or any other frivolous thing, O young person? Then keep asking God for what you want every day, if you dare, and be sure to leave yourself open to His answer. If you don't let God answer the way He sees fit, then you are vainly trying to utilize God's grace for your own ends, and you are not really praying. God will move through any praying person who is consistent in their prayers, not because praying is particularly virtuous in itself, but because our patient God will slowly, even imperceptibly, expand the spiritual capacity of anyone who dares to spend large amounts of time with Him. The lives of people who spend time with our Heavenly Savior become irresistibly Godly. I have heard certain people speak discouragingly about the "shallowness" of some people's praying techniques. But only misguided religion would discourage anyone from spending sincere time with the Lord. No one who knows our fatherly God would listen in on a new believer's praying technique and then go on to correct that person, saying, "Sorry, man, that's just not what God is all about... He's not here just to make you feel good, or to be some big genie in the sky for you..." This sounds very deep, of course, especially coming from the pulpit. But I would rather encourage young believers to keep seeking out God in whatever way they know best as of right now. In this way, the most empowering encouragement anyone can offer a sincere seeker, young or old, is to show them how to be a disciple of Christ directly. Let Christ teach His own how to pray, and then they will pray indeed. The best way to encourage seeking, youthful hearts in general is to point them toward Christ as their only teacher, because this comes from the Spirit of brotherly love rather than some twisted need to be in control. The Spirit Himself will cause this brand of Christ-dependent encouragement to resonate with blessing down into that young believer's future. Christ-dependent encouragement stands apart from any lack or excess of churchy education. It will inspire young people toward obeying Christ with a clear conscience because they were shown Christ alone, no strings attached. This sort of guidance is desperately needed by many Christ-seeking people trapped within the confines of institutional faith. It is foolish to discourage young-faiths from seeking the Lord in whatever way they presently know how. It is better to give them general guidance for prayer as they take their first steps toward seeking out Christ. It is best to let the Spirit of God Himself teach them how to prayerfully seek the Lord. It's never in the wording, but rather only from the heart that a prayerful soul blesses God's fatherly heart. by Patrick Roberts. Find related books and articles at www.BooksByPatrick.com Patrick is an average Christ-seeker. His goal is to turn people to Jesus Christ. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |