Praying Effectively

One of my New Year’s goals is to understand what it means to pray effectively.  It’s got to be more than making petitions to release my burdens and asking forgiveness for the wrong’s I’ve done.  

So here we go, together:

The first mention in the bible of men “calling upon the Lord” is in Genesis 4.

Here is the story of the birth of Cain, Abel, and Seth – three sons of Adam and Eve.  Cain offers to the Lord but with a haughty spirit, so his offering is not received.  Abel’s offering is received, because it’s offered in humility.  Cain is angry and kills his brother.  Another baby boy is given to the parents…Seth.

I find it interesting that after all of this takes place, the chapter ends with this phrase…

“Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.”

There’s a lot to be noticed here in this chapter about prayer.  We must come to the Lord in humility and not with a haughty spirit.

Lots of times our prayers begin with anger against the Lord for things not going well in our lives.  We’ve lost a job and we’re upset with the Lord that we’re now in need, so we come to him demanding that he be faithful to us.  We think we know the best way to answer our prayer, so we come to Him with a preconceived idea of what the answer should be, so we are super disappointed when it doesn’t follow our guidelines.

Maybe the first step in effective prayer is entering the dialogue in humility, acknowledging his sovereignty and his will, realizing that His ways are best, as we begin our petitions and praise.

Something to think about…