The Power of Prayer Part 2

Adam and I are on a break from school - FINALLY :) We are spending this first week with my family in Memphis. So this morning, I went with my Dad to Evangel Church where Larry Ray is pastor. Little did I know after my earlier blog post that the sermon would be on prayer! I would like to share a couple of sections of my notes from this sermon.

Larry said that if our prayer life is to be more effective, we must understand 3 things:

   1) honesty; understand that we don't have to be phony before the throne. Tell God how you feel, even if those feelings aren't "holy" or "right" at the time.

   2) prayer is a learned skill; it is NOT easy to pray. It takes time to learn effective prayer. That being said, God still listens to us as we're learning. Thankfully!

   3) effective prayers are Biblical; learn what, how, when to pray from the Bible.

Some of Larry's practical tips for prayer:

   *Learn to pray out of a devotional time... Pray what you learn from God's word. Further, pray God's word.

   *As a starting place for praying the scriptures, pray the Psalms and the first chapter of Paul's epistles.

   *Pray for others whatever you're praying for yourself.

   *During prayer, take 10 seconds to be quiet.

   *Don't underestimate the power of short prayers.

"We don't pray because we make it too hard."