5 Tips For Better Prayers
Prayer Is Important
Prayer is one of the foundational pillars of our Christian faith. Through prayer, we can communicate with the creator of the universe. Through prayer, we come into communion with the Lord our God and seek His face. Prayer also helps to strengthen our relationship with God and our overall Christian walk.
However, not all Christians are amazing prayer warriors like their favorite pastor or prophet. Not everyone is proficient in the skill that is prayer and many would say that they wish they had better prayers. For those interested in bettering their prayer lives, I suggest that you keep reading. Although prayer is a personal and intimate activity that has more than one approach there are some general things that you can do as a Christian to improve your prayers.
Here are five tips for having better and more effective prayers:
Pray in the Spirit
Pray Scripture
Be Transparent with God
Be Specific
Pray Often
Now let’s go over in more detail what each one of these tips does for our prayers.
Praying in the Spirit
Now when I tell you to pray in the Spirit, I do not mean speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is an excellent thing that you should do if you can. However, when I say “pray in the Spirit” I mean pray by the power of the Holy Spirit. Occasionally while reading the Bible, you may have come across a verse that calls believers to “pray in the Spirit” or “pray in the Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 6:18 & Jude 1:20) The real question is, what does this truly mean? Well, it simply means to pray by the power or with the help of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is known as the Helper, it is His job to help us live our lives as Christians.
The thing about God is, He doesn’t care about how big or small your problem is. He’s always willing to help His children at their request and give them the strength to do the task at hand. The Holy Spirit will also help you pray if you seek His help! Praying with the help of the Holy Spirit or by the power of the Holy Spirit is praying in the Spirit. So if you want to have better prayers, then simply ask the Holy Spirit for help while you are praying. You can simply say during your prayers “Holy Spirit help me to pray a better and more effective prayer.” After that, continue on with your normal prayer and watch how the Spirit leads you during said prayer. Because the Spirit of God knows the mind of God, He will always lead you to pray for the things that God wants you to have and that He knows that you need. He will constantly lead you to pray for things that you’ve never thought of or thought that you needed. Prayers with the help of the Holy Spirit are far more effective than prayers led by ourselves, so if you are looking to pray better prayers, ask the Holy Spirit for help so that you may pray in the Spirit!
Praying Scripture
Praying scripture has many benefits for your prayer life. For one when you pray scripture, it makes your prayers far more eloquent. On the other hand, when you pray scripture you are praying in accordance with God’s will. Scripture is full of a variety of promises that God has made to His people during that time and to us. If we want to access these promises in our life, then we must pray for them and come in agreeance with them over our lives. For instance, the Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 - “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” This is a promise from God. Those who keep their mind stayed upon Him, He will keep them in perfect peace. If you wish to have this in your life then pray for it! Pray that the Lord helps you to keep your mind on Him so that He may keep you in perfect peace. Come in agreeance with what Scripture says over your life!
One of the best parts about praying scripture is that you can have confidence that God will answer your prayers. Why? It is because these prayers will also be in accordance with His will because they are in alignment with His word. What we are praying for at that moment is something that He already wants us to have or that He is willing to give to us. Scripture also gives us many things to pray about as well. It gives us things to pray over ourselves, our family, and everyone around us. Praying scripture is powerful and if you wish to have better prayers, then you should start to pray the word of God over yourself.
Be Transparent with God
You may be thinking “Why do I need to be transparent with God if He knows everything about me?” The transparency isn’t for God, but for you. When we are transparent and open with God in prayer it moves us to pray for things that we would normally skip over due to embarrassment, shame, or fear. The Lord will help you with ALL things. You simply just need to ask. Transparency helps us to open our hearts up to Him so that our prayers may be more genuine and specific. Sometimes we avoid praying over certain things that we need because we refuse to be transparent with God. We may be fearful of what He may think or we may be ashamed for praying for such as thing. However, whatever you need you ought to pray for it. Never let shame, fear, guilt, or embarrassment stop you from seeking the Lord’s help in a matter. He is there for you always to comfort, support, and build you up. Be open with Him in prayer, He values transparency, honesty, and genuineness. Even Jesus when He is praying to the Father was open and transparent. He prayed that the Father may take this cup away from Him yet He insisted that the Father’s will be done. Transparency makes prayers more intimate and intentional. God reciprocates when we show our heart to Him.
Be Specific
Specificity is extremely important in prayer. It’s not that God doesn’t know what you are asking for or what you need, it’s just that specific prayers are better than vague, general ones. Why? Think of every situation, trial, or tribulation as a room. When we pray, we open a door in that room for God to come in and do His work. When we pray specifically, we open more doors into that room for God to come in to do His work. When there are more doors open to the room, God can hit certain parts of the room that you didn’t give Him access to before. Which prayer do you think is better and more effective? “God help me to fight temptation.” or “God help me to fight the temptation of lust whenever I’m around my crush.” The second prayer is specific and more effective. You’ve given God access to that particular part of the situation so that He may do His good work. Prayer gives God access to a situation. Specificity gives God more access to a situation. He can do much more with 100% of the problem than 50% of it. In some cases though the reason why nothing is happening in our lives, is because we aren’t praying specifically over something. We just keep generally asking God for things but we’re not asking Him for help on that specific thing. If you want to have better prayers, then be specific in your prayers.
Pray Often
The last tip that I have for you is to simply pray often. Whenever you do something frequently, you usually get better at it. It’s the same with prayer. Not everyone starts off as an amazing prayer warrior. Not everyone can give powerful and beautiful prayers in front of everyone the moment they get saved. Some of us need practice. The more that you practice praying, the better at it you will get. Through this practice, you will also begin to learn what the best prayer practices are as well which will help your prayers be better and more effective.
Conclusion
Prayerfully after reading this article, many of you will have far better prayers. Remember brothers and sisters in Christ to pray without ceasing and to pray over everything. Prayer is one of the greatest gifts that the Lord has given us, make sure that you use it.