Prayers are an expression of God's love for us. Prayers are the service of communicating our thoughts and desires to God through the expression of worship and value to Him and thoughts and values of Jesus Christ. In the new testament, we have seen individual prayers of praise and thanksgiving being said for the Lord.
The New Testament book of Hebrews teaches that it is good and allowable to give thanks to God in prayer by offering sacrifices. This teaches that we should not be like the Gentiles who stood firm to God and poured out their own offerings to the temple as God had commanded. Instead we should pray in spirit and in truth, pouring out our hearts to the Lord and asking Him for His help. At other times, the result and read commands in the Bible are ways of pleading God for His help. And at other times, when praying the lord commanding us to stand firm to him, we are reminded of what he has done for us.
In these examples, it is clear that God has indeed done an amazing work in raising up the church and keeping it in peace with his people. But it also is clear that we need to do our part in keeping God in prayer. How can we make this happen? How can we be sure to keep God in prayer?
First, we must have a proper time to pray. Some feel that a proper time is when the Prayers are being said but there isn't any chance to hear God's voice. But in practice, we can be sure of hearing God's voice. It all depends on how dedicated we are to practice prayer. We have to pray right before we eat our meals, we have to pray while we are doing something productive, we have to pray when we are feeling down or discouraged.
Secondly, we have to be sincere. Praying is more effective when we are sincere. When we practice prayer, we have to really believe that God will help us and that he will bring us riches. If we only pray for our needs and never stop and think about what God has done for us elsewhere, our prayer will just be a gesture and it won't be felt very significant. Our true prayer will be one that we truly believe is from God - one that speaks from his heart because of his purposes for us.
Lastly, we have to be patient. God doesn't rain abundance just to help us. He wants us to ask for his help. Ask now, and trust that God will show us the way. With all of these things in mind, we shouldn't find it hard to practice prayer - it should come naturally.
