How To Pray: What To Pray For

How To Pray: Review:
Week 1 - How Prayer Works
Prayer is collaboration between God and you – alignment of your will and desires with what God knows and is doing in the world.

Week 2 - Why We Pray
We pray to express concern, worry, fears, anxieties, terrors, tensions, problems; to join God in doing what is best for us and the world

This Week - What To Pray For

Week 4 - What to say to God
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WHAT TO PRAY FOR

Or: What to listen for
Or: What to thank for
Or: What to bless
Or: What to communicate about
Or: What to discuss
Or: What to argue with
Or: What to see
Or: What to want
Or: What to ask for…yourself or others

We have to move beyond thinking of prayer as asking God for stuff. Prayer is not synonymous with requests, petitions, begging, pleading, or desiring. Prayer is mostly synonymous with communication, with conversation, with meditation, with contemplation.

If you only want to know how to pray so that you know what to pray for in order to get what you want, then there is nothing more to know about prayer.

But if you want to know how to pray, if you want to know what to pray for so that what is best, what God wants, prevails in your life, the lives of those around you, and in the world - well then there is much to learn, much that is possible.

In light of this refreshing understanding of prayer, here are some suggestions on what to pray for:

for God to be trusted as Father
for God to be seen for who he is (truth prevailing)
for God to set the world right, to do what is best for everyone
for God to give us just enough food for the day
for God to keep us forgiven with himself and forgiving others
for God to keep us safe from ourselves and evil
for God to be celebrated and honored for his work in the world
for God to be praised and enjoyed for his beauty in the world

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he taught them what we call The Lord's Prayer. The above listing is a reflection on what to pray for based on what Jesus taught his disciples. Consider how Jesus' teaching on prayer gives shape and direction to what to pray for. It moves beyond a laundry list of requests and wishes, it moves to something more substantive, more God-centered, more humanity-centered, and less self-centered.


What to pray for? The desire to ask God for help is primal. We often equate praying to requesting God for stuff, whether out of habit, desperation, or prompts by the Spirit. So if we are going to ask God to intervene, give us an answer, solve a problem, what kind of thinking should influence what to pray for?

Here are four questions to ask as you ask God for help, what to pray for when you pray:
What are you willing to help answer?
Stop praying for miracles. Stop praying for ballistic missile solutions (have God solve your problems from a distance at your behest without anyone getting their hands any dirtier.) If you want God to help answer your prayers, you need to pray in such a way that you are willing to get involved in helping answer your own prayer.

God is most times more interested in what he can accomplish in your character during hard times then getting you out of hot water. When we want God to intervene, he wants to do something with us more than just give us what we want.


What will be a win-win-win for everyone involved?
To often our prayers are mostly about our own life, feelings, perspective, and values. Even when we pray for others, it is often rooted in what we want for them. When we want God to do something for us, we'd be wise to contemplate how his work would benefit not only us, and others, but also Him.

We need to think community when we pray - what are the spillover effects if God actually answers this prayer? How much is this prayer about me, and how much is this about others?


What have you learned about what Jesus values?
As Christians, we follow the way of Christ. As disciples of Jesus, we study his teachings so that we may live by them. When it comes to prayer, how do we incorporate what Jesus taught about life and prayer?

If, as Christians, we don't live as Jesus instructs, and we don't pray in the way he taught, if we don't incorporate his values into our heart, then we may not ever really know what to pray for, or how to get what we want.


What’s my motive for this prayer? Pleasure and Convenience?
Motive is everything. How many prayers, if we are honest, are more about our desire for pleasure and convenience? Instead of our prayers fueled by love for others, we pray for the pain to go away because we just want everybody to be happy. Especially us.

But God doesn't really have an interest in making our life more convenient. If he does ever make life more convenient, you can bet it is for much bigger reasons then just for the sake of convenience. Our desire for our pleasure and convenience often blind us to the deeper realities going on within us and others, and the world around us.

What's your motive? Does your motive reflect the values of Jesus? Does your motive include a win-win-win attitude? Does your motive for praying involve a willingness to help answer your own prayer?


Here's what Jesus taught when the disciples requested of Jesus...

Lord, Teach Us To Pray:"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.

Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge! You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.

"In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part."

BASED ON THIS TEACHING OF JESUS ON WHAT TO PRAY FOR, WHAT CONCLUSIONS COULD YOU DRAW?

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What else do you want to know about how to pray?