Honest Answer #2 How’s Your Prayer Life?
If you’re one of the 500 people who responded to our first Honest Answers quick poll on you & your Bible – thank you so much.
And if you haven’t responded yet, the good news is that the poll is still open – click here to vote.
But before you do, please respond to the poll below, selecting the statement which best represents how you feel about your prayer life (remember it’s completely anonymous).
After today there’s just one more poll to go. Remember, to receive automatic notification to the last poll and my analysis of the results, you can subscribe to the blog (just up and to the right on this page).
Thank you for participating. The responses will really help me with the next few blog posts and some upcoming radio messages. Bless ya!
Received this from a close friend of the ministry – Paul. Makes very interesting reading. The real life questions people have about prayer – I can feel a series of radio programs and/or blog posts coming on … :-):
Dear Berni,
Thinking about your survey on prayer, i though you might be interested in the results of a survey I did with my young adults growth groups (ages 22-30). Part of the survey asked what do you most need help with? Here are the answers:
What is it appropriate to ask for?
How long should I pray for?
How can I better align my prayer with God’s expectations of me?
How to have a better focus on God himself?
How can I develop a greater commitment to prayer?
How can I persist in prayer for more than 2 minutes?
How can pray for others when the issue is not clear?
I am uncertain whether I pray well
How can I get to pray more with others apart from growth group and church?
How to pray for difficult situation when I don’t know the right words?
thanks for share!
I’m not a ‘natural’ prayer ….but a book I’ve found helpful – ‘Transforming Prayer’ by Daniel Henderson.
I think it depends what one thinks of when using the term “prayer”. I love spending time with God (like with a friend), but I must confess that intercessory prayer has been sadly lacking in my life.
Cheriley
I have a few problems with that as well. I do try to keep up to date with the Church prayer points etc, I love your point of spending time with God like a friend, that’s what He wants more than anything, thank you I now have another point of view to think through.
I struggle with prayer, I started saying the Lord’s Prayer followed by writing down some thoughts and my prayer flowed from there. I kept hearing my inner critic saying I can’t do anything right, even pray. I stopped being so hard on myself and thought God doesn’t mind how I express my worship and cares to Him, as long as I express them. I now use a mix of journal and prayer as well as little chats through the day, sometimes I still forget to thank the Lord for little things through the day and I’m still learning but with the help of the Holy Spirit I just know I am on the right path; even though it doesn’t look as smooth and effortless as more spiritually mature Christians make it look, my deepest prayer is for emotional connection as well as spiritual connection to my Lord and Saviour.
To be honest, at desperate times in my life, such as asking for healing for a sick loved one, wanting a good job with a Christian company, or personally when I so wanted my husband and myself to have a family, I prayed long and earnestly, but God’s answer has been ‘no’. It is too late now in these cases. Even praying for my mother to accept Jesus into her life.
It did make me wonder at one stage whether God really cared about me in a personal way, or whether I was supposed to be just praying for something general for the good of mankind, etc……
I probably pray more rarely now and less believing, as I ended up so disappointed that I didn’t seem to want the same outcomes as God did. I used to believe soundly in praying for miracles, but they just never happened for me.
Hi Loraine,
I really felt for your heart – please do not think amiss of Him for great is His love for you.
The answer to sickness is not always getting better – His love may require otherwise;
The answer to the job may be that His greatest work in/thru you be in a place where His light can shine in place of darkness;
The answer to a family is His alone but I pray for Him to provide for you HIs family, His desire for you,
The answers to these and so much more we may never know until we move from this stage of eternity to the next but He IS faithful and always provides us with His answer but we have to choose to hear and accept/choose to receive/trust Him even in the mostdifficult times.
Loraine – don’t give up on Jehovah God!
He loves YOU!!!
The power of prayer is so very real and great, I believe this not because of what I ‘got from Him’ but rather because of the closeness to Him that it brings. I am finding that prayer is really about me agreeing with His will whiat HE reveals as I spend time with Him in His Word. I remember spending time really moaning at Him about not giving me waht I had long been asking for (a MAJOR shopping list!), and clear as day I heard His voice ask me sorrowfully ‘but have you ever asked ME what I want?’ The truth of my selfishness was so clear that I cried for I was so ashamed for hurting HIm.
I really believe that prayer becomes more as we allow our time of prayer be more of & for HIM. A time of wanting to be with Him and following His lead/ Many a time I’ve sought to present a very real want that I need not just for myself, and I am still waiting but have found that in my waiting I see Him changing me/my perception of the situation and so I continue hope even when at times despair seeks to overwhelm me – He draws me out into a new place of peace as I confess my doubt/ask Him to to my remembrance His promises.
I pray that your time becomes a time of divine exchange, a time of you giving Him all you are and you receiving HIM.
Amen
Faithx
I have just recently returned to the church, and I am still getting use to praying. I enjoy praying very much, but find my only time to do this quietly is when the children are in bed, and sadly, by then I am tired myself. I try to light a candle and say a few quick prayers at least a few days a week. I am trying to remember to just ‘talk to God’ any time of the day too. I feel this helps with our relationship and will bring me closer to him.
Great to know so many people are praying hard … but I found surprising the high % of people praying regularly
I think the Bible is a very special and powerful Book and I try and read it almost every day. It is always inspirational and encouraging!