"Praying with a Purpose" - Watching

Take time to...
1. Praise God!
2. Wait on the Lord.
3. Confess Sin and remove any barriers between the Lord and ourselves.
4. Claim Scripture promises and apply God's word to our prayer life.

Just adding a few different aspects to our prayers can help our prayer life be more effective.  We spend time with God because we love Him and want to have His world affect our world.  Sometimes our prayers can sound like this...
"Dear Lord,
Thank you for this day.  Please bless the missionaries around the world.  Please help Uncle Bill.  Thank you for your blessings.  Please give me _________, and _______, and _________.  Help me to be a good girl today."
Amen
Today we're going to add another part of prayer - watching.

Jesus specifically told his disciples to "watch and pray"  because "the spirit is weak".  This isn't talking about keep your eyes open during prayer.  It is talking about being aware of distractions, focusing on who needs our prayers, going beyond just our four walls. It is about being aware, awake, and vigilant.  How can we watch and pray?
1. Be aware of current events and situations that need Christian's prayers - people affected by natural disasters, tragedies, droughts, fires, etc.
2. Pray for social needs around the world - hungry people, lonely people, hurting people, people who've lost loved ones
3. Pray for the salvation of people on your street, in your neighborhood, your city, your county, your state, your country
4. Pray for the missionaries in troubled areas of the world - protection and provision, souls saved
Just doing this will get you out of the "me" prayers and make you a part of the vision that God has.  John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world", do you love the world?  Pray for the United States and the world and remember that God loves each individual.  I always feel that my problems seem to diminish after this part of prayer.
II Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

"Praying with a Purpose" Part Three

I sure hope you have a desire to know the Lord more today than you did yesterday.  You can't know someone unless you spend time with that person.  Hearing about someone is not the same as meeting with that person.  In Sunday school we learn about Jesus, the words of God, and about characters in the Bible.  This is great but it is nothing like having time alone with God.
The nice part about spending time with God is that you don't need an appointment, a new outfit, or a taxi or bus ride to get there.  You can meet with God anytime and anywhere.  You can even wear your old clothes.  He doesn't mind.
So far, we've discussed five different parts of prayer: praise, waiting, watching, confession, and intercession.  Some of these might sound like difficult tasks, but they are not.  If you've added any of these to your prayer life, I'm sure your time with God has increased and meant more to you.
Today we're going to talk about Scripture praying.  What is that?  Well, it's taking a passage of scripture that you might have read or a verse that has a promise of God in it, and taking it to God.  Today I read, James 4:8, "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you..."  So, I prayed something like this, "Lord, I am doing my best at this moment to be closer to You and to know You.  Please draw nearer to me as you promised in James 4:8.  Help me to know that the distance between us is always up to me, I must take the first step, be humble, and know that You are there."
Does that make sense?  The next part of a verse says, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded."  We must ask God to cleanse our sinful actions and to purify our hearts of known and unknown sin.  We cannot be doubleminded about the things of God.  We can't have the attitude of having a second path to take if this one doesn't go exactly our way.
Scripture praying is agreeing with the words of God.  Going to God with His promises.  And having the faith to believe God will do His will in our lives.  

"Praying with a Purpose" Part II

Last time we went over four parts of prayer: praise, waiting, confession, and watching.  If you took just five minutes on each one of those aspects you'd have twenty minutes of prayer time!  That would be revolutionary for most Christian young ladies.  The next part of prayer is really the heart of prayer - intercession - praying on the behalf of another.
If we would look at the average prayer list, most of the requests would be for others.  This is important. Praying for others is prayer that pleases God and helps us become more caring Christians.  We should pray for ourselves and we'll get to that part, but others should come first in our lives, right after the Lord!
Types of intercessory prayer...
1. Praying for those that don't even know they need prayer
a. the unsaved
b. those we minister to on a weekly basis - Bus route riders, Sunday School friends, elderly, visitors at church, neighbors
c. friends who are out of church or who are struggling
d. our authorities at school, work, or in the community
2. Praying for those who ask for and desire our prayers
a. missionaries and evangelists around the world - I pray for several missionary families every single day, plus I have a list of thirty-one missionaries and I pray for a different one each day of the month.
b. church leadership - pastor, assistants, Sunday School teachers, bus captains, music leaders
c. ministries in the United States - churches, camps, evangelists, colleges
3. Praying for our loved ones
a. parents
b. siblings
c. grandparents
d. uncles and aunts
e. cousins
f. nieces and nephews
4. Praying for our friends
a. close friends
b. acquaintances
c. new friends
d. sick or injured
e. those who've had a tragedy or bad news
Just listing the options of those can pray for makes for a long list!  When we turn our spiritual vision outward we can have a wonderful prayer time of intercession - praying on the behalf others!

"My Prayer Time"

Prayer is just talking to God.  Sometimes we don't even acknowledge the Lord, we go through a whole day only praying a quick prayer before eating our meals or saying "Dear Lord" when we can't find a lost item we want.  That's really not the way to have a relationship with our God.
I can think of all of the struggles I've gone through with prayer and I think the what helped me the most was realizing I could pray anytime, anywhere, and about any thing on my mind.  It doesn't have to be formal or in perfect circumstances.
When one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus gave them a model prayer, which we sometimes call the Lord's prayer.  Then Jesus spoke of a man with a friend who had a need.  The man needed bread and kept asking until he received it.
The key words that keep popping up in Luke 11 (following) are "ask" and "importunity".   Sometimes we may hate to ask for things, it shows we have a need but isn't it true?  We do have needs!
Asking God for things or answers to prayer lets Him know that we are...
too weak to get the answer on our own.
too poor to buy it on our own.
too dumb to figure it out on our own.
too small to get the big jobs done.
Asking God for things or answers to prayers lets Him know the He is...
the most powerful God.
all we need.
the wisest and all-knowing God.
the biggest and strongest God.
the One who knows all our needs and how to meet them!
"Importunity" is the same as being impudent, or just plain rude.  God doesn't mind if we keep asking, and asking, and asking.  Doing this shows our faith and our belief in His power.  When we ask one time and give up we then start using our own strength to figure things out.  Keep asking God, never give up!
What if you've never had a prayer time, what can you do to start having one?  Here's a "Bible Girl" way that has helped me!

Create a prayer scrapbook.

Include pictures of loved ones, missionaries, staff members, etc...

Have a section for prayer requests and answers.

Have a praise sections - pictures of your favorite creations by God, etc...

Have a section for sick friends and church members.

Every morning after Bible time go through your scrapbook and pray

You'll find that you'll have to make a new one every so often as you run out of space and get new friends, pictures, etc... It is so exciting to see the answered prayers marked in your scrapbook.  Seeing pictures also makes you think about what you're praying about.

Try it!  You'll enjoy your prayer time and you'll spend more time with the Lord!

Luke 11

¹And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, 
when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, 
Lord,teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 
²And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, 
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
 ³Give us day by day our daily bread. ⁴And forgive us our sins; 
for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. 
And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

⁵And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, 
and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, 
Friend, lend me three loaves; ⁶For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me,
and I have nothing to set before him? ⁷And he from within shall answer and say, 
Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; 
I cannot rise and give thee. ⁸I say unto you, 
Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, 
yet because of his importunity he will rise and give 
him as many as he needeth. ⁹And I say unto you,
 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 
¹⁰For every one that asketh receiveth; 
and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that 
knocketh it shall be opened. ¹¹If a son shall ask bread 
of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? 
or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
 ¹²Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
¹³If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: 
how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?