Tuning Up Your Prayer Life

We all generally have a love-hate relationship with our cars. They are necessary tools in almost all people’s lives. We like them to be clean and comfortable, to function properly, and to take us from here to there without any worry. We make sure of this by having timely inspections of our engines, having regular oil changes, and keeping up with general maintenance checks. We always want the right tire pressure, coolant levels, etc. Basically, we want our car to be working at its top efficiency.

In the same way that we’re concerned about our cars, we also want to look over our prayer lives. We need to do a sort of inspection, as it were. An eight-point inspection would be helpful. You can conduct the inspection yourself. I will simply be identifying the areas and scriptures that can help you in your inspection.

1. How often do we pray?

Acts 6:4: “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”

What does “continually” mean? It means that we keep God and His will in our hearts and minds always and that we take the time to pray daily. The Bible tells us that it was David’s and Daniel’s practice to pray three times a day without fail (Psalm 55:17; Daniel 6:10).

Romans 12:10-12: “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.”

In the King James Version, that reads, “Continuing instant in prayer.” We should be continually in prayer. In whatever situation we may face, “instant” means that it should be our first instinct to turn to God.

2. Where are we when we pray, and what position are we in when we pray?

Whenever we can, we should seek a private place for our personal prayers. Being in a reverent position helps us to worship God. Kneeling, standing, and lying, preferably face down, are positions mentioned in the Bible. However, knee problems and other health issues can make it impossible or unwise for many people to kneel. What is most important to God is our attitude of heart.

Daniel 6:10: “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.”

Daniel prayed on his knees three times a day, but I am sure that these were not the only times he prayed. Often, we find ourselves in a crowd, stuck in traffic, at our workplaces, or in some other situation where kneeling would not be appropriate.

While it is ideal to get on our knees and show our respect for God, it is not unacceptable to pray when we are out and about in life. It would be impossible to be continually in prayer, as mentioned before, if we could not pray wherever we are at any given moment.

With this said, we must understand that prayer is a private thing. While there is group prayer, such as opening and closing prayers in church services, prayer is a conversation between you and God. It is not necessary for the world to see you pray or for your friends and family to know you are leaving the room to talk to God.

Look at what it says in Matthew about prayer:

Matthew 6:5-6: “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

3. Are we praying specific prayers?

The Bible compares prayers with incense. The fact that incense needs to be ground into fine particles to burn well teaches the lesson that our prayers need to be broken down into details (Leviticus 16:12; Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4).

It’s logical that God would want us to go into detail. When we repent to God, are we repenting for our specific sins, or are we just generalizing? We need to speak on specifics when asking God for forgiveness.

Mark 11:25-26: “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

4. How much faith do we include in our prayer?

James 5:13-15: “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

Are we doubtful that God hears us? This is a lack of faith. We cannot doubt God and trust Him too. Faith comes through the Word of God, and we must study the Word of God to understand Him and also learn how to pray.

5. Do we pray for our enemies, those who are spiteful toward us?

This can be a difficult thing to do, but it is something God asks us to do.

Matthew 5:44-45: “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

6. Are we asking that God’s will be done and not our own?

God wants us to understand how important this is. He knows we are inclined to do our own will and not His.

Matthew 6:10: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

7. Are we including ourselves too often in our prayers?

Be sure to spend a lot of your prayer time praying for other people as well as for yourself.

There is an article in Virtual Christian Magazine from January 2001 called “How to Spice Up Our Prayers”. The article mentions the acronym of JOY:

• J = Jesus first
• O = Others next
• Y = Yourself last

8. Do we take the prayer requests of others seriously?

When someone asks for a prayer, we shouldn’t just use a blanket request. We must not only give lip service to someone either. When we say we will pray for them, we must.

2 Thessalonians 1:11: “Therefore we also pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power.”

Conclusion

Prayer is our connection to God the Father. He is not a stranger to us; He tells us exactly who He is and what He expects from us in His Word.

So, take the time, do the maintenance checkup, and keep your prayer life tuned up.