{"id":22082,"date":"2023-01-10T21:19:36","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T21:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=22082"},"modified":"2023-01-10T21:19:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T21:19:36","slug":"practical-points-on-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=22082","title":{"rendered":"Practical Points on Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles\u20132<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>The Lord wants us to be a people of prayer (Luke 19:46), but too often we are like the apostles in Gethsemane, sleeping when we should be praying (Mark 14:37\u201338). That the Lord intended for His followers to use prayer as an essential strand in the fabric of life, rather than merely as a storm shelter, is unarguable. Although the context obviously involves references to miraculous activity to which we have no access, still one of the most practical passages on prayer is James 5:13\u201318. James urges:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Personal prayer<\/strong> (\u201clet him pray,\u201d v. 13). We need to spend time with the Father \u201cin secret\u201d (Mat. 6:6). Perhaps no other daily habit will do so much to make God a real, constant companion to us.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>United prayer<\/strong> (\u201clet them pray\u2026,\u201d v. 14). While Jesus emphasized praying personally (Mat. 6:6), He also emphasized praying in the presence of others (Mat. 6:9\u201313; 18:19\u201320). One of the earliest descriptions of the church has them \u201ccontinuing steadfastly in prayer\u201d (Acts 2:42; cf. 4:24\u201330; 6:4\u20136; etc. ).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Believing prayer (\u201c<\/strong>prayer of faith,\u201d v. 15). Faithless prayer is wasted words but believing prayer God hears and answers according to His will (Mark 11:24, Jam. 1:6\u20137).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Intercessory prayer<\/strong> (\u201cpray one for another,\u201d v. 16). Jesus prayed for His apostles and for us (John 17:9\u201323). We need to pray for one another and for all men (1 Tim. 2:1\u20132).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Fervent prayer<\/strong> (\u201cprayed fervently,\u201d v. 17). There ought to be a fire in our hearts as we pray. Lack of fervency would seem to indicate lack of faith or of sincerity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Specific prayer<\/strong> (\u201cthat it might not rain,\u201d v. 17). To the general request of James and John, Jesus said, \u201cWhat would ye that I should do for you?\u201d (Mark 10:36). Many of the prayers in the Bible involve specific requests.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Continued prayer<\/strong> (\u201cand he prayed again,\u201d v. 18). Christ urged men \u201calways to pray and not to faint\u201d (Luke 18:1). Constant prayer is a theme in Paul\u2019s letters, summed up simply: \u201cPray without ceasing\u201d (1 The. 5:17).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The great key to a faithful Christian life is to pray the way we ought to and then live the way we pray.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for, and it was published in the October 23, 1975, edition of the<em> Granbury Gospel, <\/em>weekly bulletin of the Granbury Church of Christ, Granbury, Texas, of which I was editor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles\u20132 page.] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Lord wants us to be a people of prayer (Luke 19:46), but too often we are like the apostles in Gethsemane, sleeping when we should be praying (Mark 14:37\u201338)&#8230;.<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=22082\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Practical Points on Prayer<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,778,36,1186,118,1187,154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-belief","category-confidence","category-faith","category-intercessory-prayer","category-prayer","category-public-and-private-prayer","category-sincerity","wpcat-300-id","wpcat-778-id","wpcat-36-id","wpcat-1186-id","wpcat-118-id","wpcat-1187-id","wpcat-154-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22083,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082\/revisions\/22083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}