This past sunday Our Sr.Pastor Tom Walker preached a Sermon and talked about the Rules of Prayer and I asked his permission to share it here.

Here is what I wrote in my notes. For the full sermon you can listen to it at the church website www.ziononline.com

Part 1

1. God expects all Christ followers to pray. All to often we as christians say we have no time to pray ,but if we put God first he will give us all the extra time to do everything else that we need.

2. There is no RIGHT WAY to pray. I have told new converts that praying to God is as easy as talking to your best friend that is sitting right beside you. Just talk to God he will listen and answer.

3.Learning to Pray is as much caught as it is taught.

4. Prayer does not come easily or naturally. It is a spiritual discipline that requires a lifetime of practice. I remember the first time I was asked to pray for someone , I fell flat on my face but I got up and kept going. Eventually I got to the point of asking people if I could pray with them or for them. Just be dilgent in your prayer life and it will one day just start flowing out of you.

Part 2

1. We need to have a regular time to pray- Jesus went to the Mount Of Olives to Pray and have private time with his father. we need to take that example and have our PRIVATE TIME with our father too.

2. When you pray get to the point. I know when I pray sometimes I just get repetitive and long-winded. I felt sometimes that I just seem to babble( Pastor Tom nailed that one for me) but I need to just say what I got to say and be done. 🙂

3.One point that really struck home for me was that when we pray that we ” ARE PRAYING TO GET TO KNOW GOD NOT TO GIVE GOD ORDERS”

4. Rules

 Rave on God- Give it up to God giving all the Glory and Praise to him. acknowledging him for who he is and what he has done. He is a wonderful and glorious God that provides all our needs. Magnificent in all his ways.

Utilizing Thanks- Thank God for everything he has done for you. The many blessings that we have received from him. This time is spent just glorifying God for what he has done.

Look Inside- We have to look on the inside and take an honest inventory/investigation of our inner self. Ask God to show us our shortcomings and ask him to help us/ guide us to fix it.

Express- Tell God your concerns and needs. Use this time to tell God what you need, or your concerns on what is going on that needs his intervention.

Surrender Yourself- Make a daily recommitment to follow God making yourself fresh for God to do his will.

After you have spent this time in prayer (15 minutes) it is time to just be quiet and listen because God is waiting to speak he is just waiting for us to be quiet so he can talk.

I hope you glean something from this as I did. Thanks to Pastor Tom for letting blog about this.

God Bless,

Pastor Rick