Be real. Prayer isn’t about eloquent words or lengthy speeches; it’s about sharing your life…regardless of where you happen to be at the time…with The One who cares about you the most. If you’re going through a rough time, talk about it. If you’re angry or frustrated about the circumstances you find yourself in, cry about it. If you’re happy about what’s going on in you’re life or if you’re amazed at how God has pulled you through something, tell God thanks. If you need God’s help in your life, ask him for it. Be real with where you are in your life, and if you need to, ask for God’s help with your motives. God already knows what’s on your mind—God already knows what’s on your heart. With that, you might as well spill your guts and be real.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. –Philippians 4:6-7

Believe. When you pray, believe and have the faith that God will answer your prayer. God won’t let you down. Now having said that, God doesn’t always give you what you want. Instead, God will provide you with what you need. When I ask for God’s help through situations, I pray for the strength to get through whatever I’m going through. In other words, I pray for perseverance, not the outcome; because quite frankly, I don’t always know what’s best for me and I totally believe that God really does know what’s best for me. Often, I have set in my mind what I think is best, and the truth of it is, that if God had answered my prayer in the way I thought I wanted, I would’ve been setting the bar so low–so, I leave the outcome to God with the belief that God’s got my best interests at heart and God’s view sees the bigger picture.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us– whatever we ask– we know that we have what we asked of him. ~~1 John 5:14-15

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ~~Mark 11: 24

Be passionate. Pray passionately not only about what’s going on with ourselves, but also what’s going on in the lives of those around us. Pray often. Often I pray when I’m walking down the hall, or driving in the car. When someone comes to mind, what began as a thought transcends into a prayer for that person. I strive to be passionate about incorporating God’s presence in every aspect of my life because I want God with me no matter what I’m doing. In truth, God’s there anyway, it’s just up to me to recognize and be aware of God’s presence. When we’re passionate in our prayers (whether for others or ourselves), we’re passionate with The One who’s most passionate about us.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge– that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. ~~Ephesians 3:17-19

© 2005 Ginny Rogers

When I was young, I was afraid of God. I wasn’t afraid the day I walked home from school and I saw police chasing a man down the street just past me right where I lived; I just made my way home and did my homework. I wasn’t afraid when just a few houses down, a neighbor was threatened on her way home after getting a quart of milk for her family; I just watched from the top of the stairs as my mom (with our German Shepard in hand) left to walk our neighbor home so she could get back to her 3 girls. I wasn’t even afraid when I saw a fire in a small building across the street from my bedroom window that wound up bringing out the red flashing lights of the fire department, I just went to sleep. But I was afraid of God; and that fear didn’t go away for a very long time.

Some might say that it’s not such a bad thing to fear God; to that I would refer to 1 John 4:18, “there is no room in love for fear.” As a kid, I didn’t really think much about God’s love. I only remember fearing God and his judgment–God’s punishment-—punishment that was sure to happen any minute for any number of things. I didn’t really have an understanding of a God that loved me; it just didn’t enter my mind.

I know I was just a kid back then. But thinking about these verses, I couldn’t help but ask my own kids about their perception of God…what did they think about God? So I asked them and then I breathed a sigh of relief when they replied that God is love, and God loves them. I was relieved because they didn’t even have to think about it. I just wanted them to know the love of God…without hesitation, without reservation…and they did. I wanted them to know that where love is, fear isn’t. I’m not saying at all that I wasn’t loved as a kid—-I was—-I have awesome, loving parents I just didn’t think of a loving God back then.

What I am saying is that by not talking to anyone about my perception of God, I allowed a childlike fear of God to last for too many years. I didn’t get the idea that God loved me…first. At some point along this journey I stood at a fork in the road where I left the very narrow path with a very limited view of God and instead embarked on an adventure to discover more about the God that I really didn’t know–the God that is love. And what I continue to discover is that God’s love has no room for fear. In fact, it’s God’s love, The Source of all love, that gives me the capacity to love.