Welcome to Day 2 of your Spiritual Triathlon. Today we are going to look at our first event – Prayer. Often times I believe that we as Christians take prayer for granted. Think about it 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year we can go before the creator of the universe with out needs, desires, questions, fears, and praises. No where else do we have this type of access. Try waking your spouse up every hour on the hour just to talk and see what happens. But with God when I wake up at three in the morning worried about an upcoming expense I can go to Him in prayer and give Him all my worry so I can go back to sleep! How awesome is our God!?!
There are several examples of prayers given in the Bible. For the sake of our Spiritual Triathlon we are going to focus on individual, private prayer the type shown to us by Jesus in Matthew Chapter 6. This gives us the simplest of outlines for prayer. Read the passage and the review the notes I have made below.
Vs 9 Recognize God for who he is – The one and only God of creation, the God of Abraham, The God of Paul, The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Vs 10 Pray that His will be done. Often that means setting aside our desires and focusing on what it is that He wants. As you grow spiritually you will start to see that your will and His are becoming the same.
Vs 11 Pray for our needs. This is harder than it sounds. In America we have become so spoiled it is difficult to pray for our daily bread when we have a refrigerator full of food. We have become so self reliant that we easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we don’t need God any more. God wants us to pray to him about everything we need and want, no matter how big or small. Start making a list of things that you need or those around you need and pull it out as a reminder when you pray. And don’t forget to say “thank you” when He meets those needs!
Vs 12 If we expect God to forgive us then we should be willing to forgive those who have offended us.
Vs 13 Ask for deliverance from evil. As we travel through this world we will travel through some valleys, it is God who can free us from them.
This is a time of concentrated prayer, not the unceasing prayers that many of us do through out the day. If you are not currently praying daily start by spending just 5 minuets alone with God in simple prayer each day. You can and will increase it as time goes by. Start small and build. Find a quiet place free of distractions where you can be alone with God. Don’t worry about your wording or “flowery” speech just talk to God. Tell Him what scares you. Tell Him what you love about Him. Ask Him what he wants from you. Ask Him for his help with what ever it is you are going through. Go to Him like a child goes to their parent. You will find out very quickly that 5 min is not enough time.
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