5 Tips for More Effective Prayer

it because it's true. Through the power of prayer, I have seen lives changed, bodies healed, hearts transformed, and that's just in my own life. What I love the most about prayer is that it doesn't have to be complicated. As we've also learned, the five minute prayer at the sink washing the dishes can be just as effective as the one hour prayer in your prayer closet. The effectiveness of your prayer does not have to do with rituals, long limp or big words, as Jesus taught us in

episode three. However, I have learned a few things that will affect the power and effectiveness of your prayer, which is what we'll discuss in today's podcast. When I say effectiveness, I mean is our prayer producing the results God intends. I need to note this here that this is not a set of rules to only get what you want. We've discussed that prayer is not approaching God like a

genie in a bottle. Effective prayer is prayer that results in God's intention and plan for his glory and our good, and there are steps we can take to ensure we experience the effectiveness or power of prayer in our lives. The first is faith. Prayer and faith go hand in hand. We really can't pray without faith. We have faith that there is a God to pray to. We have faith that not only is there a God, but that He

actually listens to us. But for a really effective prayer that goes beyond listing off our request to God, we need to also follow up our prayer with more faith. If we're going to pray about something and then go worry about it, we defeat the entire purpose of prayer. Once we pray about it, we need to let the word we go and trust that whatever we prayed about

is safely in God's hands now. But many times we pray and cast our cares to God, as we're instructed to do in Psalm fifty five, verse twenty two, cast your cares on the Lord, and he will sustain you. He will never let the righteous be shaken. So when we pray, we can cast our cares on God and

receive the freedom of not carrying those burdens. But sometimes, once we finish praying, we get back up and go fishing those burdens right out of God's care and make them our own again, instead of having the faith to completely release the matter to God. Part of prayer is connecting to God to receive his peace no matter what we are facing. But if we don't approach prayer with faith, we will leave our prayer time just as confused and

overwhelmed as when we came to it. If we want our prayers to be effective what we lay down at the cross in prayer, we must choose to have faith to leave there. The next step we can take towards more effective prayer is obedience. James Chapter five, verse sixteen tells us the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Effective and powerful prayer is not produced from

a disobedient life. Our unwillingness to surrender to God, follow him and release our will to his impacts our prayer life. Effective prayer comes from a righteous person. Now this does not mean you need to be perfect. God knows where not. But in prayer there should be a heart for God's will, and when there is, this is when we'll see the power of prayer. Psalm chapter thirty seven, verse four says, take delight in the Lord, and he will give you

the desires of your heart. So many people take this verse out of context and think that God will give us anything we want. That's an incorrect interpretation of this verse. We can't ignore the fact that to receive the desires of our heart, we must first delight in God. When our hearts are aligned with God and his will, it's then that we receive the desires because they are God's

desires anyway. And when we find our hearts at odd with God's, we can pray about that too, because it is God's desire to transform our hearts and minds to be more like Christ. God's standard and his will is for our good. He's not just making up rules and commandments just because He does it to grant us a path towards life, peace and joy in him. But when we get off that path, we lose the power that comes from being safe in His will. The next step

to take toward more effective prayer is focus. Now this is huge because we have more distractions than ever before, with any type of entertainment and social connection at the tip of our fingers. We are constantly tempted to lose focus, and this is something we just simply cannot afford to do during our prayer time. We also have one hundred

things running through our mind at one time. More times than I'd like to admit, I've been in prayer and my mind slipped to thoughts about what's going to happen tomorrow or what I should have said in an earlier conversation with a friend. Distractions are everywhere, and they are hindering our beings still enough to hear from God, So

how can we stay focused during our prayer time? I like to remind myself that all the to do's, obligations and unfinished conversations will be right there waiting for me when my prayer time is over. I resist the pressure to make something else more important than this time with God. A lack of focus prevents us from praying, and we

can't have effective prayer if we're too distracted to pray. Now, listen, I understand staying focused during prayer is a serious and challenging issue for many sincere believers who do want to pray but have a difficult time staying focused, which is why in our next episode, I'll be giving grace filled tips and encouragement on how to stay focused when you pray. The next step that we can take to more effective prayer is to always be praying first. Thessalonians, chapter five,

verse seventeen tells us to pray without ceasing. Now that's the English Standard version, and the more Living translation says, never stop praying. We don't have to wait until bedtime before dinner to pray. We can pray while driving to work, washing our hair, or walking the dog. One of my favorite places to pray is at my kitchen sink. When we don't place limits on when we should pray, it becomes a natural rhythm in our lifestyle and it becomes

less likely that we'll skip this powerful discipline. This is important because we can't experien effective prayer if we are not praying, prayer closets and war rooms are great. I have a special place in my house that I've designated for prayer, but we can't always access those places when we need to pray. But the beauty of God's omnipresence is that He is everywhere, so we can pray anywhere. As I stated before, effective prayer goes beyond only asking

God for what we want. Real change occurs when prayer is also about focusing on God and what He wants. So one of the best ways I found to do this is through worship before I pray. I love playing worship music and getting my mind in soul ready to commune with God. Starting prayer with a focus on God and not myself helps me to accomplish one of the most important and effective goals of prayer, realizing that God

is bigger than all my problems. Effective prayer is not dependent on us being perfect and getting it all right. It simply starts with a heart willing to pray. I hope today's tips and rich your prayer life greatly and

that you are beyond blessed because of it. We have so much more to talk about when it comes to prayer, So I hope that if you were encouraged by today's episode, you'll be sure to share it with the friend and subscribe so that you don't miss any future episodes of the Teach Us to Pray podcast, where we'll continue to learn how, just like breathing, prayer can become a natural, consistent,

and life giving part of our everyday lives. Until then, be sure to connect with me Christina Patterson at Belovedwomen dot org and check out the show notes in today's episode to download my free five day prayer guide to help you put into practice the powerful habit of prayer. Thank you so much for taking time to listen today. God bless you and I'll talk to you in the next episode.