If you wish to enhance your prayers, every effort you make must be genuine and sincere. We are talking to the Creator of the universe. He has invited us to share with him the smallest of our concerns. God knows ahead of time, since he knows our thoughts, what is laying heavily on our minds. Therefore, prayer is not an effort to inform him or correct misunderstandings that he has. Should we desire to gain benefit from what we tell God, we must do it in the right way.
Paul’s advice about prayer begins with his three-word instruction to pray without ceasing.(1 Thessalonians 5:17) His guidance is that we have an open communication with God. He is to be preeminent over any desires and concerns. It is not difficult to talk with a friend if that friend is walking beside you. You share whatever happens to come to your mind. This includes whatever draws your attention, startles you, or suddenly approaches you. To advance your prayer life, you would immediately turn to share that with God.
Scripture gives us an admonition that we be careful not to allow people who wished to deceive us with vain words by having an exceptional influence on us.(Ephesians 5:6) We do not have to take the advice of everyone who seems pious. We have a responsibility to ourselves that we do not process into our thinking what ultimately is unhealthy. As we allow the Holy Spirit to influence our thinking, we will be able to censor what is pleasing to the Lord for our spiritual growth.
God is not impressed when we chant or use repetitious phrases disguised as our prayers. He wants to hear thoughts that come from our heart and not mechanical words. To say something over and over accomplishes nothing if we desire to share with he who can do something about our problems. This might be saying the Lord’s prayer as part of what we say to him. Jesus gave that prayer as an example of the areas we should take before the throne of God. This includes such matters of our needs and to deal with the necessary confessions of sin that we should make. The problem could be that we are insincere of what we are repeating over and over.
An enhanced prayer is full of faith. That faith comes from a deep rooted type of trust that we have in God. As we build our spiritual muscles, the heavy lifting is how much we trust him. Are we willing to make a statement to God and let that be for his attention without worry or fret? Faith comes from trust. Trust comes from a recognition of God’s past response. Reliance comes from how we glorify him. To glorify him comes from how much we see him in awe.
As we seek to better our prayer life, we will be convinced that our words matter to God. Prayer contains an element of worship. When Abraham planned to offer his son as a sacrifice in obedience to God’s instructions, he told his servants that they would both go to worship and return. (Genesis 22) He had every intention of driving a knife in the chest of his son. He had also every intention to believe that God would revive his son if that was necessary for him to do.
He was willing to go to whatever extreme as part of worship that God expected. He was being obedient to God. He had not dreamed up a macabre act. His worship included obedience. His obedience was anchored in worship. Abraham was convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that his obedience would not result in the death of his son. It was an opportunity for them together that they might worship and see God’s provisions.
When Hannah prayed that she would have a son, she replied to the high priest that she had poured out her soul as reported in our text. She was so dedicated and so intense that he mistook her for being drunk. Enhanced prayer it’s so sincere that it is like Hannah pouring out her soul. Saying words in a prayer is not writ. It is an emptying of self at the throne of God. As we enhance our prayer life, there are some things that we must beware not to do. Likewise, there are some things that we must do when we are connecting with God.
