40 Day Prayer Challenge: Day 15 - How Do We Pray?

Blessed morning Gems!!!

We begin week three today! I can't believe we are fifteen days into the challenge. I shared my struggles yesterday with you all, but I'm hopeful for an amazing prayer time every day this week. Began week one with learning what prayer is and week two with why we pray. Week three we are going to focus on how we pray.

Prayer is a very personal thing. There is no "real" blueprint to prayer, however, our Savior does give us some tips and shows us how to pray.

Being that prayer is personal we are to pray in secret. We don't need to be loud about our prayer, we don't have to let the world know when we are praying and we definitely don't need an entourage to pray.

Though there is a time and place for praying with others, Jesus was keen on praying alone, away from the crowd and in secret. He wanted to meet God alone and spend time with the Father.

Prayer is fairly simple as far as speaking to God, but because we can complicate it I'm going to take this week and break down "how" we can pray.

The first thing we must keep in mind is to pray away from noise, people and distractions. Majority of your prayer life will require you to be with God in the secret place which requires you to be alone with Him.

Now many of you may not understand what the secret place is. I know I didn't when I first heard it, so lets dive into a quick word study of secret place from our focus scripture for the day. In Matthew 6:6, Jesus is speaking to the disciples and telling them how not to pray and how to pray. The first thing He mentions is to go into your room.

Greek word for room is tameion, which means inner chamber. Also refers to a closet or storeroom.

The second thing He says is to shut the door.

Greek word for "to shut" is kleió, which means to shut up, close or lock.

Third, He says to pray to God who is in the secret place. For this we are going to break down the word secret and the actual phrase secret place.

Greek word for secret is kruptos, which means hidden, inward and private.

With just those three words broken down we can understand that Jesus is telling us to go somewhere private and hidden with a door that can shut and locked so we can be alone with God. That's how we pray in secret.

Now let's look at the phrase secret place which can originally be found in the book of Psalms. I'm going to focus on my favorite chapter in Psalms...Psalms 91:1 which talks about the dwelling in the secret place.

the term secret place comes from the Hebrew root word cether, which means hiding place or shelter.

With a better understanding we now know that when we pray we are to 1) be in a private place, 2) be able to shut out all distractions and 3) need to also look inward when praying to be with God who is in a place of shelter for us.

It's important to understand that we pray in secret so that our prayers are directed at God and no one else. Jesus doesn't prohibit public prayers, but He knew the importance of praying alone in order to pray without restraint and with vulnerability.

So now I ask you...Do you find that you go to a secluded place to be alone like Christ did in order to pray?

Journaling Prompt
Please be as true to yourself as possible when answering the prompt to get the most out of this challenge.

How do you pray? Do you pray alone? Where do you pray? Is it loud where you pray? Do you enjoy your personal prayer time?

Scripture
Today's scripture comes from Matthew 6:6:

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Prayer Journaling
Spend 3-7 minutes journaling your thoughts, feelings and emotions. Use the prompt to help.

Verbal Prayer
Take 3 minutes and verbally speak your written prayer. Pray out loud so that He can hear your voice. If your prayer is short, try to add to it. Pray for a desire to be in the secret place with God. If you don't have a quiet place to pray, ask God to give you one. If you do have a quiet place to pray, thank Him for the time and place in which you pray.

Listen
Sit quietly in a position that will not make you tired and wait on God. You may feel His presence, you may hear from Him. If you do, write down what He says or what you're feeling. Give yourself at least 3 minutes of pure silence to be able to hear from and feel God. This is a conversation, not a rant. Allow Him the opportunity to speak to you after you've spoken to Him.

Let's end in prayer...

Heavenly Father, this morning we thank You for waking us and giving us the energy to move about our day. Guide us as we begin to walk on the earth today Father. We will seek You in everything we do today. Father, show us how to get to the secret place when it's too hard to do so on our own.

Blessings,