What does a good ministry look like? PRAYER

As an individual Christian, its important to be developing the core ministry qualities.   Each one looks different from person to person.  Here are my thoughts on what prayer could generally look like in your life and ministry.


Prayer

I believe there are three focuses of prayer that a Christian should do.  Those different focuses are God, self, and others.  I also believe it is important to pray on your own and to pray with others.

But first, how do you pray? Pray as if you're having a conversation with God. You don't need to use any special language.  You can speak to him as if you're talking to your best friend. Don't babble on, Matthew 6:7. You should pray  believing what you are praising, what you're asking is true and will come true. Here are some qualities you could show with prayer and Bible verses to back them up. Be humble, 2 Chronicles 7:14, wholeheartedness, Jeremiah 29:13, faith, Mark 11:24, righteousness, James 5:16, and obedience, 1 John 3:22.

It is important to be able to communicate with our Lord and Savior. Why? If you were in a relationship with a guy or girl, would you be able to grow closer to him/her if you didn't speak to him/her? No. That is just silly. You say you don't feel like you're prayers are heard or that they're answered?  Psalms 34:17 and 91:15 say the Lord hears our every cries and delivers us from them. The Lord has a reason for everything that happens, it should draw us closer to Him.

Jesus set an example for us prayer wise in Luke 6:12.  Jesus would sometimes leave to go in a private place and pray by himself.  Mark 1:35 and Luke 5:15-16 also show Jesus withdrawing and finding places to pray. Matthew 6:6 tells us we should do the same.  Praying in solitude gives God our sole attention and focus.  It can help put things back into perspective.

Matthew 18:19 says that "if two of you agree about anything you ask for, it will be done." Luke 1:10 and Acts 1:14 talks about praying with others.  The Bible tells us to pray with others, so it is important as a ministry to lift up our prayers and praises to God together.

One of the main things we should pray about is God.  Psalm 100 tells us we should praise God and be thankful for the many blessings in life.  Hebrews 11:13 tells us we should continually be praising God, not only in prayer, but with our actions and inactions.  We should lift up praises for the good things in life and the bad things in life. For who else has lived a blameless life and died on the cross for sinners like you and me?

We should also pray for ourselves.  James 5:16 says we should confess our sins to one another, that is when the healing begins.  We must confess (and repent) to the Lord to be forgiven.  Psalm 51 is an example of King David confessing to the Lord and repenting.  I think its okay to pray for things we want, but its important to keep in mind that what the Lord wants and what we want may be two different things. Proverbs 16:9 says the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord determines his every step.  In Psalm 22 David exclaims "God! Why have you forsaken me?"  Jesus does the same thing in Matthew 27.  Voicing our concerns and frustrations to God is not a sin, it shows what we're really feeling and lets us open up to God.

And finally we should pray for others.  This has multiple levels.  I'd say it starts with family and friends, goes out to the ministry you're in, then goes to the community or institution you're in ( ex. Purdue U.), your nation, and also the world.  I think it is important to intentionally be a part of people's lives that are in your life.  Ask your friends every once in awhile or weekly how you can pray for them. Pray for your ministry, ask leaders if there are anything specific you can pray for.  Pray for your nation, for you leaders and President, whether you like them or not.  And lastly, pray for different parts of the world.  As a Christian it is good to be aware of the hurt around the world, it is a good reminder of our need for Christ and that our circumstances really aren't that bad.  You can get weekly emails about different countries and what is going on there.

So as a ministry, I recommend meeting regularly, whether its weekly, biweekly, or just monthly to pray for each other, the ministry, and the world.  Not everyone has to attend obviously.  You could plan out what you'd like to pray for in certain time slots within an hour or so. For example, you could praise and thank God for 20 minutes, pray for others for 20 minutes, and confess struggles and/or sins and have others pray for you for 20 minutes. This gets the people of the ministry together and most importantly helps us have an eternal perspective rather than a now and me perspective.