There are a variety of ways one can approach God in prayer. We come to God, talking and asking, praising and worshiping, reading and listening based on our maturity and the current need.
Different Levels of Prayer
In November of 2014, when I first started my Monday Morning Devo Podcast, I began a series discussing different level of prayer. In the series I wanted to give people a very specific and Biblically based approach for talking to God and having God respond to our needs or requests.
I didn’t want to be too general, but wanted to be specific. We need things from God. And pray is how we ask God to help us with our needs. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6 and in Luke 11, he included that fact that we ask God provide for us our daily bread. That which we need daily is something that we not only expect God to help us with, but we also ask him, we remind him of those needs.
When we pray, I believe we should be sure to not keep our concerns to ourselves. Yes, we must praise and worship and read and listen, but there is something about asking. In the book of James, the writer make is clear that many people do not have what they need in their life because they do not ask.
False humility can cause us to not ask God for what we need. Jesus said that we don’t only need to ask, but we ask and ask and ask. We keep on asking, we keep on knocking we keep on seeking.
In Luke 11, right after Jesus taught the Lord’s prayer, he immediately gave an illustration. In his illustration he described the person who approaches prayer by asking what they want, with shameless audacity is the person who will have his prayers answered.
When I first heard or recognized this principle I was convicted and changed. Before we grow into different levels of prayer, learning to listen to the rhema word of God spoken from the scriptures or the still small voice of God revealing his direction we need to understand how to ask and how to keep asking.
To me, this is the first level of prayer and we cannot take it too lightly. Asking God shows our humility and dependance. To not ask, and work or hustle – to use our skills and network but not go to God is not a sign of strength but of weakness.
If you would like to listen to devotional series on different levels of prayer that I did on my podcast, please see visit here on iTunes.
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I encourage you, no matter where you are in your maturity with God to keep on asking, and never get beyond the posture of a sheep, needing to be led and fed by your shepherd.
Create a Great Day! – AC