19.04.2021

As a Christian do you plan prayer?

Bible passages:
Romans 8:26, Proverbs 16:1-3, Philippians 4:5-7, Matthew 6:9-13, Revelation 1:11, 1Thessalonians 5:17.

Discussion:
Prayer is a dialogue to God. It is not a monologue. In prayer we communicate to God and He communicate to us through the Holy Spirit. This also includes meditation and dialogue between man/woman and God.
In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus taught us how to pray in the Lord prayer.
The points to note in Matthew 6:9-13 are:
1. Praise God.
2. Worship Him - acknowledge that He is mighty.
3. Make a request - supplication.
4. Ask for forgiveness.
5. Honour the kingdom of God - place of destination.

Everyone has a technique or a unique way of praying. The quality of one’s prayer could not be judged by how eloquent one speaks, or how good one could construct sentence or knowing how to quote numerous scriptures. What really matters is the sincerity of the heart that one is speaking from and making the Holy Spirit the centre of the communication.
There are different types of prayer, some could be planned. Planning prayer means seeking God’s face to know how to go about the prayer if one have been given a task of leading prayer. However, such planning must be flexible not rigid and one need to be sensitive and attentive to the Holy Spirit when leading or conducting prayer sessions.
As a result of planning, knowledge has a part to play. And spiritual knowledge could be gained by studying the word of God. Holy Spirit might direct one to a particular passage to include in prayer or to read during prayer session.
We also need to be mindful of the examples in the Bible where God gave a specific plan to His people.
1. Building the ark of God - Noah’s
Ark Genesis chapters 6-9
2. Instruction for building the tabernacle Exodus 26.
3. Instruction for building the temple of God - 1 Chronicles 28.
And many more examples.
In addition, God wrote the Ten Commandments on a tablet. Holy Spirit instructed John to write down the message that he was about to receive Revelation 1:11.
When praying or in meditation, God always speak and it is important to write such a message down.

Praise God