A Life of Prayer

This year, as a church, we have committed to “Give God One Year.” Each month, we’re focusing on a different spiritual discipline and purposefully incorporating it into our lives. For the month of May, our discipline is prayer.  Today, I want to do more than just teach you about prayer.  I want to invite you to become a person of prayer.  Not just someone who prays when things get hard. 

We've trained ourselves to treat prayer like a last resort; something we reach for after we've tried everything else and run out of options. But the Bible calls us to something completely different. Philippians 4:6 says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." In everything. Not in crisis. Not in an emergency. Everything.

I genuinely believe that if you decide to live a life of prayer, everything in your life will change. I don't say that casually. Your Heavenly Father promises that when you seek Him first, everything else follows. And I don't know about you, but I am not interested in staying the same.

We often hear the question, "If you could go back to your younger self, would you change anything?" And some people say absolutely not. I am the opposite. I would change a lot! Hindsight is twenty-twenty, and I made some costly mistakes. But here's the good news: you don't need a time machine. You can start right now. The best decisions of your life are still ahead of you. And the path to getting there is a life of prayer.

Prayer Is Personal

One reason I think we avoid prayer is that we've made it weird. We've added all this pomp and circumstance to it, like you have to have the right words, the right setting, or a certain amount of holiness before you approach God. But Jesus addresses this directly. In Matthew 6:5-8, He tells His disciples not to pray like the religious leaders of that day, who loved to pray on street corners where everyone could see them. He says that kind of prayer already has its reward: human applause.

Then He says, "When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen." Prayer is not performance. It's personal. It's between you and God.

What I love about that is its simplicity. God isn't looking for your best Sunday language. He's not grading your vocabulary. He wants you. He wants a real conversation. Think about what it was like before the fall, when God walked with Adam in the garden. He wasn't checking a list. He was just there, close and present. That is the kind of relationship He wants with you.

Jeremiah 33:3 puts it simply: "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know." Not, “Perform for me.” Not, “Impress me.” Call. That's it. And in return, He promises to show you things you haven't even imagined yet. Ideas, creativity, revelation, mysteries of heaven. All of it is available on the other side of simply calling out to Him.

Prayer Centers You

Moving through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, after Jesus tells us to call God our Father, He says to hallow His name. And I want to sit with that for a second because I think we rush past it.

Hallowing His name isn't reminding God that He's holy. He knows. You're reminding yourself. When you begin your prayer time by saying who He really is, you're recalibrating. You're reminding yourself that you're not talking to some passive, wishy-washy God who you have to wear down with enough begging. You are talking to Elohim, the strong Creator. You're talking to Jehovah Jireh, your provider. Jehovah Rapha, your healer. The Alpha and the Omega. He holds it all, and He has a plan.

Too many believers walk around with their heads down, confused about why prayer isn't working, when the problem is they've forgotten who they're actually talking to. When you know who you're talking to, it changes your approach.

Then comes "Your kingdom come, Your will be done." This is the part where we surrender. And honestly, for me, this has been some of the hardest work. I am someone who likes to have a plan. I like to feel in control. But prayer is where I've learned to say, "Your will, God. Not mine." And there is so much freedom on the other side of that surrender. He has so much waiting for you there.

Then comes the part where you make your requests known. “Give us today our daily bread.” The things you need. The business deal. The open door. The miracle you've been believing for. But notice the order. You've already called Him Father. You've already acknowledged He is holy and in control. You've already surrendered your will. Now you bring your requests from that posture of faith, not desperation.

It's a heart posture, not a recipe. Sometimes I'm driving, and I'm just talking to Him out loud. Lord, you're so good. I surrender this situation to you. I'm sorry for how I handled that conversation earlier. God, I need you to move here. I need to see your hand in this. That's it. That is a life of prayer.

Prayer Is Where You Let It Go

Matthew 6:12 says, "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors." You cannot have a healthy prayer life without repentance. And I want to say that without making it feel heavy, because it doesn't have to be.

Repentance is simply coming to God and saying, “I know I got that wrong. I missed the mark. Cleanse my heart and make me new.” Sometimes you'll know immediately that you need to repent. Other times, it's more subtle. Maybe it's a coworker who said something two weeks ago that's been living rent-free in your head. Maybe it's something in your marriage that's been building. You might not even label it as an offense, but it's there. And it's weighing you down.

Here is what I know to be true: what you won't confess, you'll carry. What you hold onto in unforgiveness only affects you. The other person isn't losing any sleep. But you're walking around with this weight that belongs at the feet of Jesus.

The Bible is clear that to be forgiven, we must forgive. And I want you to hear what forgiveness is not: it's not saying that what was done to you was okay. It's not minimizing your experience. It's releasing it so that you can be free. That freedom belongs to you. Don't let someone else's actions rob you of it.

Confessing, releasing, letting go, these things bring you into a place of liberty in Christ over and over again. It's not a one-time event. It's a daily practice. It's part of what a life of prayer looks like.

Prayer Brings You Into His Presence

There’s a verse that I've loved for years, and every time I read it, it still gets me. Psalm 16:11 says, "You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy, and at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Fullness. Nothing missing. That's what's available in His presence.

For a long time, I thought a heavy prayer time was a holy prayer time. I would finish praying and still feel weighed down, and somewhere in my brain, I had decided that meant I was taking my sin seriously. That I was being appropriately humble. But that was a lie I had believed. Because if I just read Psalm 16:11 to you, I cannot leave His presence sad. His presence is fullness of joy. Not partial joy. Not some joy. Fullness.

As a young person, I went through a season where I thought joy was just not for me. I struggled with depression badly enough that when I saw joy on other people's faces, I genuinely believed my portion was different. That somehow, because of what I had been through or because of how my brain was wired, full joy was not available to me.

I also grew up with a father who was toxic and unsafe. My picture of a father was not good. And it took real work in my relationship with the Lord to separate that experience from who my heavenly Father actually is. He is good. He is faithful. He is a safe place. He adores me. He affirms me. That is not what I grew up knowing, but that is what is true. And if you are someone who came in today still seeing God as constantly disappointed in you, I want you to hear this: That is not who He is. He is safe. Run to Him, not away from Him.

When I finally stopped leaving my prayer time before I allowed His presence to actually fill me, everything changed. I stopped walking out burdened and started walking out with the kind of joy that gives you strength for the actual day ahead. That's not a concept. That's a reality I live in now.

The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people. So if you've been doing all the emptying, all the releasing, all the confessing, and you're skipping this part, you're leaving the most essential piece behind. Be still. Let Him fill you. Let His presence inhabit you. That's the indwelling part that makes everything else possible.

This Is Your Invitation

Here's what I want to leave you with. Prayer is more than a spiritual discipline for the month. A life of prayer is a different way of living. It changes you from the inside out. It means you don't go to prayer when you've run out of options. You start with prayer. You stay there. You carry it with you all day long.

Mountains move when you pray. Storms cease when you pray. Bodies are healed when you pray. I believe that with everything in me. So my invitation to you is this: let today be the beginning of something new. Become a person of prayer, and watch what your heavenly Father does with a life that's fully surrendered to Him.