How do you Pray?

“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God”.

Jonah 2:1

As I was on my way to Target to get a few things I was listening to a preacher talk about prayer. And he was asking why do we pray? What do we pray for? What do we expect out of our prayer?

So it got me thinking as I was listening and as I asked myself those same questions, a reality check kicked in. I realized that I pray for the wrong reasons and wrong motives, because I am a selfish being. I pray when I need God to help me in a certain situation and when I need or want something from Him.

What about the rest of the days? Have I sought Him in prayer to praise Him, to glorify Him for who He is, and for what He has done, for me? How selfish am I that I only show up at the foot of the cross with bended knee, when I need Him? In the midst of my stressing circumstances, and the rest of my days I am independent from Him, because I can do it on my own because He can’t help me.

How am I praying? Am I praying believing that He can do it? Do I realize that when I do pray I am praying to a living and Holy God?! Do I lift prayer up realizing that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is seated at the throne listening to my prayer and that He is truly alive!

If we don’t pray believing and knowing that to whom we lift our prayers to is living, then we are praying to Him as if He were made of stone.

Can you say to Him what Psalm 91:2 says?

“I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust”.