Category Archives: How to Pray

We all need help how to connect with God in prayer.

Recognizing the Sovereign Lord

God created and owns the earth. We need to acknowledge this fact in the universe.

Recognizing the Sovereign Lord – a river in Washington

After all man’s attempts to ignore God, and replace God with other things, God takes full control and restores the earth back to the owner, who is God. This is the story of the book of Revelation. Sometimes when man forgets God or ignores God, bad things happen. There are many examples of this in the Old Testament. But eventually God gets all the glory.

Eventually there will be the New Jerusalem, with God fully in control. Again this is talked about much in the last book of the Bible, the conclusion of the whole Bible, the book of Revelation. Revelation 11:15 … The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.

Maybe one of the best Bible verses on God’s sovereignty is Isaiah 6:1-3 In the year of the death of king Uzziah, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above him…. 3 And one called to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.

Pray with the Sovereign Lord

Isaiah 50:4 The Sovereign LORD has given me …

Pray with the Sovereign Lord – a California sunset

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

What does it mean to fear the Lord, it means to recognize Him as the sovergn God who rules over all things. He created the universe out of nothing, He designed DNA and everything about us. He decided when we will be born into this world, and He decides the day we leave. He decides a lot of things we cannot even touch. He holds the calendar with the dates of our birth and death, who are parents will be, what city we are born, and what century.

God owns the universe and spoke it into being. What ever He says is significant, so we should listen. God has the ability to do anything He wants to and no one can stop Him.

God is real, He exists, He is alive. God works and God acts.

This Bible verse is from proverbs, which is about wisdom. Actually in this book of the Bible wisdom is personified. And then in the New Testament we learn that Christ is the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption?

Daniel 5:21 … the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes. So pray with the sovereign Lord.

Prayer is Connecting with God

Prayer is connecting with God in reality.

Prayer is connecting with God – a river in Oregon

But prayer is hard without the Spirit. In John 4, Jesus says “God is Spirit and they that worship (pray) Him,must worship (pray) in spirit and in reality“. So we need to pray with the spirit, our human spirit, to contact God in reality. God created man with Body, soul and spirit. Notice the ‘s’ on spirit/Spirit. Upper case ‘Spirit’ refers to the Spirit of God, since He is Spirit. Lower case ‘spirit’ refers to our human spirit. God gave us a spirit to contact God who is Spirit. Prayer in reality comes when we contact God in spirit.

Prayer is simple. Prayer is just talking to God. Nothing formal is necessary.

God exists and listens, we just need to talk to Him. Prayer does not need to be formal or in some special place. Prayer is just talking to God in reality. So we don’t need make-up something, just start saying what is on your heart as you talk to God. Prayer is just a dialog between us and God. Prayer can be alone for with others. Prayer can be when we love God and when we hate God. Sometimes we are hurting because of something that happened, so tell that to God. Prayer can be what we feel when we are very encouraged and when we are very depressed and low. Prayer can be when we think we are perfect (only God is perfect), and when we are a sinner (and we all are sinners) and when we feel we are a saint. Prayer can be when we are happy and when we are sad. Sometimes after we pray we feel high and sometimes low.

The Spirit makes it easy, because He knows how and what to pray. Without the Spirit, prayer is hard. With the Spirit prayer us easy. Romans 8:26 And in like manner the Spirit joins also its help to our weakness; for we do not know what we should pray for as is fitting, but the Spirit itself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Look at the prayers of David in the Psalms where David just talks to God. David tells God just what he thinks and how he feels. When David is low, he says “God, I am depressed”.

When David was feeling great, He praises God. Sometimes when he is low is also praises God. Psalms 8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established praise because of thine adversaries, to still the enemy and the avenger.

Also consider some of the points in the article on “Prayer is Talking to God”

Trust in the Lord

Trust in the Lord – lake in Montana

We trust in many things like food, our house, our job, our bank account, hard work, our family or society. When things do not work we sometimes drop all else and trust the Lord! But only because we have come to our end, at least we think our end. So now to try to trust the Lord everyday is a stretch for many of us. Our understanding of life and events is somewhat limited, so that’s why the verse says to not rely too much on our thinking or understanding. God knows better than us, even though we like to think we understand everything.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.

Look at the story of Joseph in the Bible. Joseph had a vision to be a governor in Egypt, yet God let him through all kinds of very difficult trials. If Joseph had not been Egypt’s prisoner, he could have never been Egypt’s governor.

Every difficulty we pass through prepares us for our future work for God. So right in the middle (but this is hard to do), we need to trust in the Lord.

Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving

Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving – Seagull, Cannon Beach, Oregon

Prayer starts with thanksgiving, thanking God for all He has done. Sometimes this is hard to do, but thanksgiving helps our prayer. But this verse starts by telling us to be careful for nothing, that is, don’t worry about anything, just pray. Then it says to just let God know what’s going on, just talk to God. Then after all these items, there is the peace of God that goes beyond what we think and feel. This peace guards our hearts by filling us with the peace of God.

Philippians 4:6-7 Be careful about nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus.

Prayer is Talking to God

Prayer is simple. Prayer is just talking to God. Nothing formal is necessary.

Olive Trees In Jerusalem Israel – Prayer is Talking to God

Look at the prayers of David in the Psalms where David just talks to God. David tells God just what he thinks and how he feels. When David is low, he says “God, I am depressed”.

Also consider some of the points in the article on “What is Prayer”

The Lord’s Prayer – The Sermon on the Mount

The Lord's Prayer given within the Sermon on Mount maybe given on the west side of the Sea of Galilee

The Lord’s Prayer, a Bible Prayer, was given in the Sermon on Mount. Jesus may have given this talk on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee, Israel.

Here is another Bible Prayer, a model prayer, an example prayer for us to follow.
The Lord’s Prayer was given by Jesus while teaching on the Sermon on Mount. The supposed location is on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee.

The Lord’s Prayer is in Matthew chapter 6, the sermon on the mount is in chapters 5, 6 and 7. So the model prayer was given within this three chapter sermon on the mount. The main points of the prayer is the following short quick points: Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will, daily bread, forgive and keep us from evil.

The passage on the Lord’s prayer is right in the middle of the Jesus Christ giving the three chapter sermon on the mount. The location is supposed to be on the north-west side of the Sea of Galilee, Israel as shown in the picture above.

See several articles on the Lord’s Prayer on this blog

The large building in the picture above is the Church of the Beatitudes or Sermon on the Mount Church. The church was built by the Byzantines. This is considered the traditional location of the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The Lord’s prayer is a model prayer. It has two sections: towards God and toward man. In the first section towards God we learn to pray (1) in His name, (2) for His Kingdom, and (3) for His will.

When we take care of God, He takes care of us. Consider the verse in Matthew 6:33
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” There is quite a promise here, we seek the Kingdom, that is take care of God’s interests and He (God) helps us.

Morning Prayer – Encouraging Bible Verses

Morning time is the best time to connect with God in the Bible and prayer – encouraging Bible verses

Morning time is the best time to connect with God in the Bible and prayer – encouraging Bible verses.

Just before the day gets started, the crazy things come, stresses come, the emails come, the twitters come and then the other billion things that fill a day. Take time in the morning to connect and contact God the source of our life and our strength. He is the one to strengthen us through the whole day.

Here is an awesome morning prayer time animation video.

Consider these wonderful encouraging Bible verses on prayer in the morning.

Psalms 30:5 For his anger is but for a moment,and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night,but joy comes with the morning.

Revelation 2:28 and I will give him the morning star.

Mark 1:35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. Jesus really liked the morning time for prayer and Bible reading.

Sunrise over the Dead Sea, Israel

Psalms 55:17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.

p.s. The first picture above that looks like a sunrise, is actually a sunset in the Pacific Northwest.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

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