Make Them God-Centered
When you pray, remember who you are talking to. You have been given the privilege of coming before the creator of the universe. This is the God who made everything that lives or has its being, and he has given you the honor of bringing requests before him. That’s why so many teachers tell us to start our prayers with adoration. When we tell God how great, powerful, and magnificent he is, it reminds us that he truly is those things. It gives us a sense of awe and expectancy that something great could come out of this conversation we are having with the one who can do anything.
Paul spent over half of his prayer in Ephesians 1 extolling God’s virtues. Scholars agree that when Paul wrote this book, he was in prison. He could have listed a litany of prayer requests that would have made ours pale in comparison, but instead he focused on who God is. Surely, the power of that prayer carried him farther than any listing of complaints. It also showed the Ephesians how to pray victoriously in the midst of whatever they were facing.
Make Them Praise-Filled
Paul started his prayer by saying, “I have not stopped giving thanks …” He’d learned that the key to praying is not to focus on a list of troubles, but to praise God for what he has done. How can we do that? How can we give thanks in everything, as Paul later admonished us to do in his letter to the Thessalonians?
To do that, we have to trust that God knows what he’s doing. Sally has to be able to say, “Thank you, God, for my arthritis. I don’t get why I have to have it, but you do, so I’m going to trust you with it. I’d be delighted if you’d take it away, but if not, I trust you will use it for good in my life.”
Mark has to say, “Thank you for my unruly children. They are a gift from you, and I know you will equip me with wisdom to know how to help them. It may be a bumpy road, and they may have to go through some hard times before they learn their lessons, but I’m trusting that you will bring them into a loving relationship with you.”
Bonnie must learn to say, “Thank you, Lord, for my job. You led me there, so I’m trusting that you want to use me with my coworkers, and that you will equip me to do this job well. If you are leading me elsewhere, I trust that you will make that clear, too. Teach me what you want me to learn through this difficulty.”
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