Prayer

Through all of my years as a Christian there was one area that I never lacked. Prayer.
If someone said we are having a prayer meeting I was there. When a pastor would ask who wants to pray? My hand would be raised. If someone would ask to be prayed for, yes there I was.
Also when someone felt the need to pray for others I was in the line wanting prayer.
When I moved here to Arkansas from Texas I had a mission. That mission was to expose others to the wonderful gift of prayer. I wanted others to experience what I had during times of meeting with the saints. I learned back in Texas from an older lady from my former fellowship. She was a fervant prayer warrior. She showed me what it is like to pray something through until you get an answer from God.
We would meet every Monday evening without fail. There would be a few people at the building praying. Sometimes it was just two. The thing is though we did what we came there for.
We had a time of visiting to see how each of us were doing and to get request, but when it got down to praying we hit it hard. We would not stop until we felt like there was nothing else to do.
The Lord was always faithful. Many words of knowledge came out of those meetings. We would get answers to situations we needed help on. The Lord would show up at times and we would end up on the floor just lying still. Nothing but silence. You see there can be times of silence in a prayer meeting. Silence is not a bad thing in a prayer meeting at times.
I could go on and on about those good times.
As I stated before I felt one of the reasons to come to Arkansas was to introduce others who have not felt led to pray. Most churches call prayer meetings together and usually they end up being anything but prayer meetings. Or at times only one person does all the praying.
I feel there is not enough people out there who know how to pray until you feel a peace. Or when most do pray they get discouraged because they feel the Lord is not listening.
We have to realize that God answers prayers in different ways. We must realize that His ways are not our ways. He knows what He is doing. Sometimes we may never know if our prayer was answered.
The key is to just trust God for He is faithful. He is the one who causes to pray.
Our days should always be filled with prayer and praise. We need to praise the Lord first!!! Then pray. How would you feel if someone kept coming to you with their problems and that was it?
It would get pretty frustrating wouldn't it.
In the scripture where Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray what is the first thing he says?
"Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name."
You see He started it out with praise. We praise and thank the Lord for who He is and then we can lead into our praying to Him. We must praise the Lord and pray without ceasing.
Praising is our way of thanking God. We have to be thankful even during the hard times. Then when we pray it becomes a sweet incense to the Lord. Did you know He has a bowl in heaven where He keeps all the prayers? It is mentioned in Revelation.
Did you also know that we have an advocate? His name is Jesus. He is seated at the right hand of the Father where He is forever interceding for the saints.
So when you go to pray to the Lord remember these things. Remember that Jesus redeemed you from the curse and that is something to praise God for. Then when you pray your heart will be refreshed.
I will post more on this later. I would like to do a small series on this.
So please check back. Because there is so much the Lord has shown me in the years.
Granted I don't know it all and don't claim too. I am not going to give you so many "keys" to prayer. No, I will give you scriptures.