Pray Network Forum

Believers need to continue to pray for one another when we're apart throughout the week. It is very easy to be so busy with our families, our jobs, our lives that we don't even remember our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul wrote to Timothy that he remembered him in his prayers day and night. He wrote something very similar to Philemon and to the Philippians and other churches.

Frankly, my memory is not always that good. So I must discipline myself to remember my brothers and sisters. To do that I need a list. I need to pray through a church roll. I need to write people's names down, especially new people I meet on a Sunday or at other times in the week. And I need other people to help me remember. We have a prayer meeting each week with the primary purpose of praying for every church member.

I've also discovered that God we'll remind me to pray for other people. This sometimes seems coincidental although I'm not sure that it is. I may be going through a Walmart store, trying to pray for everybody I pass in the aisles, or sitting in the doctor's office praying through the waiting room. I see someone who reminds me of a brother or sister in Christ. I use that as a cue to pray for the person I remember as well as the person I see.

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http://daveswatch.com/

One of the best things about the discipline of praying for organized lists of people is that God impresses me with difficult people to pray for. It strains my prayer life to pray for people I do not necessarily like. It stretches my faith to pray for people whom I can hardly imagine changing.

I pray daily for family members who have ruined their lives and the lives of others I love. And I find myself asking, "How could God straighten out the mess they have made?" I also pray for people with whom I fiercely disagree. I know I could not change their minds. Can God change their hearts or mine? I am often doubtful when I come to the names of some of these people. I have begun saying, "I am taking this person to You, Father. You can do anything."

This seems to be enough to ease the anxiety of my unbelief. The key to strengthening our faith is in recognizing the greatness and nearness of God. This prayer not only rests in His great power, but also on His ability to understand the complex problems people are facing. I do not necessarily believe this is strong faith, but focusing on God is certainly the step of faith I need in praying for difficult people and circumstances.

http://daveswatch.com/

I am not the only one who has had this experience. I was praying through a prayer list today and something distracted me. I continued to go down the list without my full attention. I regularly pray through a number of prayer lists. I have a list of movie people. I have a list of authors I ask God to work through. I pray for lost people God has brought into my life. I pray daily for a list of missionaries around the world. And it can be difficult to pray through these lists without distraction. I had gone some ways down the list today before I realized I was not focusing on my prayer.

Of course sometimes when I am distracted I need to pray about what is distracting me, changing the subject of the conversation, if you will. And I need to focus my mind on that until I pick back up where I was on the list. I also pray daily through several extended passages of scripture that I have memorized. I regularly find myself going through these without my mind fully focused on a passage. Prayer demands focus. You must focus on God and on the concerns you are lifting up to Him. I find I need to regularly stop and bring my prayers back into focus. I also regularly ask God to help me focus on what I am praying about.

http://daveswatch.com/

It's no wonder so many people (and even pastors) are discouraged with prayer. Instead of a genuine encounter with God, prayer is little more than a grocery list of requests. Maybe you, too, seek God's hand rather than His face.

My newest book, Transforming Prayer - How Everything Changes When You Seek God's Face, we discover how to:

• Pray to seek God's face NOT just His hand.
• Pray with your heart fixed on God's glory NOT just for personal satisfaction
• Pray from the treasure of God's word NOT simply from a list of your own ideas
• Pray according to the Spirit's instruction NOT only from human reason
• Pray with a heart completely surrendered to His will NOT with a hurried personal agenda
• Pray in anticipation of living triumphantly in the war-zone NOT with a satisfaction with the comfort zone.
• Pray that God would change you NOT that He would simply change things.

Transforming Prayer presents life-changing truths and practical handles to get you started in a fresh adventure in your time with God. You will enjoy "trophies of transformation" throughout the book as individual stories of life-change are told. Discussion questions for each chapter are contained in the back of the book, making this a great tool for your next small group or Sunday School study.

For brief video introductions to each chapter, free downloads, and more information about the book, please visit www.transformingprayerbook.com.