Prayer

How often do you pray?

What is your posture?

How long do you pray?

Originally posted by @romans1009
How often do you pray?

What is your posture?

How long do you pray?

I pray several times, with my longest prayer at night.

The Holy Spirit has been convicting me to start praying on my knees. Typically I pray seated, while I’m walking for exercise or lying down before I go to sleep.

Prayers last anywhere from five minutes to a half-hour or more and I follow the ACTS method - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.

Originally posted by @romans1009
I pray several times, with my longest prayer at night.

The Holy Spirit has been convicting me to start praying on my knees. Typically I pray seated, while I’m walking for exercise or lying down before I go to sleep.

Prayers last anywhere from five minutes to a half-hour or more and I follow the ACTS method - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.

I rather follow the suggestions of Christ: [your pastor can keep his]

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do:
for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them:
for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
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.
(Matthew 6:5-13 KJV)

Originally posted by @romans1009
How often do you pray?

What is your posture?

How long do you pray?

All the time.

Whatever position I find myself in.

Continuously.

I need a lot of help. 😉

I think you might also have asked "what do you pray for"?

I would like to contribute to this thread on prayer.
But I want to mention other things beside duration, posture, etc.


It is good to enter into prayer with praise and thanksgiving.
The natural tendency is to immediately bring out our "shopping list" that we NEED this, we NEED that, and we NEED the other.

God knows our needs and has His need to conform us to the image of Christ. So prayer itself can change us. But we too often think only of changing our circumstances.

"Enter into His courts with praise." the Psalmist said.

When I begin to pray I remind myself to include praise of God and thanksgiving up front and even interspersed throughout.

We have so much to thank God for.

Enter into God's presence often with praise.
He knows our need to an extraordinary degree already.
It is not that He needs reminding.
But He does need us to be an opened vessel - wide opened in heart to have Him impart something of Himself into us.

The apostle says to make your request known with thanksgiving. This shows vital trust in God.And it builds up your spiritual stature, empowering you with long-suffering and endurance.

"In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with THANKSGIVING, let your requests be made known to God." (Phil. 4:6)

I try not to forget to include thanksgiving. And look what comes next in the passage. We see God doing an inward work of transformation in the praying soul.

" ... with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God,

And the God of peace, which surpasses every man's understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6b,7)

Like a guard stationed around your psychological heart, the Holy Spirit will preserve the praying one in peace in the thought life. Anxiety is overcome. Peace is pervading.

This is a heavenly peace which surpasses understanding of every person. And it will garrison and guard and patrol your mind in God.

The Old Testament also said:

You will keep the steadfast of mind in perfect peace because he trusts in You.

"Trust in Jehovah forever and ever; for in Jah Jehovah we have an eternal rock." (Isaiah 26:3,4)

Originally posted by @sonship
I would like to contribute to this thread on [b]prayer.
But I want to mention other things beside duration, posture, etc.


It is good to enter into prayer with praise and thanksgiving.
The natural tendency is to immediately bring out our "shopping list" that we NEED this, we NEED that, and we NEED the other.

God knows our needs and has His nee ...[text shortened]... nd thanksgiving up front and even interspersed throughout.

We have so much to thank God for.[/b]

<<It is good to enter into prayer with praise and thanksgiving.
The natural tendency is to immediately bring out our "shopping list" that we NEED this, we NEED that, and we NEED the other.>>

Exactly! This is why I follow the ACTS method of prayer - Adoration (praise) is the first part. When I reach the last part (Supplications,) I pray for all others (family members, friends, missionaries, church pastors and members I know, etc.) before praying for myself. And I’ve recently begun praying for those I know who are not saved to learn about and accept Christ.

When it comes to myself, I mostly pray to be within God’s will, and then a few specific things depending on my circumstances at the time.

Originally posted by @romans1009
How often do you pray

Every moment. It is more or less at any time, but there i always this undercurrent, like a foundation.

What is your posture?

Face up, to the sun and the wind and the rain. To the kids I'm watching, to the queue I'm in, I am not bowing and scraping. wtf you mean 'posture'.

How long do you pray?

Already answered, It's weird you think that was two separate questions.

Originally posted by @romans1009
<<It is good to enter into prayer with praise and thanksgiving.
The natural tendency is to immediately bring out our "shopping list" that we NEED this, we NEED that, and we NEED the other.>>

Exactly! This is why I follow the ACTS method of prayer - Adoration (praise) is the first part. When I reach the last part (Supplications,) I pray for all other ...[text shortened]... be within God’s will, and then a few specific things depending on my circumstances at the time.

Really effective prayer is initiated by God.
God has a desire for something and puts that on the hearts of those walking with Him, living unto Him.

Then in prayer, they echo the desire of God so as to be one with Him. And God responds to their standing in harmony with His desire.

This is the really effective prayer initiated by God Himself. Yet it calls for men and women on earth in tune with Him, walking with Him, in harmony with one another in Christ and with God.

The effective prayer is an echo of the will of God sent out by God to bounce off of those living in Him.

Prayer right out of the word of God is good.
If you open to some rich portion of the word of God and turn the word into prayers of petition, thanksgiving, praise, request, and adoration you will most likely be praying in harmony with God's will.

As you read you convert phrases in to subject matter for your prayers of praise, thanksgiving and petition. How can you not be close to His heart? You are praying along the tracks of His very word.

Most effective is to have a regular time to pray.
The morning is best.

From the book A Time With The Lord by Witness Lee

In the physical realm we need to spend time daily to obtain physical nourishment by eating physical food. How much more time we need to spend to obtain spiritual nourishment by eating the spiritual food. According to the present situation nearly all Christians know how to study, memorize, meditate, and search the Scriptures for knowledge, but very few know how to come to the Word of God to enjoy the Lord and to receive spiritual nourishment.

As people who have God living within them, we need to set aside some time each day to come to the Word of God to enjoy Him, to feed upon Him, and to receive spiritual nourishment. From the experiences and testimonies of others, it is clear that we need to spend at least thirty minutes with the Lord each day to contact Him and be strengthened by Him. During this time we need to read and to pray, and this cannot be done adequately in ten minutes. A longer time is necessary in order to read and pray properly. Even half an hour for reading and praying is too short, but surely we can spend half an hour with the Lord every day to pray-read His Word, and the best time for this is in the morning.

During this thirty minutes we must forget about knowledge, a message, a movement, or a work, etc. All this must be forgotten and our whole attention given to spending proper and adequate time in the Lord's presence. As sons of God this is the first and primary daily experience into which all Christians must be brought. For at least thirty minutes each day, we must learn not to exercise our mind too much, but simply to exercise our spirit in pray-reading. It is impossible for any Christian who spends less than thirty minutes daily in the presence of the Lord to be adequately spiritual and healthy. This is a fixed principle. Can anyone be healthy who does not eat daily?

https://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?id=32EE22

More from A Time With The Lord by Witness Lee

If by the Lord's mercy and grace we desire and agree to spend more time daily in the presence of the Lord, what shall we do? By what means can we touch the Word of God for nourishment and enjoyment? We must learn to do only one thing—we must mingle our reading with our praying. We must contact the Lord by mingling our reading of the Bible with prayer, and by mingling our prayer with reading. This is why a new word, pray-read, has been used. We must pray-read the Word.

First, begin by spontaneously offering a short prayer to the Lord. Then open your Bible and start to read. While you are reading, spontaneously respond to the Lord with what you read. Do not read too many verses, such as a long paragraph or a long section, before praying. While you are reading, respond to the Lord by praying.

Do not try to pray long sentence prayers, and do not pray for many things, asking the Lord to do something for you. Simply learn to pray with the words you read. The valuable prayer, the prayer which contacts the Lord, is to utter or express what is responding within you as you read the Word.

https://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?id=32EE22

This morning I pray-read First Corinthians 10:1-6.

Slowly I worked my way down musing, praying, and petitioning using the very words I was read. This way I was assured that my prayers would be along the lines of God's will.

I applied the phrases to my own like and circumstances. I transferred the passages to be about my own walk with God. This is such a good way to calibrate your heart to God's desires.

Afterwards, after some 20 or 30 minutes I felt so refreshed and new. Many difficulties in my soul were dealt with. Many anxieties were put to rest. My heart turned from evil things to God. Even distracting legitimate things receded as God received my attention.

Then others came to mind. Relatives and friends came to mind. I believe the Spirit of Christ puts them on your heart as you first draw close to God and deal with your own life.

Then others come up in your heart and your prayers for them are effective. May God make this a daily matter for a healthy spiritual walk with Christ.

Latter I'll put down the passages that I prayed over.

Originally posted by @sonship
Latter[sic] I'll put down the passages that I prayed over.

All this discussion with yourself!
It's just forum masturbation.
And that's a sin!