Can someone explain praying to me?

It seems I hear that God has a plan for everything so does he alter that plan if we pray or am I looking at it the wrong way? I can understand praying for guidance, which I do quite frequently but I am a bit confused about the purpose of praying for say, someone that is dying or something along those lines.

Can we change God's mind if we pray enough or should we simply not pray for anything material like a better job or things like that.

Thanks!
 
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whenever I hear a siren, I pray along these lines....Dear heavenly Father. I lift up the person(s) for whomever those sirens are for. May your will be done and help them and their loved ones accept Your will. Nevertheless Father, I pray to intercede as you have instructed us to do. Please Father extend your mercy, grace and love to those that need you. I pray that You make Your presence known to them in such a powerful way that they will know beyond doubt that you have moved in their lives. I ask for an undeniable manifestation of Your power in their lives that they serve as a witness to Your power and grace...in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ I pray this.
It may sound long but I pray it anyway. I have no idea if anyone is praying, gonna pray or even cares about that person..so pray I do.
 
You can freely approach God your Father with anything. Praying about something, even though He already knows your need, it is an acknowledgement that He is your provider and above the matter you are praying about.
Here is a good example of what your prayer should look like.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Here you acknowledge Gods greatness and deity, His status as King of Kings, you give glory and respect to His name. this comes first, even before your rambling of your shopping list, so to say. Glory to Him
10Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
Here you confess that His will and the needs of His kingdom is most important, above your own. Glory to Him
On earth as it is in heaven.
You concede your ways to make way for His way, in your walk on earth and by placing the heavenly first. Glory to Him
11Give us this day our daily bread.
He is your provider above all forms of provision, from yourself, family, employer, industry or whatever. Fulfilling your needs
12And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
Not much to elaborate here, except the critical importance of your forgiving attitude towards others. Your salvation
13And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
Temptation will come, but not outside your strength, Holy Spirit will lead you to overcome. Your salvation
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Amen to all of that. Glory to Him
 
It seems that I pray too much for help and that I have nothing to offer back sometimes and I don't know if I am doing something wrong. Yea my life is kind of screwed up but I know he has helped me and helped me a lot so should I simply stop asking for help from God and use the prayers you two mentioned above to help others instead?
I kind of feel that I am being too needy of God and its bothering me a little bit, kind of like I should grow up and do something on my own although when I do that my life ends up spiraling into an abyss.
 
We are all needy of Jesus and Holy Spirit in our lives. You have no reason to stop praying and asking for help, but always remember, bring your side also.
In my previous post I have tried to outline an order if you like to call it that, but I do not want to make it sound like a recipe.
It almost sounds to me you need to get closer to a believing brother to help, one you can see physically and who you can talk to face to face and where you can pray together. But not a bud who is entrenched in the world.
I do not think anyone here cannot not say they were screwed up at one point or another, so do not let it threaten you, I'm sure many here had a run in with the worst satan can offer.
Stand strong in Jesus your Lord and God, make His word your priority above all else and you will overcome.
 
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It seems that I pray too much for help and that I have nothing to offer back sometimes and I don't know if I am doing something wrong. Yea my life is kind of screwed up but I know he has helped me and helped me a lot so should I simply stop asking for help from God and use the prayers you two mentioned above to help others instead?
I kind of feel that I am being too needy of God and its bothering me a little bit, kind of like I should grow up and do something on my own although when I do that my life ends up spiraling into an abyss.

You need a clear, real in your own mind understanding of prayer.

In prayer, there is no chance that you are telling God something He does not already know. When you pray, you are making God's understanding of what you are saying real in your own experience.

There is nothing wrong with praying for help
If you are harboring sin in your life, the only prayer you can expect God to credit is one of confession. This is more than simple agreement that you have done wrong, but includes a heart that is not still justifying the wrong action, even if you are powerless to overcome the temptation without His help.

Receiving what you prayed for is a little more complicated. Before you can receive what you ask, you must pray according to His will. Praying according to His will means making His will supreme over your own.

God knows what you are going to pray before you think about praying. He knew all this before Adam. He can be preparing His answer just as long.

You also need to be sensitive to what His answer is. Many times He answers and we do not recognize it. Many times we must be willing to be the answer to our own prayers in His power and not just sit back and wait to Him to make things conform to your will.

There is nothing wrong with praying for help in your daily tasks. This helps you keep your thoughts on Him, and impresses on yourself how much your life depends on Him.

There is nothing wrong with praying for your desires. Done right, this is part of discerning whether they are in His will. Proper prayer is not a demand for God to do your bidding.

Praying for the benefit of others also helps you become sensitive to their needs, and to be ready to be God's answer for them.

Allowing other Christians to know your needs and pray for you helps in personal humility and brotherhood.
 
Remember. God is not a cosmic coke machine....put in your tithe ...push the right prayer button...and waalaaah...out comes your wish. God is the one doing the button pushing....if He is calling you, then understand this is about your obedience to Him.
 
Good answers, well, yes Gods will and hIs ways are higher than our own, praying to Him is a way of communicating and also knowing he listens and cares about our personal situations.
We cant twist Gods arm about things and make him do what we want, but we can tell Him how we feel about our lives and ask how to live them better.
I dont see anything wrong with praying for a better job, or the soul of a dying friend to be saved. You can ask others to pray for you as well if you dont feel comfortable praying about your own needs. Thats what your christian brothers and sisters are here for.
 
It seems I hear that God has a plan for everything so does he alter that plan if we pray or am I looking at it the wrong way? I can understand praying for guidance, which I do quite frequently but I am a bit confused about the purpose of praying for say, someone that is dying or something along those lines.

Can we change God's mind if we pray enough or should we simply not pray for anything material like a better job or things like that.

Thanks!

GOD has a plan for every ones life. Not every one answers the call for they get to busy here in this life. Prayer is our connection to God.

Prayer has needs as well such as walking in Love and walking in Forgivness. I am not saying God will not answer a prayer if your faith is weak or you have some unforgiveness in you but I am saying this will TRULY ALTER your prayer life and results.

Look at Mark 11:25
And when you stand praying........FORGIVE....... if you have any AUGHT against any.....so your Father which is in Heaven.........May forgive you your trespasses
This must mean "now" and not some day for you can not stand praying until some day now can you ?

Learning how to pray Gods word is a huge factor as well. Prayers in Faith with His word moves God. Learn His word and this will help develope your praying and find some good teachings on prayers for there are many levels of praying.

Praying for someone who is dying and confused about the purpose ? Would not the prayer be to save the life such as binding death ? If you are thinking along the lines that when your number is up its up and your done type thing....that is false for we can shorten or lengthen this life of ours.

Prayer is awesome......just NOT some winey boo hoo type prayer trying to inform God of all these things. Praying with Faith and His word.
Blessings
Jim
 
GOD has a plan for every ones life. Not every one answers the call for they get to busy here in this life. Prayer is our connection to God.

Prayer has needs as well such as walking in Love and walking in Forgivness. I am not saying God will not answer a prayer if your faith is weak or you have some unforgiveness in you but I am saying this will TRULY ALTER your prayer life and results.

Look at Mark 11:25
And when you stand praying........FORGIVE....... if you have any AUGHT against any.....so your Father which is in Heaven.........May forgive you your trespasses
This must mean "now" and not some day for you can not stand praying until some day now can you ?

Learning how to pray Gods word is a huge factor as well. Prayers in Faith with His word moves God. Learn His word and this will help develope your praying and find some good teachings on prayers for there are many levels of praying.

Praying for someone who is dying and confused about the purpose ? Would not the prayer be to save the life such as binding death ? If you are thinking along the lines that when your number is up its up and your done type thing....that is false for we can shorten or lengthen this life of ours.

Prayer is awesome......just NOT some winey boo hoo type prayer trying to inform God of all these things. Praying with Faith and His word.
Blessings
Jim
Are you saying that I must memorize some certain formula for praying and that it is less effective I just talk to him which I swear I do about 100 times a day. Basically whenever something good happens I thank him or I just pray because I feel like talking to him.

Is that the wrong way to go about it, is it supposed to be more ritualistic or something?
 
Are you saying that I must memorize some certain formula for praying and that it is less effective I just talk to him which I swear I do about 100 times a day. Basically whenever something good happens I thank him or I just pray because I feel like talking to him.

Is that the wrong way to go about it, is it supposed to be more ritualistic or something?





















the Lord's Prayer is the guideline by which all our prayers should be based, but, if you look at the book of Psalms you will find all the ways and reasons us humans can relate to our Lord. You are doing fine by just having an open and honest prayer life with our Lord. It is, afterall, a relationship. Tell Him everything. Just don't forget others in your prayer life.
 
To have effective prayer sometimes it helps to pray with a trusted fellow believer, cos when two or three gather in his midst Jesus is there. When you both agree on a prayer I guess that signals to God louder I suppose, or the prayers get to him quicker.
Jesus asked his friends to pray with him, also, to fast and pray...is more effective as God sees you give up time and food just to be with Him...
You dont have to be ritualistic about it, the ritual is mostly for us to have a regular prayer time and sometimes we dont know what to say, so even praying the Lords prayer is good.
 
Are you saying that I must memorize some certain formula for praying and that it is less effective I just talk to him which I swear I do about 100 times a day. Basically whenever something good happens I thank him or I just pray because I feel like talking to him.

Is that the wrong way to go about it, is it supposed to be more ritualistic or something?
Not sure why you felt this way ? However ritual type prayers become out of habbit and become less efective and again what did I say that made you see it this way ? I am asking because if you saw it this way then other s might and I had no thought in that direction.
Thank yo for showing me ! ;)
Blessings
 
It seems that I pray too much for help and that I have nothing to offer back sometimes and I don't know if I am doing something wrong. Yea my life is kind of screwed up but I know he has helped me and helped me a lot so should I simply stop asking for help from God and use the prayers you two mentioned above to help others instead?
I kind of feel that I am being too needy of God and its bothering me a little bit, kind of like I should grow up and do something on my own although when I do that my life ends up spiraling into an abyss.
Hello Spookycolt.
I can relate to your post. It was difficult for me at first too. I had little truth in me and therefore little amount of coping with this world. I was very needy (for the truth) though I may not have wanted it, but I sure did need it.
The more truth I valued the more I could cope with this world.
Over time the amount of intense/fearful needs became less frequent. This gave me more space in my heart to praise God for Loving me.
Today, most of my prayers is about seeking God's will for me and the power to carry it out.
The way I do this is get in touch with the Love that loves me, then I love that Love in return.
This often reveals to me what it is I need to do to be of service to God and to my God given spirit.
Then I praise to Lord again. Most of my day I am in love with God.
Adoration (loving God) leads to devotion (doing God's will - not mine), devotion leads to oneness (life of God consciousness).
 
It seems I hear that God has a plan for everything so does he alter that plan if we pray or am I looking at it the wrong way? I can understand praying for guidance, which I do quite frequently but I am a bit confused about the purpose of praying for say, someone that is dying or something along those lines.

Can we change God's mind if we pray enough or should we simply not pray for anything material like a better job or things like that.

Thanks!
Think of prayer as a conversation between 3 year old child and his/her father.. Lord has used my relationship with my daughter to open my eyes to so many spiritual things :D

The child would ask father so many things.. Some things unreasonable.. For example, my daughter wanted to play swing today. I said may be sometime in summer I will get her a swing at home itself. She does not know when summer would be. She wanted it today! Then she started whining and crying. Does it change anything? What I do? I try to explain her and make her more knowledgeable on times and what she would have and when should have them. Prayer is just like that. Often we have unreasonable petitions. Lord patiently makes us understand His plans for us through our prayers. So in short, prayers are not to change God's mind.. Prayers change us!!
 
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