Praying Correctly.

Mat_6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Thy kingdom come.

We pray, and when we pray we have to pray correctly.  I know a lot of you right now are furrowing your brows, maybe nursing a little bit of confusion and a touch of ire.  Pray correctly? Isn't any prayer acceptable? Who am I to say we have to pray correctly?

If it didn't matter how we prayed- why would the disciples ask Jesus about prayer?

Luk 11:1  And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Have you been taught to pray?

My mother had me praying as a child every night and before dinner. My mother taught me how to pray and she did that to the best of her ability. I was taken to church as a child all the way up until I was about fourteen years old. During that time I'm sure I was taught more about prayer, in fact we were asked to memorize the Lord's Prayer as so many are taught. So clearly I was taught to pray what more is there to praying?

Somewhere along the line, don't ask me how because I don't know, prayer started to turn into a list of requests, of things I thought I needed or others needed- some legitimate, others probably not. Sure there was the perfunctory thank you and praising, but prayer became something to do when in need. NOT that we shouldn't pray when in need-

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

We need to make our requests known to God, but prayer isn't solely about our requests especially if we ask 'amiss'.

Jas_4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

When we pray we can ask amiss.  This is something we can't ignore.  Do we know when we ask amiss? Do we recognize when our sincere desires become lusts? Do we assume that we never have lusts because we think of lust as being something completely sexual and not other things as well?

We need to study this more, we really do. May our Holy heavenly Father bless us as we seek His kingdom to come, and His will to be done always, all through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever!