Chapter 12. How to Pray

I'm talking about recognizing the value of prayer and allowing it to be an excellent replacement for the time that used to be devoted to TV. Initially, sitting with your eyes closed in a room, by yourself, may seem a bit silly and unproductive. Do not listen to Satan's voice, as he attempts to discourage you from the one thing he detests more than anything else: Allegiance to and submission to God.

Prayer is talking to a friend, Christ, who is real and knows far more than us about our lives and our deepest concerns. The Holy Spirit dwells within the Christian, and He points unwaveringly toward Jesus Christ and the saving power of the cross. We must strive for meekness and contrition, for as long as we are self-sufficient, God may need to allow us to hit bottom, so that we might reach for Him and allow Him to help us.

Prayer is a release to God of all of our burdens. It's getting to a place where we know we can no longer handle things on our own. We recognize that we have been hopelessly addicted to control—controlling our lives, controlling others' lives, controlling our day to day activities, controlling our future and controlling the remote. We realize we need to let go of our controlling nature and be submissive to God.

Prayer ought to be strived for, with all of our hearts especially when the enemy distracts us with other things that we think we have to do in place of prayer. Prayer ought to be attempted (even if we don't know the first thing about it), and persevered through, especially if you begin to feel bored and feel like you are wasting your time. Strive for effective prayer as if your life depended on it. The world has drummed its song into your heart and head, telling you over and over again how insane it is to REALLY believe in God. It is now time to let God prove His reality to you and allow Him to be Lord and Savior over your life. Believe on Him and He will manifest His presence, strength and power to you.

Prayer should not be tried for a few minutes and dropped because we feel it is ridiculous to assume that God cares for us, individually. Many crates of debris have been left in front of the door to your heart that Jesus has been knocking on all these many years. Reach for Him persistently and allow the Holy Spirit to remove the crates and dissipate the debris, so that the door, your soul, which Jesus knocks on, slowly opens bringing with it a shaft of light so bright, you will never perceive the world the same way again.

Do not allow your thoughts to control your prayer time. As each distracting thought comes in, gently bring your mind back to God, back to the truth. Some days you will feel tremendous success and a washing of the Holy Spirit all through you. Other days you will deem as unsuccessful, having had to fight off an amazing amount of distractive elements. God would very likely say that your successful day was the one in which so much had to be battled—and you maintained your ground for Him, never once giving up and reaching for the TV remote, instead.

Find the truth, in God's Word, the Bible, and dwell on the truth (which you really hunger for). Write the strong statements of faith out on index cards so that you can refer to them when you are filled with distractive worldly thoughts.

How long should you pray daily? As I said earlier, that will vary with each individual. If ten minutes seems to be too much, try five. Eventually, I would challenge you, to pray an hour a day. Considering that the average time people spend in front of TV is around three hours a day, one hour of prayer a day is not asking too much.

Remember, you may not have what you deem as successful prayers at first. The Holy Spirit will be removing debris piled up in front of the door of your heart and it may take some time for Christ to penetrate your darkness. Be diligent and persistent. Do not give up. Find the truth in God's word and KNOW it, so that you will be set free.

Television needs to be looked at—in the light of God's Word. The development of it was never for a holy purpose. It cannot have suddenly taken on a holy purpose now. I hope that we can look objectively at this device every one of us has invited into our homes—and allow God's Holy Spirit to convict us and help us choose a different means to obtain our entertainment and information. I hope that all of us choose to spend time in prayer, allowing Christ to open the door to wisdom found only through Him, as we shun Satan's many glittering worldly attractions (not limited to TV), for Christ's glory.

And now, to wind this book up, here is the Lord's Prayer, as found in Luke:

Luk 11:1 THEN HE was praying in a certain place; and when He stopped, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, [just] as John taught his disciples.
Luk 11:2 And He said to them, When you pray, say: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come. Your will be done [held holy and revered] on earth as it is in heaven.
Luk 11:3 Give us daily our bread [food for the morrow].
Luk 11:4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us [who has offended us or done us wrong]. And bring us not into temptation but rescue us from evil.
Luk 11:5 And He said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and will say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves [of bread],
Luk 11:6 For a friend of mine who is on a journey has just come, and I have nothing to put before him;
Luk 11:7 And he from within will answer, Do not disturb me; the door is now closed, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and supply you [with anything]?
Luk 11:8 I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Luk 11:9 So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you.
Luk 11:10 For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.
Luk 11:11 What father among you, if his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone; or if he asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?
Luk 11:12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
Luk 11:13 If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts [gifts that are to their advantage] to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him! (AMP)