Meyer - The power of simple prayer: how to talk with God about everything

2007 by Joyce Meyer

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First eBook Edition: April 2007

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I f someone asked me, Joyce, if you could make only one comment about prayer, what would it be? I would have to respond by talking about its simplicity. I have been praying for many, many years and I can say a great deal about prayer, but if I could only emphasize one thing, I would tell people that it is so much easier than we think.

As God began to teach me to pray, I was surprised to learn that He has not made prayer complicated, but that it really is simple. Sometimes people make prayer dry and difficult; sometimes our religious mind-sets and systems present prayer in such a way that it seems out of reach for many of us. I tell you the truth when I say that God desires our prayer lives to be natural and enjoyable. He wants our prayers to be honest and heartfelt, and He wants our communication with Him unencumbered by rules, regulations, legalism, and obligation. He intends for prayer to be an integral part of our everyday livesthe easiest thing we do each day.

I suspect many people pray much more than they know and that they have more effective and successful prayer lives than they realize. They do not always recognize when they are praying because they have been taught that prayer requires a certain environment, a certain posture, a certain form, or that it must strictly adhere to certain principles. Prayer is simply talking to God. The truth is that we can pray anytime, anywhereeven just directing a thought toward God qualifies as silent prayer.

Whether you have been praying for years, are just learning to pray, have hit a slump in your spiritual life, or simply want your prayer life to improve, know this: God wants you to learn to pray more effectively and He wants your prayer life to be more fulfilling. Because you have opened this book, I am sure that something inside you wants to increase your intimacy with God through prayer. I believe you know that prayer is powerful, and that you long to see its tremendous power released in your life, the lives of those you love, and the situations that concern you.

Short, simple prayers can be mighty beyond description, but that does not take away from the fact that prayer is also a grand mystery. Watchman Nee, a Chinese Christian who wrote many profound books while imprisoned for his faith, writes, Prayer is the most wonderful act in the spiritual realm, as well as a most mysterious affair. I believe the greatest mystery of prayer is that it joins the hearts of people on earth with the heart of God in heaven. Prayer is spiritual and it goes into the unseen realm; it brings things out of that unseen realm into the realm we can see and into the world around us, right where we live. It ushers spiritual blessings into our natural, everyday lives and brings spiritual power to bear on our earthly circumstances. We human beings are the only creatures in our known universe who can stand in the natural realm and touch the spiritual realm. When we pray, we connect with that spiritual realm, which is where God is, and which affects our daily lives more than we often realize.

The fact that we want to prayand that we believe that our prayer lives can be betteris evidence that we know the spiritual realm exists and that we believe what happens there affects what happens on earth. It proves that we know deep in our hearts that there is more to life than meets the eye and we value the things that are invisible more than the things we can see, just as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:18: We consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting. When we understand that there are invisible, everlasting spiritual realities that affect our earthly lives, we long to comprehend those things. We begin to perceive that God is inviting us to interact with Him, to perceive things spiritually and to partner with Him to accomplish them on earthand that only happens through prayer.

I like to say that prayer opens the door for God to work. As we partner with God in the spiritual realm through prayer, we bring things out of that realm into our lives, into our world, into our society, and into the lives of other people. These things that come from heaven, these gifts of God, are already stored up for us, but we will never have them unless we pray and ask God for them. He has put together so much for us in the unseen realm; He is doing such wonderful things for us, things we cannot see with our natural eyes or perceive with our natural mindsand we receive and enjoy those things through the power and the privilege of prayer. The Bible says that eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed] (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Prayer is part of an obedient lifestyle. The Bible says that we do not have certain things because we do not ask God for them (see James 4:2), and part of the great mystery of prayer is that He requires us to ask for what He already has in store for us. Godwho is sovereign and can do anything He wants to do, anywhere, anytime, any way He wants to do it, and does not need anyones permissionwants us to ask Him. He has set in motion a spiritual law, which He Himself abides by, that says He will not do anything on earth unless someone prays and asks.

God has always said to His people and is still saying to us: You and I are partners. You are My body in the earth today. What does that mean? We are His body; we call ourselves the body of Christ. Jesus Christ does not have an earthly body anymore. We are the representation of Who He is and what He does on earth. We are His mouth, His hands, His feet, His face. We are the ones who express His heart, demonstrate His love, and reveal His power to those around us. And so, we need to pray. We need to access the wisdom and the resources of heaven for ourselves and for others. We need to partner with God so that His purposes will come to pass in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

I believe you will find within these pages some extremely helpful encouragement for your prayer life. Everything in this book is related to prayer; not everything is necessarily specifically about prayer, but it pertains to developing and maintaining an easy, fulfilling, effective, never-ceasing lifestyle of communion with God.

I encourage you to begin this book by asking God to teach you to pray more effectively, and I pray that He will use these pages to help answer that request. As you go along, you will find out how to pray as an individual before God, free to express yourself to Him in ways that are natural and that suit the unique person He has called and created you to be. You will realize that prayer is not only an enormous privilege, but that it is indeed much simpler than many people think. You will discover how to uncomplicate your prayer life and understand how to be set free from any preconceived notions that prayer has to subscribe to any rules or that it must sound a certain way. In addition, I hope simple prayer will become so much a part of your daily life that you will be liberated from ever again feeling that praying is something you