The principles of prayer

Introduction

By principles we mean ingredients. As a very keen angler, I make my own fishing baits (boilies) and have specific weights and ingredients that make up the recipe – so much semolina, so much egg food, half a dozen eggs and so on.

That recipe has caught me some big fish. It’s a recipe I have perfected over many years (and is a closely guarded secret!) and I have total confidence in it. I don’t play around with the ingredients because they work.

Prayer is the same. It has certain constituent elements that when added together ensure that what is produced is effective. Start missing out ingredients and the end result will be affected.

The principles of prayer

a) Thanksgiving. It is good to include giving thanks in our prayers. Whether it is initial salvation or ongoing blessings, the Christian has so much to be thankful for. ‘Enter his gates with thanksgiving’ Psalm 100:4

b) Praise. Whilst it is good to thank God for what he has done for us, it is also important to praise him for who he is. ‘Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise’ Psalm 100:4

c) Petition. Whilst we should avoid ‘shopping list’ prayer – and thanksgiving and praise helps us to keep focused – nevertheless God delights in that we bring our own needs and situations before him. By asking for his intervention we are acknowledging the authority of God in our lives and stating that we have limits in our own natural ability. ‘Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray’ James 5:13

Of course, this list is not exhaustive as such. We could add repentance, humility and so on, although those are attitudes of mind that the believer should be living in constantly anyway. But they are there as basic ingredients on which we can build our prayer lives.

Stewart Bloor

www.sicm.org