How To Pray - Listen And Watch Others

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The last way we will look at, in this series where we are learning how to pray, is by listening and watching others.

At home, listen to how your parents pray. Notice their choice of words, what they use to pray, where and how they pray, whether they hold hands, do they pray in the Holy Ghost? Do they shout or mutter to themselves? When do they raise their voices? What do they do then? Do they say a prayer at night? How often? What time at night? Do they say a prayer in the morning? How often? What time in the morning? This is a way of learning how to pray.

This list is just a way for you to see how prayer is done. What you notice might not be how you would want to do yours, but it would certainly help you to learn the art of prayer.

At church, watch how people pray. Sure, you will see tons of differences there. Again, you are not meant to follow everything you see. The Holy Spirit can give you your own way. He will supply you with the words to use. That is how unique you are to God. Yes, you are unique to God and He will teach you how to pray too.

Watching and listening to fellow Christians praying is meant to point out to you where you need to improve, how to improve, what to stop doing, and what to continue. You learn, unlearn and relearn.

The bible says we should not abandon the gathering of brethren. I believe this is to help us grow spiritually. Part of spiritual growth in Christianity is learning how to pray. When in the presence of other brethren regularly, we grow our prayer muscles.

Iron sharpens iron as the bible says, so, if you want to learn how to pray, one sure way to do that is to watch and listen to other believers when they say a prayer. Be a sponge and soak what you see. Also, as a sponge get ready to be squeezed – flushing out wrong perceptions about prayer, building your prayer muscles for more spiritual growth, and learning new ways and things about prayer.

May God bless you with the grace to learn how to pray. Amen.

Prayer:
Dear Father, thank You for the wonderful believers you have surrounded me with. I ask that you enable me to glean from their prayer life. Let the Holy Spirit lead me on which to use, let go of, and continue using, in Jesus name, amen.

Action point:
Learn how to pray by taking a good look at your parents when next they pray. Note how they do so – time, words, gestures, voice intonation, et cetera. Look at three believers you know, either at church or elsewhere, notice how they say their prayer too. What do you like about how all these people pray? What does the Holy Spirit say about them to you?

Read yesterday’s article here

Sylvester Obinna