PRAY TO GOD
CHAT with God.
The main way that Christians communicate with God is through prayer. An excellent comprehensive and practical book on prayer was written by James L. Nicodem, Prayer Coach: For All Who Want to Get Off the Bench and on to the Praying Field (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008). Prayer is communicating or talking to God. A helpful prayer acronym, which is an outline for talking to God, is CHAT: Confess, Honor, Ask, and Thank. Confess your sin. Honor God by focusing on one of God’s attributes. Ask God to meet your needs. Thank God in every situation whether you feel he met your needs or not. Nicodem, Prayer Coach, 13.
Confess.
It is important to start your prayer by confessing your sin to God because your unconfessed sins cuts off your communication with God until you sincerely repent and confess your sins to God (Psalms 66:18; Isaiah 59:1-2; Matthew 6:12; Mark 11:25; 1 John 1:9). The best biblical model of confessing sin to God is Psalm 51, when King David prayed to confess his sin of having an affair with Bathseba. Nicodem, Prayer Coach (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 99-117. See the “Confess to God” subpage of the “How to have an eternal relationship with God?’ page of this website for a more detailed discussion of confession. In summary, David identified, confessed, and repented of his sin. Then he asked God for mercy and forgiveness for his specific sin. The best way to identify and confess your sins is to periodically (once or twice a week) review your life, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to identify sins. Sin is both doing things humans should not do and failing to do things humans should do. Sin includes any thought, word, deed, or state of being that fails to meet or “misses the mark” of God’s standard of holiness and perfection (Romans 7:13-25). If you admit your sin and repent, God will forgive your sin because God is faithful to his promises (Jeremiah 31:34; 1 John 1:9; Hebrews 10:23) and is just for doing so because Jesus Christ fully paid the spiritual death penalty for your sin by sacrificing his life upon the cross (Romans 3:21-26). The apostle John confirmed God’s promise to forgive your sin and cleanse you from your sin, “If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NIV). When God purifies you, he removes your sin’s stain, which is the residual sense that even though God forgave your sin, you may feel that you are still unworthy or hopeless or unusable or a huge disappointment to God.
Honor.
After you confess and repent of your sins, you should continue your prayer by praising, exalting, and honoring God through recognizing an attribute of God. Psalm 100 is a good example of honoring God in prayer. The psalmist starts his psalm with joyfully addressing God (Psalm 100:1-2). You may need to fast or eliminate distractions so you can give undivided attention to God through prayer. When you address God, you should show fear or a healthy respect or humility for God and you should exalt and praise an attribute of God (Psalm 100:4). You can find a list of about 250 attributes of God on the “What does Jesus have to do with God?” page and “Attributes of God” subpage of this website. The psalmist exalted and praised God’s goodness, love, and faithfulness (Psalm 100:5). Nicodem, Prayer Coach, 118-132.
Ask.
Ask God to grant your prayer request. Jesus addressed the key to getting God to grant your prayer request when he told the disciples, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you“ (John 15:7 NIV). First, to remain in Jesus, you must prioritize your relationship with God by communicating with Jesus through the course of the day. Second, for Jesus’ words to remain in you, you must faithfully read, study, meditate, apply, and obey the Bible. This way, your thoughts and prayer requests will align with God’s will for you and God will grant your prayer requests. Sometimes God may deny your prayer request by responding no, slow, or grow. God says “no” to you when your request is not within the will of God. God says “slow” when your request’s timing is wrong and God wants you to wait for God’s answer, trust him, and be patient. God says “grow” when your character and maturity need to grow before God will grant your prayer request. Nicodem, Prayer Coach, 133-144. You may want to start a prayer journal in which you record your prayer requests and God’s responses to your prayers. When you periodically check your prayer journal and see how God has answered your prayers in the past, you will gain confidence that God will answer your prayers in the future.
Thank.
Thank God in advance. The apostle Paul taught to always pray “with thanksgiving” even when you go through trials in life (Philippians 4:6-7). God promises that when you pray with thanksgiving, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 NIV). For God to guard your heart and mind, you must first, “Do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:6 NIV). You should recognize and admit that some of your fears are blown out of proportion to reality. For your legitimate fears and worries, God instructs you to replace your fears and worries with a thankful prayer, “but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6 NIV). So when you pray with your focus on God and thank God in advance for answering your prayer within God’s will and purpose for your life, you will have peace because you know God is in control. In addition, thank God for other blessings in your life and for your eternal relationship with God to put your fears and worries in proper perspective. Nicodem, Prayer Coach (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 145-157.