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The one thing that you should know from the start, is that the devil hates you to be in contact with God. Be prepared for the devil to try and sabotage your prayer life. He will put thoughts in your mind that are awful, and do it so cunningly, that you will think they are your own thoughts. Or he will make your thoughts wander, so that you cannot concentrate on what you want to tell God. So, before you start, tell God that this is your time with Him, and only Him, and ask Him to keep the devil out. Ask Him to be your fortress all around you, so that you are totally secure with Him, and the devil is outside.
Secondly, your time of prayer and Bible study must happen at the same time every day. You are trying to form a good habit, and habits only form when they happen at the same time, at the same place, day by day. My suggestion is that you get up earlier, make a decision to make your relationship with God the number one priority in your life, set your alarm, and get up when it rings. When becoming a Christian, the number one focus of your lives should be God. You must get to know and understand God, even more, you must have a close personal relationship with Him. The best thing that you can do, is to bring yourself into the closest possible position to God, and let Him do the rest. Have a look at some of the Scripture passages below.
1 John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Philippians 2 12 … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
God loves 100%, no matter whether we love Him or hate Him. We cannot make Him love us less if we are utterly sinful and reject Him, and we cannot make Him love us more, if we are His closest friends. And how do we measure God’s love for us? Look at John 17:23 below, where Jesus tells His Father that He (the Father) loves us (you and me), as much as He loves Jesus. Let that sink in. You are loved by the Father as much as He loves Jesus! And of course, that goes the same for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. None of us deserves to be saved, for we are all sinners. But Jesus took our sins, died our death, and gives us salvation and eternal life, just because He loves us. That is grace!
John 17:23 (NLT) “ I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”
So how then should you pray? Prayer, it is said, is opening the heart as to a friend. In other words, put a pillow on the ground, get on your knees, and be prepared to be there a long time. Tell God everything, your hopes, sins, dreams, disasters, fears, everything you can think of. The funny thing is, God already knows everything about you, but you still have to do it, because it changes your heart when you spill it all to God. And why should you be scared, if whatever you have done, does not make Him love you less? The more time you spend praying to God, the more you will find that you become concerned for the salvation of your family, friends, and eventually, your enemies! So, you become an intercessor, someone who prays for God to spend extra special time with those people, drawing them closer to Him with His love. And as you see those change who you pray for, it will strengthen your faith, and improve your relationship with your heavenly Father and Friend. When you pray for someone to be saved, you know that you are 100% in God’s will, because His greatest concern for each of us is our salvation.
But the greatest and best part of prayer is praise and thanks. Praise Him for the plan of salvation, for the cross, for His willingness to takey our sins and exchange it for His righteousness, for His resurrection which guarantees your eventual resurrection to eternal life. There is so much to praise God for, and you haven’t even started thanking Him! Every day there will be times when God steps in to help you, saves you from harm, gives you the words to say, stops you from saying hurtful words, answers your prayers, and much more. Thank Him for those things, so that you not only ask, but also thank.
So, you have spoken to God, and now you have to give Him the opportunity to speak to you. And how does He do that, you ask. God speaks mostly to us through His love letter to us, His Word, the Bible. That is why it is absolutely essential that we spend time every day reading and studying it. And before you open it, wyou must ask that God reveal Himself to you through His Word, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To read the Bible without inviting God to lead you, is fatal, which is why we have thousands of different denomina-tions, each claiming to have the truth. Jesus said that He is the truth (John 14:6), and that the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth (John 14:17), so only with the help of the Holy Spirit will we truly come to understand and know God, and what He tells us in His Word. When you find a verse or passage that particularly speaks to you, it helps if you could memorize it, because without a doubt, the time will come when you will be glad to have it handy, when the devil tempts or terrorizes you.
Once the relationship is established, God will show you what He wants you to do, where He wants you to go, what He wants you to concentrate on. When you look back, you will see that He has been changing you, cleaning up the messes in your life, giving you forgiveness for those who have done you wrong, and making you hate the sin that you fall into. And you will become more aware that God is with you, waiting for some communication from you, leading you in the path that He has walked before. The path will not always be easy, but with Him at your side, you have nothing to fear. Don’t be in a rush, the work that God wants to do in your life, takes time. God bless as you work on your communication with Him, and allow Him to transform you into the person He wants you to be!
