Stand Firm: Praying in the Spirit

One of the best ways to learn to pray is to simply pray.  But, the quality of our prayers matters. In other words, how we pray matters as much, if not more, than the act of prayer itself.  When we pray, are our prayers an act of worship that helps to remind us of our place in God’s story?  Do my prayers remind me that God is the main actor who has rescued me and called me to live in Christ?  Or, do I treat God more as a vending-machine God to fulfill my requests and desires?

A question one might consider is not ‘What do I pray for today?’ but rather ‘How do my prayers unite me with Christ?’  When we treat prayers as a thing I do (or must do) so that I can check-off my list of spiritual to-dos, there are limitations in how one can grow as a person of prayer. 

A person of prayer inhabits God’s story. A person of prayer welcomes God’s inbreaking reign into every aspect of his/her life so that this person of prayer prays “in the Spirit on all occasion with all kinds of prayers and requests” (6:18).  How are we empowered to become a people of prayer? Does the reality that God has accomplished all things in Christ shape and inform what our prayers look like and sound like?

Come Sunday and let’s learn how to pray in the Spirit.

~ Brian Ryu