What is the best cure for complaining, anxiety, or depression? This week Leslie Ludy shares a little known secret to boosting your spiritual health and improve your outlook on the future through building a powerful prayer life. This immensely practical episode is full of encouragement and inspiration for how to build a prayer life that works.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
When we are dealign with problems or uncertainty, it is easy to default to complaining, depression, anxiety, or manipulating the circumstances we are trying to avoid. But this pattern is just like what the old hymn says, “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”
This week I want to share a powerful secret to not just to brighten a bleak outlook but powerfully impact your circumstances and surroundings. The secret lies in building a powerful prayer life. Let’s look at three key ways to ignite your spiritual fire in tapping into true wrestling prayer.
Three Keys to Building a Powerful Prayer Life
- Pray With All Your Might (i.e. wrestling prayer)
Jesus invites us us to be persistent in our prayers throughout His earthly ministry and all throughout Scripture we see recorded instances where God’s people wrestled with the promises God had given them. One such example is in Genesis 32, where Jacob actually wrestles with God until the break of day. Have a predetermined yes to not let go of God’s promises until you see breakthrough and blessing come.
Remember that learning to love prayer may be a process as it takes time and discipline, but your emotions will line up with your actions and you will begin to crave the presence of God.
Important Questions About Prayer?
- When we do we stop wrestling?
Sometimes the answer will come in an obvious way but there are other times where God has a bigger answer that is still coming. Stand in faith and continue to pray until we have an assurance of breakthrough or see God’s resolution come shining through.
- What if I don’t know how to pray for a specific need?
If you’re burdened but not certain if it’s what God is asking you to pray for, my encouragement to you would be to pray specifically but with an attitude of surrender. Lay your request before God and ask for His maximum glory to be revealed in and through the situation.
2. Pray Without Distraction
Do whatever you need to in order to create a conducive prayer environment. Here are a few ideas:
- Choose a time when you won’t be interrupted
- Turn off devices, notifications, and other sources of distraction
- Find the best place to be in God’s presence
- If sitting still doesn’t work, try walking
- Praying aloud can help you retain focus
- Journal your prayers
- Put soft worship music on in the background.
3. Pray Scripture
The only way Tok now if you are praying in accordance with God’s will is to know His Word and stand upon what He has said. His Word clearly supports prayers like: praying for lost souls, praying for strength, provision ,and health for the calling He has placed on our lives, praying for protection from the enemy’s attack, or for Christlike character to develop within us.
The key is that in order to pray Scripture we must know Scripture. Memorize key verses, seek to be in God’s Word every day, listen to audio Scripture, and ask God’s Spirit to highlight specific verses about how to pray for your burdens.
Closing Thoughts
You don’t have to have it all together all at once. We grow up into prayer. Seek to take the first steps forward in developing a posture of prayer and God will meet you there.
Action Step: Take one burden and pray specifically for it every day until breakthrough comes.
Helpful Scriptures from this Episode:
James 5:13
Matthew 15:21–28
Luke 11:5–13
2 Chronicles 16:9
Psalm 16:11
1 John 5:14–15
Mark 10:15
Romans 8:26
Resources
To develop a more vibrant prayer life, join us for a five weeks of powerful online discipleship. Ellerslie Online is open for registration now and for a donation of any amount you can ignite your spiritual fire. Register here.
