Volume 27 | Number 1 | January 1999

Inglés Español

Instructing a Way to Pray


By Dr. O. Talmadge Spence

My Personal Prayer Manner in My Ministry in Life

1. KNEEL: Take your own habitual attitude of prayer (posture, kneel, sit, bow, stand, etc.)
a
. Turn away from all duties, play, work, and activity.
b
. Approach to prayer is the preliminary to prayer.
c
. Jonah 2:4 "yet I will look again toward thy holy temple" (in the whale's belly).
d. Isa. 45:23 & Rom. 14:11 "…every knee shall bow…" ( a difference between bowing the knee and kneeling on the knees: bowing the knee figures a man walking along and turning to an altar and dropping one knee in the initial act and posture of prayer.)
e.
Psalms 95:6 "Come…let us kneel before the Lord our maker." (approach to prayer.)
f. Dan. 6:10 "…he kneeled upon his knees." (after the first knee did bow, then both knees are now pictured postured together. (Still the approach in prayer, NOT prayer itself.)

2. CLOSET: Close all the doors of activities: several moments should pass silently.
a. Matt. 6:6 "…enter into the closet, …shut thy door, …in secret, …" APPROACH!
b. Hab. 2:20 "The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." APPROACH!

3. APPROACH THE LORD GOD: Set the Lord before you. Psalms 141:2 "Let my prayer be set before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."

4. THINK: Think about it first; what are the matters which matter today: Think about it FIRST—the agenda of your prayer. (Approach)
a. Mk. 14:72 Peter: "when he thought thereon, he wept."
b
. Phil. 4:8 "Finally brethren, whatsoever things are pure…think on these."

5. SPEAK: (Thus, the prayer actually begins.) Whether coldly or dutifully; but reverently. "About the matters" (The Agenda of prayer begins: acknowledgments of God; events; intercessions; petitions; etc.) THIS IS THE BODY AND CONTENT OF PRAYER.

6. ACCEPT: That God has heard, has accepted, and responded to your prayer. Eph. 3:20 "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us…"

7. WITHDRAW: A reverent close and withdrawal from the interview-prayer; a moment of silence; arising or unclasping of hands; etc., or whatever was the habitual attitude of the prayer. Calmly leave; expectantly. Psalms 19:14 "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer." (appropriate verse)

Daniel 6:10 - Note similarity of his prayer.
1
. He went unto his house;
2. his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem
3. he kneeled upon his knees
4. three times a day,
5. and prayed,
6. and gave thanks before his God,
7
as he did aforetime.