Prayer

Our church is doing a class for new believer's called, "Christian Concepts." Actually many of us are going through it even though we aren't all "new" Christians. It is packed full of really great information.
On Wednesday night the lesson was on prayer. It was basically just a lesson to get you started on praying. I think it is great for everyone to hear so I am going to share it with you.
The first point is that it is good to set aside a certain time each day when you will not be interrupted. Set aside at least 15 minutes at first. Once you get in the habit of this your prayer time is very likely to grow.
There are five basic points for a good prayer time. You can do this on one hand, remembering each thing with one of your fingers if you want.

#1. Worship - Worship can be so many things but basically it is taking time to tell God how great and awesome He is. You can use some of His many names while worshiping Him.
For example, "Father, I worship you, I bless your Holy Name. Thank you for being my comforter, my healer, my Redeemer, etc." You can sing to Him or just tell Him in your own words how much He means to you.
#2. Actually, I almost always do this step first. It's repentance. Repentance actually means "turning away from". During this step you ask God to forgive you of all your sins. If any particular ones come to mind ask for forgiveness for those. Then ask God to help you to stop doing this particular sin and make up your mind to do your best to turn from it. By the way, it is nearly impossible to stop committing a particular sin without the help of God! So ask for help.
#3. Pray for your leaders. This means your president, governors, congressmen, judges, leaders in the schools, etc. It also means your pastor.
#4. Pray for your friends and family.
#5. Pray for yourself.

Then take the time to read at least one chapter of your Bible. Hopefully as you grow in this you will be spending more and more time in prayer and more time in the Word of God.
Some other thoughts on prayer are:
1. Pray the Word of God back to Him. As you learn His promises repeat them back to Him in prayer! The Bible says that God's Word does not return void. When it is spoken out, power goes forth. These are some of the most powerful prayers!
2. It is good and important to set aside a special time to pray each day but don't limit your prayers to this time period. Have a mind set of prayer all day. Constantly thanking Him, asking Him for help, worshipping Him, or praying for a need that you see before you.
3. It is good to keep a notebook with you during prayer time to jot down those things that you remember you have to get done that day. That way you can write it down and get back to focusing on God.
Satan will try to get you distracted in any way he can!
Ok, go for it!