Conversational Prayer
Prayer
is a heart’s cry to God. It should involve our entire
being, including the mind. Among the various strategies that are used to
increase the effectiveness in prayer is “conversational prayer.” To increase
our clarity of the concept, it might be instructive to make a distinction
between prayer as conversation with the Heavenly Father and
Conversational Prayer. Both are addressed to the Father and the principles
of good conversation apply equally to both. The former is a dialogue. The
latter is more a forum or a meeting with others where they participate as we
speak with our Heavenly Father. We should further differentiate the above from
Confrontational Prayer, which is directed towards the enemy (2Cor 10:3-6;
Eph 6:10-20). There is no reason why this type of prayer cannot also be a facet
of Conversational Prayer. The Scriptures also bears witness to one additional
aspect of prayer and that is “Confessional Prayer”. This too should be
included in our conversational prayers (Neh 9; Dan 9).
CONVERSATIONAL PRAYER
can produce an increased awareness of God's presence and intimacy with Him. It
also expresses unity with others with whom we are praying. It makes “agreeing
with” them easier. Have you ever prayed with someone and as they began to wax
eloquent you started drifting away? Conversational prayer, done correctly, will
help you to stay in tune.
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It is an effective method of praying in
small group as prayer teams.
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It may properly be called “tag-team praying”
or “topical praying.”
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It keeps everyone involved and focused
without any overt demonstration of prayer-showmanship or monopoly of the
occasion.
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It encourages us to be sensitive to others
in the group, who may not be experienced prayer warriors.
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It may also a very useful forum and format
for instructing and training others to pray. The following guidelines will prove
to be helpful:
BASIC GUIDELINES:
- Stick to one topic
at a time
- Everyone is free to
participate as they are lead
- Remember to focus on
and respond in three areas:
- Vertical
- God: Praise,
Adoration, Thanksgiving, Listening and Waiting.
- Internal
- Ourselves: Confession, Petition.
- Horizontal
- Others: Intercession.
HINTS:
1. Use short focused prayers (30 seconds to 2 minutes is usually
long enough)
2. Avoid monopolizing the prayer time with long-winded
multiple-request intercession. Every area will be covered in its own sequence.
3. Pray over one topic, subject, situation, person,
etc., at a time - Keep the focus on one thing or area at a time.
4. Pray over those requests for which the Lord burdens
you.
5. Pray together over an item until you feel a release
in your spirits.
6. Anyone may initiate the move to the next area of
focus as prompted by the Holy Spirit
7. Be involved and in agreement with others as they
pray. Agreement may be silent or audible. Participate by responding with,
"Amen" "Yes, Lord", "Make it so", “Do it Lord”, or similar expressions.
8.
Vary your posture: standing, sitting, kneeling,
face to the ground, walking, bowing, lifting heads towards heaven, lifting
hands, etc.
9.
Vary your activities: singing, praising, reading,
etc.
10.
Feel free to pray more than once for the matter at
hand, as the Spirit leads. But don’t monopolize. A helpful guide is to allow at
least one other person to pray before you pray again.
11.
Don’t be afraid of silence. Wait! Listen! Prayer
is not a one-way conversation. An open Bible makes listening easy and it is an
excellent tool to facilitate listening and waiting. Meditation is profitable.
Remember: Christian Meditation is not emptying the mind, as much as it is
filling it with God’s thoughts.
12.
No one is forced or pressured into praying. By all
means, encourage others to participate.
13.
Conversational praying is one of the best ways to
ease others into the habit of praying. We learn to pray by praying. Prayer
should not be a “swimming in the living room exercise.” It should be “immersion
in the pool.” Encourage others to fill in the blanks, such as:
“Lord, I
thank you for _________________. “
“Lord, you
are _____________________. “
“Lord,
please help me (us) to _______________.”
Remember:
Prayer to our Heavenly Father, at its
best, must be a conversation. Any “holy tones”, stilted language or special
vocabulary, etc., only reflect a lack of intimacy and maturity in this blessed
and powerful relationship. Prayer conversation is a little different from
conversational prayer. Prayer conversation refers to those personal chats
with the Father. Conversational Prayer refers to a technique that is
used when we approach the throne of grace with others.
Conversation is talking “with” not
just “to”. Our prayers are neither to inform nor impress God. The
prayers that are inclined towards informing and impressing are ineffective.
Remember: Lu 18:9-14.
We may monopolize the occasion or the
event by the length of our petitions, our frequency, or by our language. Avoid
long flowery, flowing multiple requests. The condition of the heart is far more
important that the eloquence of our speech.
A helpful question is: Is our prayer, a
conversation or a lecture to the Lord of Heaven? In conversational prayer, just
as in other prayers, intimacy, humility, sincerity, fervency and persistency are
vital.
How we need to pray:
Lord, teach us
to pray! (Lu 11:1)
