Daily Devotional

ASCENDING TO THE HIGHER LEVELS OF PRAYER

April 4

hild of God, when you open your heart to pray it is a very good thing. Prayer is a real gift to you by your Father to set you on track to discover the desires of His heart for you and your loved ones. When you pray, you give honor to God just with the words of your prayer. They are words of love, honor, adoration and praise. When you pray you alert the Holy Spirit to carry your thoughts and petitions straight to the throne of God. Isn't this good news? However, you protest by saying, "I don't pray nearly as often or as deep as I should simply because I am uneducated in the art of prayer!" This is very true of countless millions of Christians. They seem to be bored with prayer after a while, or they run out of ideas on how to word their prayers. This is where your Helper (the Holy Spirit) comes into the picture. Ask the Father in Heaven to teach you how to pray just like the disciples asked the Lord Jesus. He gave them the Lord's Prayer. So, for a good beginning, learn the Lord's Prayer and recite it slowly and with feeling each day. Then, ask the Holy Spirit to place ideas (many of these ideas will be directly from the Bible) in your mind so that you can have a place to focus your praying. If you will persevere, The Holy Spirit will form ways for you to pray on deeper levels. You will find yourself opening your heart to God and asking Him to cleanse your unclean actions and thoughts; you will find yourself praying to become a stronger witness for Christ. You will ask for words to speak, and ideas to get across to people who need the Lord. Child of God, if you ask Him, your Father will instruct you on prayer so that you will surprise yourself at how eloquent you will become, and you will be delighted to find that from your mouth you will see an indication of what kind of heart you really have. Reread that last sentence. It is true! Quote it aloud! You can become so practiced and excellent with prayer that answers will come to you and your family sometimes faster than you can pray for them. You must believe that God wants to answer your prayer, more than you want to pray it! This is God's eagerness to reach you, touch your life and make a powerful difference in your daily walk with Him. Pray child then pray again!

Prayer

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Father, I have merely begun in prayer. I need for you to send the precious Holy Spirit to me and take me to the next level of prayer. Help me to pray with the idea that with my love and adoration I will truly touch your precious heart. I need this prayer. Life is very hard. Help me Father in Jesus' name, amen!