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A Beginner’s Guide to Prayer: How To Pray For Your Relationships

All too often we complicate things in life. We make them harder than they really are.

This is true with prayer. Many people don’t have a consistent prayer life because they don’t really know how to have one. They are intimidated by it.

Jesus gave us a beginner’s guide to prayer. One of Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them about prayer. In response, Jesus gave us The Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is more than a prayer to be recited. It is actually a simple pattern of prayer that teaches us exactly how to pray in a way that gets results.

A key part of prayer includes prayer about our relationships—our relationship with God and our relationships with others. Jesus included this in His teaching about prayer. Look at what He said about relationships in Matthew 6:9-12 (NIV) “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors…’”

Our daily prayer time should include a time of reflecting on our relationship with God. This involves asking God to show us any sins that need to be owned and confessed to Him. It involves asking God for forgiveness for the things we do, say, think or fail to do that hurts God’s heart. As we confess these to Him, we should also gratefully accept the forgiveness He freely offers us.

Another part of reviewing our relationships is reflecting on our relationships with others. We must be willing to forgive others in the same way God forgives us. In prayer, our hearts can be cleansed from lingering hurt, anger, resentment and bitterness toward others.

We need daily prayer to keep our relationship with God fresh, and our relationships with others free and harmonious!

Pastor Dale

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