I Want to Pray Like Jesus But How Do I Do It? (Part 3).

I want to be more like Jesus in my prayer life. Here are some things we can

do to help with that.

(1) Make prayer personal. Of course we can and should pray public prayers

(worship services, restaurants, home, etc), but what is our intent? The ones that

were condemned by Jesus were the ones praying for all to see how great they are.

If we are going to pray for others to hear, it should be for them to see how great

God is. So how can I pray more like Jesus? Learn to take some time to yourself.

Just you and God. If He needed time alone with the Father, don’t you think we do

as well? Make prayer personal in your life and set aside time to do so.

(2) Make your prayers meaningful. There are some in our congregations that,

when they go up to lead a prayer, you can almost say the prayer with them because

they say the same thing everytime. Again, what is the intent? Some may use proper

words in their prayers such as “Thee” and “Thou." If that is what you believe you

need to do and if you don’t do it then it is disrespecting God, that is not what I am

talking about here. Some will use it, just for the sake of sounding better to others.

Some may make their prayers longer for that reason as well. So, how can I pray

more like Jesus? Let us use our words wisely and make sure every word counts,

but let’s also make sure that we have passion in our prayers. Passion that is coming

from us. Not praying because we have to, but because this is what we WANT to

do.

(3) Pray with the proper content. We don’t have to pray the same prayer every

time. We can and should pray for different things at different times, but there are

things that should be found in our prayers. How do I pray more like Jesus? By

making sure that God is reverenced. God deserves ALL the glory. With that, we should be thanking Him for all the blessings that He has so richly blessed us with.

Even with all those blessings, we still have struggles in our life so it is okay to ask

for strength and protection from God. It is not only okay, but also something we

should do. And as much as we strive to stay faithful to God, we make mistakes, so

it is important to ask for forgiveness for those things.

(4) Pray for your enemies. Enemies may seem like a strong word for us to use

today, but if you live long enough, there are going to be people that are against

you. There are going to be people, outside and (unfortunately) inside the church

that are going to cause you problems and try to tear you down. How do I be more

like Jesus in my life or in my prayers? It is easier said than done, but pray for those

people. When you first start out or the situation is fresh, it can be hard to know

what to do or what to say. Something I have started to do in my life is say

something along the lines of, “Father, please be with that group of people or that

individual and their attitude that it may get better... but please be with me and my

attitude as well.". It is important to make sure that we are not being hypocritical in

the way we treat others and pray for them. We make mistakes and want others to

forgive us and pray for us, so why would we not do the same for them?

I want to be more like Jesus, but how do I do it? When it comes to prayer, I am

going to commit myself to being more like Jesus. I am going to do that by studying

His teachings, examining His example through His life, and by making personal

applications to my life. Not just in words, but also in action, I’m going to be more

like Jesus in my prayer life. What about you?