8 Essential Ingredients For Daily Prayer (Part 1)

In my last blog I said there were some truths that cannot be just taught in a class, but must be “caught” by someone walking with the new believer until the truth is outworked in his life and becomes a lifestyle.   Prayer is one of those truths. This teaching is not a formula; you will see a progression – YOU MUST START WITH THE NO.1 INGREDIENT!
Sadly, we can pick up wrong attitudes from other Christians such as:
We MUST pray every day
We MUST read our Bible every day
We MUST go to Church as often as we can
WE MUST regularly witness
If we don’t we will backside, or God may even punish us.
Prayer is not a legalistic duty, we should pray because we want to pray.
To some, who over-emphasise “Prosperity”, God is the great Santa Claus in the sky, AND PRAYER IS SIMPLY A SHOPPING LIST!  What a sad concept!
Let me share with you my concept of prayer …… IT IS:

THE INTIMATE COMMUNION BETWEEN TWO LOVERS

We should come to that place where we DAILY want to spend time alone with the Lover of our soul.
Many Christians are very dissatisfied with their prayer life, generally because no one has ever walked with them until it becomes as natural as breathing.
I believe there are 8 essential ingredients and we will start looking at them today.
1. CONFESSION & REPENTANCE 
Ps. 66:18 – Here the psalmist says that if we have unconfessed sin in our heart GOD IS NOT LISTENING, so what must we do??
Ask the Lord to search our hearts – Ps 139:23-24, Ps 51:10-12
Can you remember all the sins you commit  ??  I sure can’t  !!
DID YOU KNOW WE SIN IN 7 DIFFERENT WAYS ?
(a)   We sin in our thoughts
(b)   We sin in words (the things we say)
(c)   We sin in our actions
(d)   There is the sin of omission James 4.17 NOT doing what we should do
(e)   Paul says what is NOT of faith is sin – Rom. 14:23.  What is the opposite to faith? – fear, unbelief, doubt, negativity.
(f)   We sin through our motives & attitudes.   Why do we do what we do? Is it for God’s glory or ours? Does it extend His kingdom or ours?
(g) We commit wilful sins – Ps. 19:13 – something we know is a sin, but yield to it, and then later say “I am sorry”.  King David said “I do want not to commit these sins.”
So the very first thing we must do is bow before the Lord, and ask His forgiveness and receive it! The result is AN OPEN HEAVEN!  GOD IS NOW LISTENING! Have you ever concluded your time of prayer and wondered if God was listening ? If we had unconfessed sin in our life, the Psalmist says GOD WAS NOT LISTENING!
Now that we have confessed our sin, GOD IS LISTENING, we have cleared the decks and now we have an OPEN HEAVEN to continue with our praying.
2. REAFFIRMING THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN OUR LIFE  (Romans 12:1)
Paul tells us that we must continually surrender our life to the Lord. You may have heard the saying, “there is a problem with a living sacrifice, it is always wanting to crawl off the altar”. Because of our sinful nature we are continually tempted to do our will and not the Lord’s will for our lives, and so we roll off the altar.  It is only when we are laying on the altar of surrender that our old nature is “rendered powerless”!  The moment we roll off the altar our old nature rises up.
THE ONLY LIFE WORTH LIVING IS A LIFE THAT IS TOTALLY SURRENDERED TO JESUS (7 days a week; 24 hours a day!)
As a Jew, Paul must have been thinking of all the animals he had seen killed on Jewish altars, but he is saying in Rom. 12:1 that was Old Covenant, the animals became dead sacrifices, but we are under the New Covenant – we are to be living sacrifices!
HAVE YOU EVER ASKED THE QUESTION “HOW CAN I LIVE IN SURRENDER CONTINUALLY?
I discovered a scripture that has changed my life, the second part of Psalm 118:27 (NKJV)!  The Old Testament sacrifice had to be tied down to the altar, I guess it had a premonition that it was going to die, and wanted to get off the altar, just like we do every day. The priests tied the animal down on the altar!
My favourite scripture in James 4:2 “We have not because we ask not” !
JESUS WANTS TO HELP US LIVE THE SURRENDERED LIFE
After I have cleared the decks of any unconfessed sin in my life, I pray “Jesus tie me down, bind me to the altar with the cords of Calvary love”.  Let me tell you IT WORKS!  The level of surrender in my life has never been higher, no! It is not 100%!   I still roll off the altar sometimes, but then I ask the Lord to forgive me, get back on the altar and pray again “Jesus tie me down”.
Reaffirming Christ’s Lordship must follow repentance. I will continue with the rest of the 8 ingredients over the next few weeks. I trust you will embrace these ingredients in your own life, I will happily walk with (bosko)  you and encourage you until prayer becomes a lifestyle.