Sunday Special: I don't need to pray because God knows everything.

God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, why would you bore Him with your troubles, anxieties joys or needs if He knows it all already?

Prayer is an invitation. God is gentle with us, and he will not come without our permission. Unless you are St Paul, in which case God will strike you from a horse (where did that came from anyway?) and make you blind. But that was quite exceptional, Paul really needed a proper shake up. For most of us poor souls, we need to say yes, even a faint one. God will enter through the smallest crack in the doors, but we need to open these doors, the handle is on our side.

Jesus on multiple occasions pointed out that we would be given what we ask for. But we need to ask.

I feel that praying and asking God for what we need in our life is a wonderful way to order our lives as well. It helps us to consider what it is that we are lacking or running low on. When I pray, I've learnt to be really specific about what I ask for. Instead of saying make me a good teacher, I ask Lord, make me more patient and positive with this year 7 class. This helps me to discover the truth about myself and to look deeply into what is important to me at a particular moment in time.

Our asking in prayer is an acknowledgement that we are entirely dependent on God. It's an opportunity to build a deeper and more perfect relationship with Him. 

Beyond this supplicatory dimension of prayer, prayer should go beyond asking and also be an act of praise and thanksgiving. It should be a time for telling God how wonderful He is. Of course, He is fully aware of his own goodness, but it's like telling your other half that you love them: they hopefully know it by the way you act, but it's important so say it often as well. It's sometime difficult to just praise God, but I often turn to psalms for inspiration. Check out the first few verses of Psalm 145:

I will extol you, my God and King,

and bless your name for ever and ever. 

Every day I will bless you,

and praise your name for ever and ever.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

his greatness is unsearchable.

Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi: as we worship, so we believe and live. Our life of prayer should reflect our belief in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Creator of heavens and earth, the one who was and is, and is to come. There are so many ways to worship. Some people simply bow down and adore the Lord. Some people read Psalms. Others sing with their hands stretched out to the heavens. Whatever you want to do, praise the Lord regularly. Maybe you need to set up a time for this. As mentioned in the previous post, I do it in the evening when I thank for everything that has happened in that day and just adore the Lord for a couple of minutes. But you can worship anywhere and anytime. God is waiting for you to turn to Him and acknowledge that He is God.