SEVEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRAYER

(3) PRAYER-How?

WHEN it comes to prayer, many religious traditions focus on physical issues, such as posture, wording, and ritual. However, the Bible helps us to set such issues aside and focus on more important aspects of the question, "How should we pray?"

The Bible depicts faithful servants of God as praying in many settings and postures. They prayed silently or aloud as the circumstances dictated.  They prayed while looking up at the sky or while bowing down. Rather than using images, beads, or prayer books as aids in prayer, they simply prayed from the heart in their own words. What made their prayers effective?

As mentioned in the preceding article, they directed their prayers only to one God-Jehovah.  There is another important factor. We read at 1 John 5:14: "This is the confidence that we have toward him, that, no matter what it is that we ask according to his will, he hears us."   Our prayers need to be in harmony with God's will.  What does that mean?

Next time: Conclusion of PRAYER-How?

From the Watchtower magazine