Many helpful pages on prayer are to be indexed from this page, so you may come back often for inspiration and good teaching so that you can learn to pray effectively for matters in your own life, and also, if you would be so kind, to pray for important issues in the life of the PMC church in Tanzania we ask that you check (and bookmark so you can check back often) our Current PMC Prayer Requests.
[The articles above appeared here after they went out in the monthly ezine, Effective Prayer. However, it has now been discontinued.]
First of all, prayer is something God has given to His children because He wants us to come to Him because He wants us to come to Him in a loving, trusting way. Wentworth Price wrote in Principles of Effective Prayer" that
You are looking for more about prayer because you are curious. Isn't that true? I admit too, that I have read every book and article on prayer that I could get my hands on for years - all because I knew prayer was the way to connect withi God, and I really wanted so much to have my prayers answered, and to hear from God in reply to my many questions.
It isn't that hard to find some good basic principles about effective prayer. The hard part is practicing them!
From many books and from personal experience, we learn that prayer is not Magic. Just because we ask God for something in prayer does not mean we automatically get it.
Praying our heart out doesn't mean we have a better chance at getting what we ask, either.
Yet we hear of some people who seem to have a perfect line to God, and they get almost everything they ask for; don't they have some secret method or pattern or rule? What is it?
Yes, there are some principles for effective prayer. Again, we cannot treat them like magic, but if we get our minds and hearts right on these points, our prayers will please God, and we shall see His power at work in us and through us.
First, surrender to God's will.
Pray in Faith!
Pray very specifically.
Listen for God's reply or instructions.
Ask God for a Spirit of Prayer.
The links at the top of this page will take you to articles on effective prayer. Some will be about methods, some will be about the theology of prayer as taught by Jesus and God Himself in the Bible. Some will be more advanced, for those who already know how to pray effectively - on spiritual warfare. Some links will take you to quizzes or questions on prayer for you to think over and review.
Be aware that the more fervent and effective your prayers are - the more Satan is going to give you trouble. Jesus has already won the war against Satan, but that old devil likes to attack us anyway, hoping we'll forget that, so that he can dissuade us from praying, or mess up our lives, by leading us into sin.
Prayer Quotes - unique definitions and comments other writers have made about prayer.
Here is a list of recommended Books on Prayer