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Prayer

PrayerPrayer is a common need of man. Archaeologists used to look for 2 things when they were digging to find ancient settlements. These two things were tools and places of worship. In recent times zoologists have realised that certain of the monkeys make and use primitive tools so now the archaeologists have to look for a place of worship to confirm if this is a human or animal settlement.

Prayer is common to all religion. It does not matter if it is the Buddhist with their prayer flags places at strategic places on their regular trails and their prayer wheels where they can “say” a large number of prayers just by turning the wheels or if it is a Muslim with their regular times for prayer every day or the Christian with their personal and public prayer times. All have a basic need for prayer. I will write these articles from the Christian point of view but I have found that studying the prayer habits of other religions can be challenging and thought provoking for me.

Prayer is not easy. We can enjoy praying and worshipping God but what if we need help that man is unable to provide? Then we need an answer to our need and the absence of those answers can cause us a long time of heart-searching.

As we are working in English I thought it would be helpful to start in this introduction by looking at the Concise Oxford English Dictionary 11th edition and their definition of prayer

Prayer (noun)

1 - a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity. (prayers) a religious service at which people gather to pray together.

2 - an earnest hope or wish.

For much of the time that English has been in use the word pray has been used as a request from one person to another but that has fallen out of use. I will be concentrating on definition 1.

No matter how long we have been praying in our lives or how much time is devoted to prayer we can all learn more about prayer.

Prayer is a mixture of a great many activities. There can be worship as we proclaim the worthiness of the one we are praying to. There can be adoration as we seek to pour out our hearts to God and adore Him. There is praise. God is active in our world today. It often does not make the news when God acts to help, heal, or deliver but the people concerned are ready to praise God. There is petition where we ask of God for those needs that we or our family have. There is intercession where we pray for those not directly connected with us. Many prayed during the time of the Tsunami a year ago for the victims of that disaster. I am certain that many people prayed recently for those trapped in the mudslide in the Philippines.

I hope I have sparked some interest in prayer. The most important is the one to whom you are praying. It is vital that you have relationship and can rely on the one to whom you pray as the Christians rely on their relationship with God through Jesus.

Rob Clement is a writer on http://www.prayandwalk.com

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