The Formula for Prayer

The Formula for Prayer

The main reason we don’t have answered prayer is, we haven’t prayed. Now to be fair,

prayer has become so complex that many people won’t even attempt it. Yet, a lot of people don’t understand how to pray. 

Over the years, there have been many “formulas” for prayer, which were written to help people understand, and learn a more effective way to pray. Some came in the form of acronyms. For instance: 

ACTS

Adoration 

Confession 

Thanksgiving 

Supplication

Supplication is the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly; “he fell to his knees in supplication.”

There is also the PUSH prayer: Pray Until Something Happens. 

I am all for teaching people things about how to pray. Reminders, acronyms, etc. are all helpful. However, let us not make it so complex that prayer is left for only a select few, and the rest are deprived of this amazing privilege of communicating with God. And, to me, prayer is a privilege. 

I am reminded of the story of a Prayer Team member becoming distraught. After having prayed a simple prayer for someone at the altar, they watched as that person went to another Prayer Team member for prayer, as if the first team member wasn’t effective because their prayer was not flowery. 

“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,” 2 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJV).

There is such simplicity in all things Jesus Christ. It is religion and religious people who want to make “spiritual” things seem complex and even cumbersome. The reality of taking away the simplicity of Christ is that we institute a spiritual bondage upon people. 

This is not a spirit of bondage that we have received from Christ. Christ set us free. This is what happens when we begin to believe that faith, prayer, and other “spiritual” things are more complex or deeper than the reality of what Christ gave. 

 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again,” Matthew 6:7 (NLT).

Jesus encourages us to be short and concise in our prayers. To me, this is fantastically liberating because I fall prey to thinking, the longer I pray, the more impressed God will be.

In Ecclesiastes 5, Solomon says that God is in heaven. You are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few.

We cannot access powerful prayer by using “magic formulas.” We don’t have to use certain words or phrases to get God to answer our prayers. Our prayers being answered is not based on the eloquence of our prayers. In other words, there is no magic formula for prayer.

Instead, we just need to keep it simple. Pray a simple, yet to-the-point prayer. Tell God what’s on your mind and your heart. Make your requests known to Him. Be honest and open. God will honor that. He will hear you, He will listen, and He will answer.