Video Transcript: Lesson 8 Exploring Further

Hi, welcome to Christian basics as we explore further in Lesson Eight, on prayer the writer the material is Dr. Ed Roels. And I'm David Feddes. Presenting the material by Dr. Roels and  adding some thoughts and ideas of my own along with his question one What is prayer? In its simplest form, prayer is communicating with God. That communication usually finds  expression in spoken words or conscious thoughts. However, at times, people also  communicate with God through tears of confession, unspoken longings, unexpressed desires, or other ways of directing their hearts and minds to the Lord. In this lesson, the focus is on  communication with God and through spoken words or unspoken thoughts how you think, or  how you speak to God and not so much with the feelings or the tears or the other totally  nonverbal ways of expressing prayer. Question two, does a person have to be born again, in  order to pray to God? Does a person have to be born again in order to have his prayers  answered? The answer to both questions is no, God is very gracious, and invites every  sincere person to share his deepest feelings and longings with Him in prayer. Not only is God  willing to hear and listen to the prayers of those who sincerely and humbly seek him, he also  often answers them. People who are not believers, at least not yet, but who sincerely cry out  to God, even when they're not sure that God exists, may receive a gracious answer from God. The Lord does not promise to answer the prayers of everyone in the way they desire, but his  ears are open to all who earnestly seek Him and cry out to Him. And there are many  examples in the Bible of this. And there are many people to who, even before they were fully  born again, or clearly a believer in God had begun to pray and to seek and to ask. And so  yes, God does hear and answer prayers, even from people who have not yet been brought  into his family, and have not been fully transformed into Christians. Question three, is it  desirable to have set times for prayer? Or is it better to pray only when we feel like praying so  that our prayers will be genuine and sincere? It's very helpful to have set times for prayer  each day since this will almost certainly strengthen our prayer life. If we don't have set times.  It is easy to neglect praying because of busyness, laziness, interruptions, tiredness, or  forgetfulness. So if you want to do only when you really feel like it, well, the fact is, our  feelings are affected by how busy or lazy or tired or forgetful we are. And so we have to go  beyond just what we happen to feel like at the moment. Yeah, sometimes, if you pray at set  times, your prayer, life can become kind of wooden, and just a matter of going through the  motions. And you have to be aware of that. But the cure is not to say, Oh, I think I'll just pray  when I get the feeling when the vibe is right now, you're just fooling yourself, we, we definitely  need our set times of prayer as well as the more spontaneous times. Most of those who have  a strong prayer life, do have set times for prayer, and usually also pray frequently throughout  the day or night, when they're aware of any special need or blessing, whether in their own life  or in the lives of others. So it's actually not opposites, to have a set time for prayer. And to be  someone who also prays frequently and spontaneously. The fact is, those who pray the most  faithfully on a day by day basis will also be those who pray the most spontaneously in a  variety of circumstances. If the set prayers fade away very often the other types of prayer do  too. And by the same token, those who make a habit of just practicing the presence of God, of talking to God constantly and setting their minds on him again and again. Well, then they also  find it much more enriching during their set times when they talk to God because they're not  doing this just a couple times a day. They know that it's a constant companionship, and these  are the special times when they get to be alone with their father. An effective prayer life does  not come automatically when we become Christians. Many people even very sincere people,  let their prayer life slipped to the point where they are no longer intense and passionate about prayer and spend less and less time praying. And as they pray less often or less fervently  They lose their sweet communion with the Lord. They see fewer answers to their prayers, and they become less effective in their Christian life, their prayer life dries up. And as their prayer 

life dries up, their Christian power and vitality and joy tends to dry up. Jesus Himself prayed  frequently, and fervently. Paul was also a man of prayer, just read his epistles. And you see  the amazing life of prayer that's expressed in the way he prayers for the praise for the people  he loved. And the Old Testament, Daniel was known for his faithful prayers, and the wonderful answers he received as a result of his faithfulness. If you read in the Psalms, you'll hear  expressions that I pray to you in the morning, and I pray to you at night and even on my bed,  my mind is on you. And so we have these wonderful expressions to encourage us in our  prayer life. Question four how can we strengthen our prayer life, it is helpful to maintain some  kind of schedule for regular daily prayers included will be prayers in the morning after rising  prayers in the evening before retiring, and prayers at mealtimes. It's also helpful to develop  and maintain a list of things for which to pray, you might do that on paper. If you're a person  on a computer, and you're watching this, it means you probably are a person with a computer. And then you can keep lists on your computer. This list should be readily accessible, if  possible, so that you can write things down whenever you think of them. And before you  forget them. Some people with smartphones may want to just type right into your phone files  where you keep track of prayer requests and things that you want to keep praying about and  people for whom you keep going before the Lord. And as you keep that list, it's also helpful to  maintain a record of prayers that have been answered in a special way. Don't just list the  things you're going to pray about. List the things that God answered, and you're giving thanks  for looking back over your list of answered prayers will give you additional incentive to pray  about other significant things that come to your attention. Also, when you see on your prayer  list, things that have not yet been answered in some definite way, you'll be reminded to pray  again, for those things. It's also helpful to write down the date when you first prayed for a  specific need or situation. And when appropriate, the time when the prayer was answered. I  know that many people find it helpful to have a journal, it can be a prayer journal, and also  just a recording of various priorities and things the Lord has been doing in your life. And you  write those down, whether it's on your smartphone, your computer, or in a little notebook. And  you can see and be reminded of ways that the Lord has been at work. Sometimes when you  slide a little bit you say, oh, yeah, those are things that I was praying about, and that the Lord  really put in my heart. And I need to make a goal to do that, again, I find in my own life, writing down certain goals that I believe God has for me and my personal growth that I believe God  has for my family and my relationship to my wife and my kids and things that I need to be  doing with them on an ongoing basis goals that I have for my church and other aspects of my  ministry. I write them down not just as kind of goals as a business planner, but items for  prayer as well. And then when I review my journal once in a while, I say, oh, yeah, Lord, I  need to be praying about that again. And I put it back in my journal later on. Or I say, Yes,  Lord, You really brought that about. It's amazing, thank you, Lord. So writing things down,  especially if you have a memory that tends to fade like mine sometimes does, writing things  down can be very helpful for your prayer life. It can also be very beneficial to have some set  times for praying with others. By doing so you can encourage one another, while also being  made aware of other special needs and concerns for which to pray. I know in my  congregation, we have a congregational prayer every week, during part of our worship, where we pray to the Lord. And throughout the week, people can email prayer requests, and then  that goes out to all the members of the congregation. So those are ways of praying with  others. I also have a time every month that's called Iron Man. I got that from the book of  Proverbs, where it says, As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. And I get  together with a few men in our little Iron Man Group. And we just share what the Lord's doing  each of our lives, what some of our difficulties and challenges are. And then we always end  those meetings with an extended time of prayer. The same is true of our church council. We 

meet about various things, we discuss important things that are going on, in what's happening in the lives of people, but then we end the meeting with an hour or so of sharing requests and  then praying about them. So it's tremendous and helpful to your prayer life to have other  people who You regularly are with. I know my wife has a circle of ladies that she gets together with on a regular basis and they study the Bible together, and they pray together. And it's also  helpful to just pray together as a family on a daily basis. Now, some people are also blessed  and encouraged to pray by reading stories or articles or books on prayer. I've been  tremendously helped by some excellent books on prayer. It's a great blessing to read the  stories of great prayer warriors in the past or present, who are exceptionally faithful and  effective in the prayer life. Now, one danger there. Some of these are very great people  whose prayer life is far beyond mine. And I can get a little discouraged reading them, but at  the same time, I say, Well, Lord, help me to be blessed by reading this helped me to at least  make a little progress to become a little bit more powerful in my prayer life and over the long  term helped me to grow into a mighty man of prayer. It can also be instructive and helpful at  times, to read the prayers which have been offered by others. I love a book called the Valley  of vision, which is a collection of prayers offered by Puritan Christians who lived a few  centuries ago. And sometimes it may be somewhat routine to pray all the time for the same  things in the same way. And by reading or hearing the prayers of others, you may be able to  add a certain richness and effectiveness and diversity, to your own prayers. Now, above all,  the many prayers in the Bible can be especially helpful for guiding and enriching your prayer  life. Indeed, the most important aid to prayer is reading the Bible regularly. Prayer is speaking  to God. And reading the Bible is listening to God. The Holy Spirit helps you to pray more  wisely and effectively, as you respond to the Spirit speaking through scripture, and prayer  becomes more interactive, and not just a one way attempt to speak to God, one of the great  men of prayer, whoever lived was George Mueller, who was a wonderful Christian, he  founded orphanages, he was able to help so many people in amazing ways. And prayer was  a major key to it all. And he said that one of the keys to his prayer life was learning to pray  with the Scriptures, where he would read a portion of Scripture, and sometimes just a few  words, sometimes more, and then think on it and meditate on it. And as God's word really was coming alive in him, his heart would begin to respond to the Lord with various praises and  thanksgivings, or requests, or confessions. And he found that his reading of the scriptures  was really firing and lighting up his prayer life and making it come alive for him. And so I really recommend reading the Bible and reading the prayers of the Bible, and praying the scriptures  back to the Lord who gave us the scriptures. Question five, what are some reasons why God  might not answer our prayers in the way we would like? Well, there are various reasons why  God doesn't always answer our prayers in the way we'd like included are such things as  disobedience, secret, or unconfessed. sins, indifference, selfish pride, a lack of concern for  others, a desire to have things that aren't good for us. Our intention to use what God gives us  for purposes that do not honor or please him, or praying for something which is contrary to the will of God. So there's a pretty long list of reasons why there might be a block to prayer or why God wouldn't answer it in the way we want. Well, we should not always conclude, however,  that the reason some of our prayers are not answered in the way we desire is because of a  sin in our lives, or because of wrong motives. Sometimes there are people who teach that if  you're not getting the answer to prayer, then you need to search your life because you have  been sinful, we know it for sure. And you better find out what it is and straighten it out. Well,  sometimes there are sinful blocks in our life. But other times we're not getting the answer we  sought, because God withholds things, because he knows what's best for us. And he knows  that his will for us is much better than anything we ourselves might desire or asked for. And  that's not always because we're so sinful, or so bad in our prayer. It's because we're small. 

And because we don't know very much, and God knows so much more. And he's so much  bigger. So there can be sinful, or bad things that kind of keep our prayers from getting  through. But there can also just be the simple facts of our limited knowledge and our limited  ability to grasp the great plans of God and to understand our situation and His purpose is for  us. And so let's not lay a guilt trip on somebody else. Every time their prayer doesn't get  answered. They we know why. You need to straighten up. No God may have other reasons  for not answering prayer that have nothing to do with that person's sinfulness. God may have  great purposes. And so we should join with them in prayer that God will make clear what  those purposes are, as he so chooses, in the meantime, help them and us to live by faith  even when we're not seeing the answers we were hoping for. Question six. Is there any value  in fasting along with our prayers? Yes, appropriate fasting can help us pray more sincerely  and enable us to focus more consistently on the things we're praying about. When we fast we may be able to get our minds off earthly things, and focus on God's mercy and grace, and  take our praying more seriously. Fasting is not helpful. However, if it causes us to become  less focused on our praying because of the weakness of our bodies, or minds. And so for  example, there may be times when it'd be wiser not to fast. Some women, for example, during pregnancy would be wiser not to fast because they and their baby need consistent ongoing  nourishment and to fast would just make it very hard and very distracting for them to focus on  the Lord rather than being able to focus better. Now, having said that, let me say that the first  few times you fast, you may find almost the hunger in your stomach or the discomfort you feel too much of a distraction, I'd advise you not to give up right away on fasting, just because that happens the first time or two. When you say no to your Belly, belly will talk back to you. But  after you have fasted a few times sometimes and showed your stomach who's boss and ask  the Lord for help, then fasting can help you to concentrate where you forget about your  appetite where your appetite actually diminishes at times during the fast and your appetite for  God grow stronger. Fasting is also inappropriate if we use it as a bribe of some kind. Or if we  believe we can merit or earn something by our fasting fasting by itself does not merit  anything. God's answers to our prayers are always by grace, whether we fast or whether we  don't. Now, fasting is relatively common in some Christian circles, while it's totally absent in  others, both those who fast often and those who rarely or never fast, should evaluate the  reason why they do what they do. Those who presently do not fast, might seriously ask why  they do not do so, and thoughtfully consider the possibility of doing so in the future. When  Jesus spoke in His Sermon on the Mount, he warned against wrong ways of fasting. But  notice how he phrased it Jesus said, When you fast, don't be like the hypocrites. He didn't  even say if you fast, he said when so he kind of expected that his people and his followers  would have appropriate times and ways of fasting. Question seven, what kinds of prayers  seem to be offered most often prayers that confession, praise Thanksgiving, or request? How  can we develop a good balance of these in our prayer life? Many people consider prayer to  be primarily asking for something. Although many people do add prayers of confession, praise and thanksgiving to both their private and public prayers. Prayers of Petitioner request often  seem to dominate. Perhaps this is somewhat understandable. But it's unfortunate if prayer is  understood to be primarily a matter of placing our requests before God, we don't just want to  gimme, gimme gimme relationship. We don't want to just value the gifts more than the giver  himself. It's also important to make sure that our prayer requests do not focus primarily on  material blessings for ourselves, especially if those requests go well beyond the things we  really need. In the Lord's Prayer, there is definitely a strong emphasis on requests. But those  requests include the opening petitions that God's name be hallowed, that his kingdom come  that His will be done. There is also a request for daily bread, but there's no request for lots of  other material things. Another request is for forgiveness of sins, and for the grace to be able 

to resist and overcome temptation. Finally, there's the element of praise as the prayer  concludes with the words yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Now,  these last words are very familiar to many believers, but they're not found in many early  copies of the Bible, but nonetheless, they're very appropriate words for praising our Lord and  God. Perhaps one of the best ways to make sure that we don't focus too much on material  things is by deliberately and thoughtfully including specific elements of praise and  thanksgiving in our prayers. as well as confession, it may even be helpful to write out some  things about which we should be praying so that we don't neglect them. Again, if you just pray what comes to mind, some of us are kind of self centered. And so what comes to mind is what we want. And prayer and writing things down can show us what a prayer looks like. And if we  find that we're always writing down lots of requests, but not offering many praises, it'll show  up and we glance over what we've written, when we notice that we're really not giving thanks  for many things, and are always giving God our long list of the gimmies. Then we'll say, Lord,  change the way I pray, I still want to have confidence that you hear me when I bring my  request. But Lord, I have so much to be thankful for. And you are such a great and awesome  God who deserves praise not just for what you do, but for who you are. Lord, I admire you, I  delight in you, I honor you. And if we don't see expressions like that, in our written prayers,  then we'll say, Lord, I need to learn more about praying like the Lord's Prayer does asking for  the things that are high priorities. And also just not even asking what praising and thanking  and confessing. Question Eight, what are the benefits of praying alone? What are the benefits of praying with others? Well, praying alone can help us to focus our thoughts and desires on  the fact that we're talking directly with God Himself. When praying alone, we will most likely  include some of our very personal needs our struggle with certain sins, and our thankfulness  for the special blessings we've personally received or enjoyed things that we might not wish  to verbalize or talk about. When we're praying with others, you might not want to talk about  particular sins you've been struggling with, or that you have to admit, you might not want to  bring to other people's attention, certain special personal blessings that you've received. But  you do want to do that when you're alone with the Lord. And while praying alone, we can also  pour out our hearts to the Lord, without being concerned about the reactions of others to our  tears, our passion, or exuberance if we get a little carried away, either with our crying or our  rejoicing in our prayers, that we don't have to worry about what other people are gonna think  of us. Praying with others can also be very beneficial, since others may pray about important  matters which we have forgotten, or not thought of. And so their prayers can draw us back  into things we need to be praying about as well. Others may also help us to focus on God and the things of his kingdom. At a time when pressing personal concerns make it difficult for us to do so sometimes you just feel overwhelmed. You really don't even feel like praying. But you  get in the company of others who aren't so overwhelmed and their prayers lift you up. I know  there have been times in my life where I just felt dry and downtrodden. But I knew other  people were praying for me. And when I got together with them to pray, it helped lift me again. And we can profit from the spiritual gifts and talents of others who seem to have a special gift  of praying in a way that many others do not. There. There are some people who God just  enables to communicate more freely and have such a great spirit of prayer. And those of us  with a lesser spirit of prayer can benefit from just being around those greater in prayer. It's  also often encouraging to be joined together with other members of the family of God. As we  bring our praise and thanksgiving to the one who is the source of all our blessings. It's just  great to be part of the family of God. And when we go to the Father, it's great to be able to talk to our father alone. But it's also great to be there with our brothers and sisters who also love  the same father. Question Nine? Is it desirable for us to share with others God's answers to  our prayers? Should we also share with others the times when God does not seem to answer 

our prayers? The answer to both questions is yes, others will often be encouraged when they  hear how God has answered the prayers of fellow believers. It will not only lead them to give  thanks to God for His answers to the prayers of others. It will also help them to anticipate  God's answers to their own prayers. And it will also encourage them to continue presenting  their thanks and praise as well as their petitions to the Lord in further prayer. So when you  share the way God has answered your prayers, then other people are going to be  encouraged to say yeah, prayer is powerful I want to pray too but if believers will be  encouraged to pray by God's answers to the prayers of others, will they not be discouraged  from praying if they hear about prayers that were not answered? Well, not necessarily. If  people hear only about answered prayers, they might begin to wonder why some of their own  prayers have not been answered. But if they hear the other people also have both answered  and unanswered prayers. They may be encouraged to continue pray in faith and confidence,  even if the Lord has good reasons not to answer some prayers, in the way they desired. So,  when we share answers to prayer, we're reminding each other that God is the living God. He's not just a god locked back in Bible times, he still alive today still answering prayer, still doing  marvelous deeds. And as we're reminded that he's the living God, by His living answers to  prayer, we also are reminded that he's the sovereign God, whose thoughts are not our  thoughts, His ways are not our ways. And so when we sometimes share the prayers that have not been answered, we're acknowledging, while we're still pretty small, and we're glad that  he's running the world, according to his wisdom, and not just according to our requests. And  as we're honest with each other, it builds us up hiding things, is not a great help to the faith of  others when God has blessed you say, so, when you struggle, sometimes it's helpful to say  so, because then people realize that they're not the only one who struggles. And when you  realize that you're not alone, and that it's part of the normal Christian life, to have some of  these struggles, some of these prayers that didn't get the answer you wanted, and you don't  feel so alone. That same time when you know that, yes, God is active, and he's answering  and he's doing so in the lives of others, then you continue to walk by faith. Question 10. Is the Lord's Prayer more important, or more sacred than other biblical prayers? Not necessarily.  The Lord's Prayer is obviously a very great importance, since it was taught by Jesus Himself.  However, prayers of enormous value are found throughout God's word. Most of the psalms  are prayers, and many other prayers appear in various parts of Scripture. In fact, you'll find  prayers that are exact parallels to the Lord's Prayer, the book of Proverbs, Lord give me  neither poverty nor riches, but give me my daily bread. That's exact words, Jesus is Give us  this day, our daily bread, and I can do something similar. With the other prayers of the Lord's  Prayer, the other petitions, you'll find the similar things throughout the Scripture, it's important  to remember that the entire Bible has been inspired by God, and no parts of the Bible are  more sacred than others. Even so, it is highly desirable for all believers to memorize and to  pray. The Lord's Prayer, which is the only prayer that Jesus taught his disciples and he taught  it when they asked, Lord, teach us to pray. So it's a valuable prayer to know when you're  learning how to pray, and how to get your prayers in line with God's priorities. That's why it's  such a valuable prayer. Some people think that this prayer was intended to be a model prayer for us to follow without necessarily limiting our words to the brief prayer which Jesus taught.  So it models it not by just rattling it off again and again, but by giving us the overall framework for praying. Now, Jesus himself spent many hours in prayer when he was by himself. So it's  very unlikely that he wanted us just to pray this prayer over and over and over again, without  adding any thoughts and petitions of our own. He gives it to us as a framework. Sometimes  it's good to speak the Lord's Prayer to our father, using the exact words Jesus gave us  sometimes in church, we will all recite the Lord's prayer together. Sometimes in our family,  usually at least a couple times a week at our mealtimes, we will just pray the Lord's prayer 

together, but other times we'll pray different prayers. So we can recite the prayer. But in other  times, the Lord's Prayer is still valuable even when we're not reciting it because it can provide  a valuable guide. For more detailed praying. Each brief phrase in the Lord's Prayer can be  expanded in more detail as we speak to God. We start out our Father in heaven, and we can  pour out many heartfelt reasons why we love our Father in heaven, and are glad to be as  children so we don't have to stop with just those few words. And we pray and pray to our  Father and tell him how much we love him. We can talk with our father about particular areas  in our life, our family, our church, our community, our world in which we longed for God's  name to be honored. His kingdom to come, his will to be done. We can say those words, but  then we say, Lord, in my family, you wouldn't be so honored if I would just be more godly if  your will were more evidence in my life, and I were living more in tune with you or if you're  interceding for a family member, there may be areas in your church where you say, Oh, if only God would do such things in the community to bring real revival to renew the holiness to draw more people to Christ, oh, his name would be hallowed. His will would be done, Lord and  make that happen. Make that happen right here in our church, in our town. Make that happen  in our world. And so we don't need to necessarily stop with Thy kingdom come, thy will be  done, thy name be hallowed. But instead we expand on that and go into more detail. We can  pray about various physical and financial needs associated with our daily bread. We just said, Give us this day our daily bread, but you might also say, Lord, and without a job right now,  please provide employment so that I can earn a living for myself and maybe provide for my  family, if you've got a family, you might be having trouble at your work, where it's hard to deal  with certain challenges either from the people you work with, just from the difficulty of the  task, and you will say, Lord, supply what I need in my work, and give me the energy I need  and the insight and the wisdom and the smarts I need. And that can all be part of praying for  daily bread, there may be bills to pay, and you say, Lord, I don't know how I'm gonna handle  that. Please, provide and help me to have wisdom to deal with that. So again, instead of just  reciting the phrase, Give us this day, our daily bread, you take that as a portion of your prayer, and then you begin to pray about matters related to it. We can admit particular sins against  God for which we asked the Lord to forgive us our debts. And we can talk to God about sins  others have committed against us, in order that he may help us to forgive our debtors, so we  don't just rattle off, forgive us our debts, as we've also forgiven our debtors and then move on. We can slow down and say, Lord, forgive us our debts. And here's how I sinned against you.  Since I last prayed, I lost my temper with my kids, and yelled at them when I should have  controlled my temper, and been more calm in my dealings with them. I had evil thoughts in my heart i i lusted after somebody whom I saw walking down the sidewalk today. And you can go  into detail instead of just saying, Lord, forgive us our sins moving on. You take that as a cue  from Jesus to say, Okay, now I need to talk about those sins that need forgiving. And then you come to a say, and Lord, I forgive those who sin against me, and who are they, I'm not just  gonna rattle off that phrase, who is it that's hurt me. And you start thinking about those who  hurt you. And you say, Lord, if I'm still harboring any anger, or any grudge against them, set  me free from that, that I may forgive as you have forgiven me. And so you bring to the Lord all the ways that you've sinned against him or others. And you also bring to the Lord the ways in  which maybe others have sinned against you and ask for His grace to really reign in that  relationship so that you will treat them with grace. And when you pray, Lead us not into  temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. While we can be honest with God about the  temptations that we find especially hard to resist, and tactics of Satan, to which we feel most  vulnerable. And from which we most need deliverance, you can go into detail, and speak of  them and say, Lord, I really struggle with this, lead me not into temptation in that area, deliver  me from it. And so your prayer is not just reciting the words Jesus originally gave, but pouring 

out your heart, and the ways in which your own life that those words apply. In short, the Lord's Prayer can serve as a valuable outline. For more extensive detailed personal prayers. It's not  necessarily more sacred than all other prayers in the Bible, but it is a launching pad. Our Lord Jesus said, in response to the request, teach us how to pray, he gave us that Lord's prayer.  

And it's a great framework for developing our prayer life and then expand and read those  other wonderful prayers of the Bible, those other prayers in the scriptures, and grow in your  prayer life. Prayer is such a privilege. God has called us to communicate with Him. God has  called us into relationship with him. His salvation is not just something where he lets us off the hook and then keeps us at arm's length and doesn't bother with us. His salvation is one or he  says, Come be my child. Be my friend. I want to hear what's on your mind. And I want to  share with you more and more of what's on my mind and as you spend time in my word, and  as you spend time in prayer, may the two minds come closer together, God's thoughts are  always going to be beyond ours. But as your prayer life grows, as you become more and  more in tune with him, and as you're in tune with him, and as you pray truly in Jesus name  because you're on his wavelength. You're going to see the Lord performing mighty deeds in  answer to your prayers. You're going to sense your sins being removed from you, and the  power of the tempter weakening as you become closer to the Lord in prayer. Your heart is  going to be filled and more and more with Thanksgiving. Not just as you say words of thanks  during your prayer life, but it will spill out through your day a sense of wellbeing of  blessedness of gratitude. And above all, you will know God better. And you will revel in his  greatness in his wisdom, in his kindness, in His Majesty, in His mercy in all that he is, and all  that he is for you in Jesus Christ. Prayer brings a heart of worship, of awe of gladness. May  God bless you, as you begin in your prayer life if you're a new believer, or as you advance in  your prayer life as a longtime believer, and may prayer, be one of the great delights of your  heart as you spend time and relate with your Father in heaven.