The Right Attitude of Prayer

By Alexandra Copeland

The word ‘conviction’ is a very important one to our Christian lives. It means to be thoroughly convinced something is true beyond a shadow of doubt. When a person has a conviction, not only does he or she believe something is true, they will take a stand for this truth in the face of any set of circumstances or consequences. This is the kind of conviction that God is looking for in the hearts and minds of His people. He wants us to trust Him with full conviction and take a stand on His Word! The way that we learn to trust God is by believing His Holy Word. And no, it isn’t enough to give it lip service and say that we believe the scriptures. Our lives must back up our conviction, which means that we walk the walk and talk the talk. The Word of God is also the source of conviction for our prayer lives. God wants us to be convinced that He will help us in the time of need. Heavenly Father answers prayer, but many of us, even seasoned Christians, are not convinced in their hearts that He does.  

There is great need in our world today and people are hurting, but our God is faithful. He said in Matthew 7:7-8(NLT), “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” I remember the first time I read that verse several years ago, as a young Christian. I became so excited, because I was a person with great need. After graduating college, life seemed promising. I had a decent job, my own apartment, and a new car. I thought I was doing the doggone thang’! I was reared in the church and had become born-again when I was sixteen, but in truth, the necessity to saturate our minds with God’s Word and to study it diligently was not stressed in my faith community. I knew a few common verses, and I believed what I knew, but I was nowhere near being convinced that God loved me as much as He does.  

During this time in my life, I made some bad choices and mistakes, and in a few years, I had gone from having steady income to having no job and no money coming in. I didn’t even have money to buy groceries. Even when I was down, God sent loving friends to aid me, but I resented that I had lost so much and believed that God had not answered my prayers for help. I thought I had been living the Christian life, but I wasn’t convinced of God’s love, and therefore really didn’t know enough to walk in faith.  

1John 4:16 says, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” There’s one thing that we must be certain of and it’s this, if we really want to walk with God, we must trust Him. We can’t live in Him without trusting in His love. We’re on this earth to have a relationship with Heavenly Father. That’s why Jesus Christ came and sacrificed his life on the Cross of Calvary, so that we could reestablish and develop a true and meaningful relationship with God through our Lord and Savior.  

God tells us in 1Timothy 6:17 (NLT), “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.” God is our sufficiency. He is the Source of all that is good, but sometimes we place more trust in money, people, and things than we do in Him. We can get into serious trouble when we do this, because we’re playing right into the devil’s hands. Fear in our hearts causes us to cling tightly to the things of the world. Some of us are under the delusion that those things have the power to sustain us, but nothing in all eternity is more real than the love of God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Only God can sustain us.

  

Prayer is our way to communicate with God through an attitude of reverence and faith. Sometimes we pray, and we might feel as though God isn’t hearing us, but deep down we know that our hearts are far from Him. Our God is holy, and our sins, doubt, and fear have separated us from Him. No one is more deserving of our respect and honor than our Creator. It doesn’t make sense that we would stand when dignitaries enter a room, and yet we won’t ask for God’s forgiveness when we pray; we won’t get our hearts in the right place before Him and take a stand for His honor and glory. God doesn’t bend when it comes to His Word. He is beyond faithful to it, and we must be as well.  

1Corinthians 14:33 tells us that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. 1Corinthians 14:40 further cements that He wants things to be done decently and in order. Our new birth reality begins our relationship with God. He’s the Father and we’re the children. Just as our earthly parents deserve our respect, God deserves it even more so.  

A good relationship is one where both parties value one another. God has shown us how much He values us. Romans 5:8 (NLT) tells us, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Valuing God means that we trust Him with our whole hearts. A little dab here and a little dab there isn’t going to cut it. God wants and deserves all of us. He tells us in Romans 12:1(NLT), “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” In a nutshell, God says, “Give me all of you.” 

He wants every drop of us because He has a plan for us, and it’s a good plan. He will not overstep our free-will and make us fall in line. He will not come inside the inner sanctum of our beings and start shoving the bad things out and putting the good stuff in. Through the new birth reality, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, and through him, the gift of Holy Spirit, God will work within us to help us. He’ll give us the strength to overcome obstacles, and He will empower us to do and desire the things that please Him, but we have a major part to play in the process and our communication with God through prayer is crucial. 

Repenting from our sin, asking God to forgive us, and praying in the powerful name of Jesus Christ are required in our prayer lives, because they open the door for God to work in us. We are in relationship with Heavenly Father through His blessed only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Reverencing God, holding Him in the highest place of honor in our hearts doesn’t mean that we are restricted in what we can pray or talk to Him about, but an attitude of respect and reverence signifies that we know who He is. It means that we’re praying to the Almighty God, Father of Jesus Christ, and Creator of all that we survey. It also indicates that we acknowledge who God has made us through His beloved Son. Make no mistake, God’s arms are always open wide to us. To walk into them there must be recognition on our part that He loves us, and that He proved His love through the precious blood of Christ that was shed for our sins.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.