The Right Attitude of Prayer

It is pretty common knowledge that believers engage in certain kinds of activities. These are mostly prayer, singing hymns and Godly songs, Bible reading, attending services, and worshiping and praising God. When done in earnest reverence, these practices are pleasing to Heavenly Father. They are practices that show our faith, and they are separate from the world. Sadly, most of us make these a very small portion of our weekly schedules, and we make the other side of life dominant. This is the side that has to do with work, other relationships and recreation; and all the primping and pampering we may do. It’s this other side that is typically our greatest source of frustration. We are almost never happy with it, and it contains the situations and conditions we come to God in prayer about the most.

The divided life has always been an obstacle for believers. It is why God warns us not to partition off our lives and offer it to Him in segments or components; keeping some undercover or for ourselves and offering Him that small seemingly unmanageable piece. This was not the way of Christ, and it will not do for us either. Through the Apostle Paul, God 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.” We are to LET our bodies be a living and holy sacrifice to Heavenly Father. It is an act of our free-will choice to make this so. If God requires it, then we must know with every degree of confidence that He has equipped us to get it done.

Thankful but unwilling
When we come to God in prayer, having the right attitude is essential. It is one of acknowledging that Jesus Christ is our perfect example. He lived authentically and richly, and he didn’t hold back one thing from the Father. In John 8:29(NLT), he declared, “And the one who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.” His whole life was kept blameless, and his whole life was offered as a sacrifice for our sins. No part of his existence was contaminated with sin until he voluntarily took it on for our sakes. He walked this earth fully man and fully God, and he never did anything that didn’t please the Father.

Many of us tend to come to God in prayer with an attitude of distrusting the accomplished work of Christ. We think to ourselves, “Yes, I know he did all of that, and I’m thankful, but I am unable to live up to God’s expectations the way Christ did.” We say we’re thankful for what Jesus did, but we are unwilling to walk in the fullness of what he’s given us. Thankfulness is more than a feeling, it’s an action. And although we shouldn’t get caught up in anyone’s doctrine of perfection, we must know that it is possible to commit ourselves to God in a way that our actions are clothed in His love through the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father tells us in 1Thessalonians 5:23 that He will make us holy in every way, and He will meet us in that place where we intend to keep our whole spirit, soul, and body blameless before Him. This is God’s desire.

The reality that God requires our whole lives is to our extreme benefit and advantage. It is the greatest testament to how He is willing to reward us in return. Our Christian life through Jesus Christ is not a pitiful, powerless one. God made us, and the psalmist declared in Psalm 139:14 that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Ephesians 2:10(NLT) tells us, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” No aspect of our being offends the Lord, because He created us for His glory, and we can be all that He’s called us to be. Our right attitude in prayer must always be one of recognizing who we are in Christ, that even though we don’t always make the best choices, we are empowered through the Holy Spirit to do so. We must always know that our lives are precious to Heavenly Father, that through prayer we can commune with Him intimately and live a life full of His power and grace.

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

“The Right Attitude of Prayer” by Alexandra Copeland. Copyright© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.