How To Have A More Effective Prayer Practice: Part 2

Part 2 -- Looking At Techniques For Effective Prayer 

How To Pray -- Three Techniques 

By this point, hopefully you see what is required to have an effective prayer. If I can sum it up in one world, it would be “wrestle.”

Now, let’s talk about ways to make your prayer more effective and more enjoyable. 

The key to have having an effective prayer is silence. The scriptures teach us that the Spirit is a “still, small voice” because of this, we have to attune our hearts and minds to receiving it. There is a channel to heaven that we are seeking to connect with. However, a rough search on the internet shows that one major challenge people have with prayer is getting distracted. The following are a few prayer techniques you can use to avoid distraction. I will go over each one so you can decide which is best for you. 

Technique 1 --  Read a verse from the scripture and meditate upon it—meditate on a word or phrase

Under this option, your approach will be to choose a verse from the scriptures and to mediate upon it. The verse can be any verse of you choosing. It can be a particular one that you like, or it can be one that you have found while reading. Personally, I enjoy reading the Psalms and the choosing a verse, or even a phrase upon which to mediate. In any case, the focus of this approach is to choose a verse (or even a passage) and meditate upon it. 

The next step is to structure your mediation. As you meditate upon the scripture, think of the following: 

1. What does it say?

2. What does it mean?

3. What does the Lord want me to learn?

4. How can I apply it?

As you follow these questions, you can toggle back and forth. For instance, you can spend time thinking solely about application, or spend time thinking about meaning. Regardless of the approach, the main purpose is to fill your mind with virtuous thoughts. By meditating upon a verse, you prevent outside thoughts for entering. The more outside thoughts you can exclude, the greater will be your connection with the Lord. 

Technique 2 --  Recite the Lord’s prayer 

Another option is to memorize and then recite the Lord’s prayer while you’re praying. As a side-note, I did this for a while and found it to be very helpful. The reason why the Lord’s prayer is helpful is because it covers all the important elements of prayer. Those elements are: praise; submission; petition; forgiveness. Let’s look at how those elements are present. 

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.	One aspect of prayer that we tend to ignore is praise. Yet in the Lord’s prayer, praise is the first thing. The Lord’s prayer begins with praising the Father.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.	The next aspect is submission. After praising the Father, the prayer continues with seeking for the kingdom. The verse concludes with “thy will be done.” This is powerful! The prayer’s focus is on God’s will not our own. In essence, the person praying this prayer is saying that it doesn’t matter what happens to him, as long as whatever happens futhers God’s will. God’s will, in other words, is front and center. Instead of asking for his needs, the prayer instead praises and then submits to God’s will. Mastering this attitude in your prayer will make all the difference.  As a side note, this is one component that is neglected in how we teach prayer in the LDS Church. We start off right with showing gratitude, but then our prayers go off the rails when we start asking. The reason for this, all asking needs to be within God’s will. When a person goes from thanking to asking, without thinking about God’s will, his prayer is empty and will be ineffective.
Give us this day our daily bread.	The next step in the prayer is petitioning. Looking at the Lord’s prayer we notice something very important. The petition is moderate and humble. The person is merely asking for his needs, and he his only asking for his needs for that day. The mind of the person praying is only focused on the present. And within the present, only the what is needed.  Moreover, if we take this into historical context, we get more insight. During Jesus’ life, most people's’ sustenance was bread. Therefore, by asking for his daily bread, the person praying the prayer is simply asking for what he needs to survive -- both spiritually and temporally.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.	The next step is forgiveness. The forgiveness comes in asking for forgiveness of ourselves and for others. This is essential step for reasons I don’t think I have to explain.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.	The last component is to ask for protection from being led into temptation. We all struggle with certain weaknesses. By having protection from temptation as a component of our prayer, we petition God for protection and allow for God to do so.

Therefore, as you can see the reason why the Lord’s prayer is so powerful and an effective tool in reaching God, is because it contains all the required elements that make a prayer meaningful and real. 

As stated above, there are a few options you can take when it comes to reciting the Lord’s prayer. 

The first option -- use it as your first prayer before praying your own personal prayer. For example, as your close your eyes to pray, recite the prayer. After you have finished, you then go on to your own prayer. 

The second option -- meditate on a certain element. For example, as your close your pray, recite the prayer and then afterwards go back to a certain element and meditate on it. Personally, I did this one the most. I would recite the Lord’s prayer and afterwards go back to an element an mediaite upon it. Because I felt I was selfish in my desires, I focused on the submission aspect. I focused on visualized what it’d look like to fully submit to God. I would ask myself areas where I was too selfish. I did this over and over until I felt the spirit direct my words and thoughts. 

Before moving on the 3 option, I want to clarify one thing and that is about repetition. You probably recall or even have on objection to the template of prayer I outlined above. You might think to yourself -- “hey, didn’t the Lord commands us to not use repetitions in our prayer?” The answer is no. Instead, the Lord instructed us not to use vain repetitions, he never said that we can’t repeat prayers. For a repetition to be vain, is for it to be empty or worthless. Therefore, a vain repetition would be one that repeats for the sake of repeating. However, if you are intentionally and purposely repeating certain in order to pondering up its meaning and application, then you are not violating the Lord’s command. Instead, you are pondering upon the word of life. And by doing so, opening up the heavens. After all, we are taught to store up in our hearts, the words of life (Matthew 6:21). 

Moreover, if you still are skeptical. I encourage you to review the gospels. In doing so, you will find that Lord often quotes the Psalms. This is particularly true on the cross where he prays Psalm 22:2. If Christ was against his repeating prayers, then his doing so on the cross would have been in violation of that commandment. We know this can’t be the case. Therefore, Christ’s command dealt with a certain manner of repetitions, not prohibition of repetitions outright 

Technique 3 -- Use Your Own Prayer 

This technique is a blend between techniques (1) and (2) . With this one, you recite and meditate upon your own personally written prayer. I have started doing this one. Sometimes during the day, I will be inspired to write a prayer. I will then record it in my phone. 

Here is an example of one of my prayers: 

O Lord, help me to endure so that I can acquire greater truth. Correct me swiftly in my errors so I don’t err for long. Give me wisdom so that I may be a light to others. Give me strength so I can endure and not faint. Grant me charity so that I can forget about myself and focus on others. And help me to place my focus on the things above instead of on the things below. For all except the knowledge of You is hevel.

At night I then will sometimes recite this prayer. I do this and then wait for the spirit to direct me in what to do next, whether that be to continue praying or to listen. 

Regardless of which technique you choose, it's important to ensure that one aspect of your prayer is dedicated to listening. As you meditate or recite the Lord's prayer and your own prayer, take some pauses of silence and just listen. If your mind starts to wonder again, recite a prayer and then go back to listening. One reason why we don't receive answers is because our minds are too distracted. If we can limit the amount of distraction, we'll increase our connection to heaven.

What To Expect

Of course each person is different, thus it’s likely that each person experiences prayer differently. Nevertheless, there are a few indications to tell if your are improving in your prayer 

        1. Words come to you 

        2. Your body is filled with the Spirit.

        3. You enjoy it 

4. You feel a connection with heaven

5. You begin to receive answers through words and not only feelings

6. Your day is not the same without prayer.

7. You'll be willing to sacrifice other interests and activities in order to pray longer

8. You'll make praying a routine and make it the center of your schedule.

As you continue your effort in prayer, you will eventually “connect” with the Spirit. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll know when it happens. When this happens, you can feel confident that God hears you and that your prayer is effective. Prayer is a unique and cherished opportunity to existence in God's presence. To surrender yourself to the present moment, letting God fill your heart with peace and joy.

Why We Fail? 

The following are some reasons why we fail in having an effective prayer. 

Mind is too distracted	If this is a problem, one way to avoid this is to cut out worldly activities before praying. For example, you could stop watching TV a hour before praying. Another solution is read the scriptures before praying. That way, you last stimuli is related to scriptures.
Give Up Too Quickly	The Lord grants according to our desires. If we pray for 10min, but watch TV for 40, then it’s obvious what is more important. To have an effective prayer we need to want to have a connection with God more than anything else. Therefore, if you feel inclined to give up because you are not seeing any results, the best advice is to continue praying and also compare your prayer efforts to other activities you engage in.
Lazy	Prayer is not a passive thing. It requires a great deal of focus and concentration. When you come to prayer, you must come with an attitude willing to struggle through it.
We Doubt	We have to believe that the Lord will respond. If we doubt that what we are doing is effective, then we are likely to shut ourselves off from the Lord.
Impatient	Moses waited 40 days before he received the 10 commandments. Sometimes the Lord hasn’t responded because we are not holy enough. Therefore, we have to wait and allow His spirit to work through us.
Not Obedient	Need to keep the commandments.

Last Thing

Don’t give up! The Lord has promised that he answers prayers. Have faith and he’ll come through! 

Resources:

The following are some book I've read for improving prayer. They aren't perfect, but they offer some helpful principles for improving prayer.

• The Art of Listening Prayer -- Seth Barnes
• The Lord And HIs Prayer -- NT Wright
• A Praying Life -- Paul E. Miller
• Flee, Be Silent, Pray: Ancient Prayers For Anxious Christians -- Ed Cyzewski
• Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life -- Donald S. Whitney