Prayer Guidance
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. – 1 Peter 3:12 NKJV.
But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. – 1 Peter 4:7 NKJV.
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. – 1 John 5:14-15 NKJV.
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men – 1 Timothy 2:1 NKJV.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV.
Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. – Colossians 4:2 NKJV.
Ruqiyyah Abdur Raqeeb Sadiq, a 28-year-old woman failed to stop at a stop sign in Mary Esther, Florida, crossed an intersection, and slammed into the side of a house. Usually with accidents like this you would think that alcohol or drug use would be involved. However, you would be wrong this time. Sadiq said that the accident must have happened while she had her eyes closed praying. This was also likely why they took her to a hospital for evaluation. Sadiq has been charged with reckless driving with property damage. Thankfully, no one in the house was injured. (Daily News of NW Florida 07.11.16; Smoking Gun 07.12.16)
There are some things that you should not do while praying. As we see with Sadiq’s accident, driving with your eyes closed while praying is one of those things. Also, in spite of what Carrie Underwood sings in “Jesus, Take the Wheel” it would be a mistake to turn loose of the steering wheel while you are driving.
There are some things that will hinder our prayers, but in general God will hear our prayers:
When we pray with our eyes closed.
When we pray with our eyes open.
When we pray with our heads bowed.
When we pray without our heads being bowed.
When we have our faces turned toward Heaven.
When we pray out loud.
When we pray silently.
When we pray standing up.
When we pray sitting.
When we pray lying down.
When we pray upside down.
When we pray running.
When we pray walking.
There are hardly any wrong ways to pray, and some prayers are unspoken as God hears our heart’s cry. I like Amy Grant’s song, “Better than a Hallelujah” where she sings:
God loves a lullaby
In a mother’s tears in the dead of night
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah
The woman holding on for life
The dying man giving up the fight
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes
The tears of shame for what’s been done
The silence when the words won’t come
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes
Regardless of what we pray or how we pray, the Spirit we are told makes intercession for us according to the will of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit translates our prayers so that the Father hears them according to His will. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27 NKJV).”