The Right Way to Pray

"While our Kurt was taking his entrance exams for a doctoral program in physics, I spent the three hours in prayer," wrote Evelyn Christenson. "Not knowing how to pray for three whole hours on the same subject, I asked God to teach me.

"One of the amazing things He showed me was that, although I sincerely was praying for God's will, some of my motives for wanting Kurt to pass those tests were wrong. It was God waving His yellow caution flag, 'Watch it!'

"Creeping into what I thought were only pure motives about God's will for my son's future was a wrong motive--pride. I found myself praying a seemingly normal, motherly prayer: 'Oh, God, what if Kurt's cousin Paul passes his tests and gets into his biomedical engineering program and our son flunks?' God's rebuke set me praying for forgiveness for the wrong motive in my praying."

God listens for the prayers of those who don't care who gets the glory and the credit. If we pray for carnal desires, the Spirit becomes quiet within us. We discover we are praying on our own. It's as though the Holy Spirit is saying, "I can't approve that prayer. You may mean well, but you are not asking for My desires." As we listen to the Spirit, He will guide us to a better way of praying.

Thank You, Father, for sending the Spirit to guide our praying.

"Pray in the Spirit on all occasions" (Ephesians 6:18).