Praying Effectively with Direction of Purpose

In one of my form invitation for Topics Suggestions, I received 2 questions from one visitor to the linkschool21 web site.

1) How can one pray effectively?

2) Does sin make one lack direction during prayer?

I should like to answer these questions today.

As for question #1, I have already an article written on this issue which can be read at this link.

As for question #2, there are different types of sins that could definitely make one lack direction during prayer; but we have tools and protection against this.

To begin with, prayer should ALWAYS start with a prayer of deliverance from the attacks of the enemy, asking the Holy Spirit to clean the air of any disturbances and to guide us and keep us focused on our prayer time and purpose.

Then, we must first of all realize that we are sinners saved by grace.

So we first must be saved. How do we do that? We call on the Lord Jesus Christ who is our God and Saviour. We realize we are sinners and that we want Him to forgive us of our sins and we ask Him to come into our lives as Saviour and Lord.

Then, the Bible tells us that we no longer sin "willfully". We might still sin but the Holy Spirit of God prompts us to see our error, which we immediately deal with through repentance.

Even when we are saved, we still fall down at times, but we repent and get back up again.

It is important, indeed critical, to stay close to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is our Righteousness. To seek the Holy Spirit every day and to live according to His Word. We must read the Word daily to stay strong.

Jesus Christ is our Righteousness in that we are not righteous of ourselves but IN HIM AND THROUGH HIM we are made righteous before God Father.

So the different types of sin would be those that we sin against God willfully which would interfere with our prayer directions; and those that we sin by mistake for which we repent and that God faithfully understands and forgives us of.

If we fall but are sincere to repent, changing our way about it, then our prayers are received by God effectively.

What is important to God is that we are sincere and honest with Him from the bottom of our heart. He recognizes that and is faithful to answer our prayers.

As far as the specific question of "lacking direction during prayer" -- if what is meant by that is to be "disrupted", again, as we are disrupted, we need to get back on track, tell the disrupter (the enemy of God - the devil) to get back where he belongs and plead the blood of Jesus upon us to keep us safe and focused on our prayer./dmh

Dr. Diane M. Hoffmann is director of the Link School of Ministries, a Christian Bible Correspondence School and Internet Theological Reading Room at www.linkschool21.com . She is the author of numerous Christian seminars and theological articles, tracts, e-books and books, including "The Horizontal Chronology of the Four Gospels". (Article copyright Diane M. Hoffmann. You may reprint this article without changes and including author's name and resource box).

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