In This Manner

In What Manner of Prayer

What Manner of Prayer is This? – Part 1

One of the things that Pamela and I like to do before we broach any topic is to get first impressions from a group. When you hear the phrase “praying in a manner” what are your initial thoughts? While in this particular installment we won’t get into it, we would like to get your thoughts traveling with us in that direction. For many, this will be a new concept and for others it will be quite familiar. After we travel through these pages, I know we will all leave better off than when we arrived. Together we’re going to learn what it means to “pray in a manner.”

“In this manner, therefore, pray…” ^[1]

This phrase has an implied conclusion which is that most, the majority (50% or better), may not be praying in a manner. It also implies that maybe the manner in which we pray may give us some room to go to the next level. All of this is true.

Keep in mind that when we speak of prayer for the moment, we’re talking about the high-level, yet common, definition of the word which includes all we know about prayer. It includes having a conversation with God as well as offering requests to God, etc. I don’t really like using the word “prayer” in a broad sense, but for this lesson we will need it all. The English language has done us a disservice when it comes to the original languages of the Bible. You see, our modern society will condense multiple Biblical concepts down to one word. Prayer is such a word. When we think of prayer in the general sense it becomes an extremely large number of concepts. Let’s not get hung up on that as we discuss the manners in which we pray, in this next section of “next level prayer.”
Allow me to briefly describe the pieces that make up our messages on “praying in a manner.”

• Defining what it means to pray in a manner.
  The first thing we need to do is define what it means to pray in a manner. What’s the benefits as well as the disadvantages? We will also discuss the first impressions this phrase held for others.
  Jesus in teaching on prayer, said to His students, “pray in this manner.” ^[1] Why’s that? This means there is at least one manner in which we should probably pray. What happened to make Jesus give them this concept of prayer in a manner?

   

• Prayer Exercises
  We call people who are serious about prayer, pray-ers (people who pray). They are like members of a football team. Those who participate are called play-ers. In sports, the players exercise. In prayer as we learned earlier, we must exercise to get better in our sport. You are an athlete and your sport is prayer, that makes you a pray-er. Those exercise routines are what we call workouts. It’s these workouts that help us to become better pray-ers.
  
  All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. ^[2]
  
  If you want to win or in our language get to the next level (the NFL of Prayer) then you will need to be disciplined in your training as a prayer athlete.

   

• Prayer Workout Plans, Prayer Plans, and Prayer Agendas
  Praying in a manner is simply praying with a pre-set agenda. Most of us, who have been in church for any length of time, are pretty familiar with this. The outline for prayer that comes to mind is “The Lord’s Prayer.” In fact, it is He who said that we should pray in a manner. I like to think of praying in a manner as if prayer is an exercise program. In the exercise of prayer you can have a number of workouts with the goal of targeting a specific spiritual outcome, for lack of a better term. Having plans for prayer is essential to having success in it. Without a plan, one plans to fail, even when it comes to prayer.

   

• Build Your Prayer Time Out
  Set a plan for how you’d like your time of prayer to look. I like to think of the outcome I am interested in having whenever I pray. In other words, I consider the time I have and build out what all I can accomplish during this time to achieve the outcome I desire. I plan to enjoy the experience and set up the environment and experience so that I do enjoy it. I know that might sound a little strange and what I mean by achieving the desired outcome is this. I simply mean what all I need to cover or speak with God about during the limited time I have. Before you go into prayer, set a plan and build out the time so that it brings joy. In this way you look forward to repeating this exercise daily.

We will cover all this and more in this new series, “What Manner of Prayer is This?” I have to admit that Pamela didn’t like the title I chose to use here, but once I explained it she was okay with it. Jesus described a manner in which one could pray when He was teaching His disciples how to pray. What’s interesting here is that they had a direct conversation with God on earth, but saw John’s disciples speaking with the God of Heaven and it was this that caught their attention. It motivated them to have a desire for the same. Is your “manner” of prayer, causing others to want to pray to God in Heaven? Are others taking note of your manner of prayer? That is the goal for these next installments of “next level prayer.”

Question: in what manner are you praying?

[1] ‭‭Matthew 6:9 NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed August 24, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/114/MAT.6.9.NKJV

[2] ‭‭1 Corinthians 9:25 NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed August 24, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/1CO.9.25.NLT

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.