Keep Prayer Simple

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for power equal to your tasks.”

—PHILLIP BROOKS

Let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to listen to the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You day and night.

—Nehemiah 1:6

A lot of people struggle with their prayer life. They feel frustrated and confused, and I believe it is because we think that simple prayer can’t be acceptable to God. Somehow we have bought into the idea that prayer must be eloquent, long, and perfect. God has challenged me to pray simply, telling Him what I want or need in the fewest words possible, yet being very sincere. I think we often try to say so much we lose our focus. We end up just rambling on and on and find it difficult to release our faith. We make it more about our words and less about Him.

One might pray for a long time but somehow feel they are not finished or as if their prayers did not get through to God. I also attribute this to not keeping prayer simple. For example, if you have sinned by not being truthful about something, you can try simply saying, “Father, I ask You to forgive me for being untruthful and I receive Your forgiveness now, In Jesus’ name, amen!” Wait a few moments in God’s Presence and receive by faith what you have just asked for. Now, if you need to make restitution by correcting your former statement to another person, go ahead and do that, but also realize you are no longer under condemnation. God has forgiven you so you can forgive yourself. Wow! That is simple, isn’t it? Pray like this and you will feel your prayer is finished!

The entire nature of faith is simple. There is nothing complicated about it. Faith simply leans on, relies on, and trusts in God. Faith believes the Word of God. Faith knows God is faithful, and that nothing is impossible with Him.

God Himself is simple. When asked by Moses to explain who He was, God said, “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). When we search the Bible for the answer to all of our problems, we find it always says in simple, certain terms—“Believe” (see John 11:40). We are instructed to simply come to Him as a little child (see Luke 18:17). I don’t find too many little children trying to be eloquent or impressive when asking their parents for something. They are plain, simple, and straightforward. Simple prayer will help produce a simple life, so get started right away praying prayers that God will listen to.