In general, it is said that to pray is to talk with God; But, seeing it this way, we run the risk of minimizing the importance of prayer. In a marriage relationship, of the first complaints, is some failure in communication. With your spouse, you do not talk to talk; There are context, situations, thoughts, wounds, mistakes. A marriage with communication problems, is not that you do not speak, but that you do it incorrectly; They have not learned how to express themselves and listen. In the same way, with God. Prayer is communicating with God, but do not minimize how vital prayer is and what it represents in your life.
"It happened that Jesus was praying in one place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."
Luke 11: 1
In this verse, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, as John taught his disciples; So, you have to teach people to pray. Also, if Jesus had minimized the prayer, he would have said: Be calm, do not worry, prayer is talking to God. But no; Jesus told them how to pray; He gave them a pattern to pray and present themselves before the Lord correctly. Jesus prayed constantly; He made long prayers, short prayers, fasted; He used different patterns, levels, ways of praying, and taught the disciples how to do it, and also how not to do it.
"5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, to be seen by men; Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. "Matthew 6: 5
This verse, on many occasions, is used to say that we can not pray in public; But what Jesus says is that your intention to pray in public should not be that they see you.
"6 But you, when you pray, enter your room, and shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in public. 7 And praying, do not use vain repetitions, like the Gentiles, who think that by their talk they will be heard. 8 Do not, therefore, be like them; for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him. "Matthew 6: 6-8
There are those who pray to impress, saying words in Greek, Aramaic; Jesus prayed very simply, and his prayers paid off. Pray is more than just talking to God; It is the way in which the human being communicates with God through natural language; and there is also a spiritual language. It is our way of communicating with God, but we should not minimize it and let go of looking for how to do it correctly.
In a marriage, you are looking for the best time to talk; And so we have to think with God. If you want your relationship to be effective, you need to learn what to do, how to do it, what your heart's intention should be, and what things you should not do.
One of the biggest causes of frustration in people, as far as prayer is concerned, is that they do not see results; They become discouraged and stop praying, but it is not prayer that failed, but rather they did not do it correctly.
There are four modalities that do not constitute true prayer: Mantras, litanies, prayers and meditation. None of these is a way of praying, although the structure of these can be part of our prayer.
1.-Mantras - Repetition of words or sounds, awarding supernatural powers, entering a trance. You can speak in tongues and make a sound that you do not understand, but it is not the same; You do not enter a trance. Speaking in other languages has to be dominated by your spirit; If you are dominated by the Spirit, you can speak in tongues when you decide, and stop doing it in the same way. The Spirit does not work in disorder.
2.-Litanies - Repetition of expressions longer than mantras. As believers, when we read the Word, there are certain things that we repeat, but it is a different sense when we do it under the Spirit of God, than to do it believing that it is the repetition of a particular phrase that causes some kind of result.
3.-Prayers - Pray the prayer that another already prayed. Repeating the Our Father again and again is a prayer. And we could think that this is the prayer that Jesus said we would do, but no; What he said was that this is how we should pray, he taught the model of how to pray. There is nothing wrong with saying the Our Father, but the essence of prayer depends on your personal connection with God. Your prayer comes from an experience with God and the moment. In Psalms, there are multiple prayers that David does, but they are not written for you to repeat, but to teach you the condition David was in, the faith he had, what he said to get out of his situation; But not for you to pray that same prayer because that does not promise to have the same results that David had. It is one thing to ask a new convert to repeat a prayer, because he does not know what to say and must be taught; But there comes a time when you learn.
4.-Meditation - In transcendental meditation, they go on astral trips, they leave the body. In the Bible, Paul says: I know a man; if in the mind, I do not know; if in the body, I do not know; But I went to the third heaven. So Paul had an experience that his mind could not explain. But, in transcendental meditation, generally, they are worshiping other gods; totally out of the Word and of what a relationship with God is. We must meditate on the Word, but it is a different dynamic, because the heart is different.
Prayer is a personal experience, and your experience, your understanding, your knowledge of the Word, is what makes you mature in your prayer life.
