What Are the Prerequisites to Prayer?

They may not be what you think.

Humility 

You don’t have to have been a christian for a long time before you begin to pray. Our first cry to God, “Lord have mercy,” continues to be a great example of prayer. When we ask for mercy, we are aware of what we have not earned and do not deserve.

Prayer cannot begin with the prideful belief that I am entitled to something - that if I pray, God must fix things. If we critically look at our prayers, we may see that praying often becomes little more than  a crisis-inspired demand for what we have decided we deserve. This will cause us to view prayer as another duty that we check off a list in exchange for good things from God. This understanding puts God and myself on the same level as equals in a business exchange, or worse imagines God as my servant. 

Like Job, we need to see God for who He truly is (Sovereign and Savior) and humble ourselves. To paraphrase Job, we must say, “I will not demand that I understand things which are too wonderful for me to know.”  (Job. 42:3) 

He loves to be merciful.(Isa. 30:18). He opposes the proud. He gives grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5c)

She who would pour out her heart to the Lord needs a Mary-like attitude of humility, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” (Luke 1:38)

Weakness

Somewhere along the way, I think we hear others pray, and try to imitate them. Prayer becomes some kind of a performance that we have to get right.  Please, put away thoughts of needing to be perfect. Perfection will never be a prerequisite to prayer. The Apostle Paul said that he did not know how to pray as he should. (Romans 8:26). When we are weak, we are pretty good at pouring out our hearts.

“True prayer is measured by weight not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length.”  Spurgeon 

Self-sufficient people don’t pray. Why would they need to? Thankfully, God loves His children too much to let them continue in the dangerous lie of self sufficiency. He puts them in situations beyond their control. And suddenly, prayer is a necessity. One of the kindnesses of God was to give me so many children that I realized I could not mother them in my own strength. That is when my praying started in earnest. 

God wants us to call to him - to tell him our concerns. He loves to be strong on our behalf. (Ps. 68:28). Jesus knows what it is like to live in the broken world. He sympathizes with your cares. (Heb. 4:14,15).

She who would pour out her heart to the Lord needs the Psalmist-like realization of dependence.

 “As the eyes of a maid servant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God until He shows us mercy.” (Psalm 123:2). 

“From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.” (Psalm 61:2)