God Centred Praying: The Right Way to Pray

God Centred Praying: The Right Way to Pray by Zac Poonen

There are two essentials to effective prayer.

The first is that we must have a God-given BURDEN. Prayer is like a circle that begins and ends in God. The first half of that circle is God giving us a burden in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. The second half of the circle is our praying that God-inspired prayer back to our Father. Thus the circle is complete. This is what it means to ‘pray in the Spirit’.

The second essential is FAITH. God expects us to trust Him. We dishonour Him by unbelief – because unbelief implies that God is less considerate towards us than earthly fathers are towards their children.

Prayer is not really prayer in God’s ears, if our petitions originate only in our minds or on our tongues. It is only when they are the deepest longings of our hearts, that they become true prayer.

Prayer is essentially a matter of life. And the effectiveness of our prayers will depend upon the righteousness of our life. True righteousness makes a man God-centred. That means that he begins to “look at things from God’s viewpoint” (Colossians 1:9 – paraphrase). He is no longer looking at people or things or circumstances from a human viewpoint (2 Corinthians 5:16). All these may remain unchanged around him. But the God-centred man has moved up to the heavenlies, and now looks at everyone and everything the way God looks at them.

Only such a man can pray according to the mind of God.

God meant prayer to be to our spirits what breathing is to our bodies. Breathing is an effortless activity that we are engaged in all the time. We don’t need books to teach us how to breathe! In fact, when breathing becomes difficult for us, it’s a sign of some sickness!

That doesn’t mean prayer is not strenuous work. Jesus prayed “with loud crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7). The apostles “laboured earnestly in their prayers” ( Colossians 4:12). All wholehearted Christians will find prayer to be the same, for “our struggle is against spiritual forces of wickedness” ( Ephesians 6:12). But when prayer becomes a dreary ritual, it’s a sure sign that the patient has ‘spiritual asthma’!

Such believers are sick. And they need to realise it. What they need to be cured is not more teaching on how to pray but some teaching on re-orienting their priorities in life.

That’s what this book is all about.

When we are centred in God and have our priorities right, we’ll be healed of this ‘asthma’. Prayer will still be mingled with loud crying and tears, and there will still be travail and struggle, but it won’t be a ritual any longer. It will be a delight and a joy.