The emphasis in giving thanks is to thank God for His grace, and the emphasis in praising is to praise God for His acts. Through prayer, we not only touch God’s grace but also witness God’s acts. God’s grace requires thanksgiving, and His acts require praises. We can praise by saying, “Lord, I praise You. You are the wonderful Lord who does wonderful things. Even as I tell You of my difficulties, I sense that You have already taken care of this matter. Your promise is sufficient for me. Praise You!” With respect to the grace of God, we need to give thanks, and with respect to the acts of God, we need to offer praises.
There should also be worship in our prayers. Worship is toward God Himself. We should thank God for His grace, praise Him for His acts, and simply worship Him. Each prayer that is heard and fulfilled enables us to experience God. Experiencing God issues in worshipping God. The Bible shows that worship of God is derived from man’s experience of God. The best and the most evident worship of God was rendered by Jacob as he was dying, leaning on his staff. Jacob’s staff was the symbol of his sojourning on the earth. Because of his many experiences of God, he was able to worship God. This also applies to our worship in prayer. Whether our prayer is heard and fulfilled or has not yet been fulfilled, we touch God and gain knowledge of Him through prayer. Consequently, we should worship Him. In our prayer we should worship God Himself.
If our time for prayer is over and our spirit is exhausted, but our burden related to a particular matter is not yet discharged, we should stop and wait for another time to continue praying for the matter. To pray for a certain matter again and again is the continuation of prayer. Sometimes things are fulfilled as soon as we pray, but other matters require prayer over a long period of time. Some matters require a year or years of prayer in order for them to be fulfilled. God often delights in the continuation of prayer in faith. Continuation of prayer can be compared to placing cards on one side of a scale. Each prayer is like the addition of a card. We should continue to pray until there is enough weight to tip the scale. This is the continuation of prayer.
The complement to prayer is reading the Bible. Reading the Bible and praying complement each other. Good Bible reading needs to be complemented with prayer, and good prayer needs to be complemented with Bible reading. This is what we call reading and praying, praying and reading. These two matters should be mingled so that we cannot distinguish reading from praying. Reading the Bible helps our praying, and praying helps our reading of the Bible. This may be compared to our left and right arms. It is easy for us to lose our balance if either arm is missing. Prayer without reading the Bible makes it difficult for our spirit of prayer to rise up. Therefore, we need to read a portion of the Bible. An appropriate amount of Bible reading can usually uplift, cultivate, and nourish our spirit of prayer. Hence, we need to train ourselves to complement our prayer with the reading of the Bible.
We should all have a set time each day to read the Bible and also a set time to pray. We should pray in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Instead of praying at irregular times, we should decide on definite times for prayer. If we do not set aside definite times, we will lose the time. Those who are experienced realize that in order to redeem the time, we must set aside the time. Only time that has been set aside can be redeemed. This applies even more to times for prayer. If we do not set a time for prayer, we will not pray regularly. Therefore, to have a proper spiritual exercise, we need to set a time to rise up in the morning, a time to read the Bible, and a time to pray.
Just as with Bible reading, the best time to pray is in the morning. Since our heart and spirit are not yet distracted or troubled by many things in the morning, they are able to be quiet before God. It is also easy for our spirit to open to God and be touched in our fellowship with Him. Moreover, there are fewer distractions in the morning, unlike other times of the day when the telephone or the doorbell rings, the neighbor visits, or troubling and trivial matters arise. The best time for us to pray in a peaceful environment before God is in the morning.
In Psalm 119:164 David said that he praised Jehovah seven times a day. In Psalm 55:17 he said that he prayed to God in the evening, in the morning, and at noon. When Daniel was in captivity in Babylon, he knelt down before God to pray three times a day (Dan. 6:10). Besides praying in the morning, we should also pray at other times.
It is sufficient for the duration of each prayer time to be twenty to thirty minutes. Prayer time that is too long often results in a loss of interest, exhaustion, and hesitancy to pray again. Unless there is a special burden, our prayer times do not need to be very long.
In order to have a good prayer life, we should also find companions to pray with. This will cause our prayer to be strengthened and also help us to maintain a prayer life. For many Christians, it is not easy to pray unless they pray with others. It is especially difficult for those who have a wandering mind to be calm in order to pray alone. If they can pray with two or three others, it is easier for their mind to concentrate and be calm. In this way they can pray for a longer period of time.
If we always pray alone, our learning in prayer will surely be inadequate. If several people pray together, there will be more learning in our prayer. In 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul exhorted Timothy to pursue “with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” It is best if every brother and sister would spend some time praying with others, apart from their own individual prayer time.
Christians should also attend prayer meetings. There are many lessons on prayer that can be learned in prayer meetings.