FAITH CAPSULE: Are you praying with understanding to access God?

Matthew 6

Prayer is not a parade to impress man but to provoke the hand of God for His favor of goodness. Prayer is a labor that is not for one with the spirit of laziness. 
The prayer of Jesus in the garden demonstrates that prayer is labor that God cannot ignore. Luke 22:44 identifies the labor prayer of Jesus, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”  Engage prayer laboriously as a way of life in this wicked world to be saved. 
Give yourself to prayer.
Prayer is the master key to assess receiving from God. With understanding, prayer is not assuming to receive from God but to ask, seek or knock just as Matthew 7:7 records, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
To ask or think is praying to receive as Ephesians 3:20 records, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
To ask is with action that is rooted in faith for God to see, and not deny answer.
To seek is with seeking God to receive by watching not to miss when God answers.
To knock persistently for an open door will not deny the prayer as the master key to open or to lock.
Prayer before God is asking God to change things around for good, according to His will.
Are you praying with understanding, to gain an edge from the answer to your prayer?
Are you praying to God with understanding?
The word of God points to all the importance of seeking God with understanding as Psalm 47:7 denotes, “For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding.” As the word of God demands to sing praises with understand, praying before God and other ways of seeking God is not with the exemption from praying with understanding before God. 
Prayer with understanding will not be ignored by God.
With prayer, one cannot be quiet to become victorious.
Prayer is action. The evidence of having understanding and knowledge of God will always gain the attention of God. 1 Samuel 2:3 admonishes, “For the Lord is the God of knowledge; And by Him, actions are weighed.” Let your prayer be an action that carries weights before God that will provoke God to incline His ear to your prayer.
How is your prayer life?
Are you praying to God from the head or heart?
Is your prayer rooted in the word of God or the word of your head?
Is your prayer at your convenience and without commitment before God?
Apostle Paul identifies the importance of how prayer should be to gain the attention of God, as he states in Acts 6:4, “but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
Let praying before God become your priority as your way of life.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to be praying with understanding.