1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian Hezekiah Prayer | Page 7

Guinness Book of World Records for the longest prayer. He simply does what others have
done before him and makes a simple statement of his needs.
Remember in 1 Kings 17 Elijah’s simple prayer on Mount Carmel, where he says, “Lord, show
these people who the true God is and answer with fire.”
I think too, of Peter floundering in the water after having gotten out of the boat to walk on
water (Matthew 14), he simply cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” – he needed no long
explanations and pleadings, just a simple, heartfelt cry.
Could it be too that, in order to do this, we may need to pray more intelligently? There are two
types of prayer that are 1) Illegitimate and 2) Unnecessary.
I have said in church the illegitimacy of some (probably most) “help me” prayers. Remember
there are some things that God won’t do for you because He has given to you His Holy Spirit
to dwell within you, who automatically enables you to answer some of your “help me”
prayers.
For example: “Lord, help me to be loving.” – God says, “Sorry, you just have to do that.” Or,
“Lord, help me to show mercy.” Again, God says, “Just do it.”
Some of our prayers are alsounnecessary; one of these prayers is the “Be with…” prayer. “Be
with my kids…”, “Be with my friends…” etc. The reason we don’t need to pray like this is
because according to Hebrews 16 v 5 God says He will never leave us nor forsake us. Also,
according to Matthew 28 v 20, He tells us that He will be with us always!
Allow these TRUTHS to sink into your minds and thereby lived out in the things we do, the
attitudes we have and the way we pray.

Prayer Thought: Today, as you pray, won’t you listen to yourself pray and catch yourself every
time you pray an illegitimate or unnecessary prayer. (I know there are some who might think
this exercise to be unnecessary, but I feel it might be a good idea to do it anyway.)