Principles of Prayer
by Francis Foulkes ©
  1. What is Prayer?
  2. Prayer as Intercession
  3. Vocabulary of Prayer
  4. The Aspects of Prayer
  5. Prayer: Depending on who God is
  6. Prayer and who we are
  7. Attitudes in Prayer
  8. What to pray for - Intercession
  9. Prayer & its Relationships
  10. Answered & Unanswered Prayer
  11. The Practice of Prayer
  12. Conclusion

Chapter 7 ATTITUDES IN PRAYER

"With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? --- He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
(Mic.6:6,8)

We have seen that our understanding of prayer depends inevitably on our recognition of who God is and who we are. Right attitudes in prayer depend similarly on that recognition of who God is and who we are. We can think of these attitudes in terms of their involving right attitudes to God, to ourselves, and indeed to others. The Bible has much to say specifically about these attitudes. Many of them are included in what have been spoken of as `the blessed attitudes' or `beatitudes' of Matthew 5:3-12. We will consider in turn what the Scriptures say of the following:

  1. Repentance
  2. Humility
  3. Faith
  4. Obedience
  5. Importunity and persistence
  6. Forgiving others
  7. Frankness

Then there are attitudes that are denounced in the Bible as hindering what is true prayer in the eyes of God .