So following on from seven reasons to pray and four effects of prayer here are five marks of prayer.

Joy

There are definitely times when prayer won’t be joyful. One could hardly describe Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane as joyful. So let’s avoid turning these into rules. yet it strikes me that much of the prayer we read of in the New Testament had a certain enegy to it, an assured confidence and yes a joyfulness to it.

I grew up in a tradition where praying was serious, somber business – no levity, no lightness and no joy. Yet in Philippians 1:4 Paul says he prays with joy. Do you? Do you delight in prayer? Is praying something you associate with joyfulness, laughter, pleasure?

Thanksgiving

If we are to pray with joy then we need to pray with thanksgiving. Joy is impossible to find in an ungrateful heart. In Colossians 4:2 Paul writes that prayer needs a certain alertness and watchfulness to it – that we should be mindful when our prayers depart from thankfulness. As we consider all that we have to be thankful for, even this very moment we live and we breathe gratitude – we are freed to be joyful. Grateful for salvation, grateful for grace, grateful for life, thankful for this day, this moment, the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Devotion

The early parts of the book of Acts (e.g. Acts 1:14; Acts 6:4) report how the disciples and apostles were devoted to prayer. Prayer requires the effort of saying no to other activities in order that we might pray. It means giving time and space to prayer that could be used for other things. Prayer in other words requires and rewards investment.

Faith

Jesus was fairly clear on this: ‘Have faith in God’. When we pray, we need to trust in the One to whom we are praying, trust in His goodness, mercy, kindness and grace. Faith is not a thing of itself, faith is not a force, faith is an expression of conviction and confidence, or at the very least a willingness to trust that God being God and being good will do what is right.

Perseverance

Don’t give up. Don’t stop. Keep going. When the silence is deafening, when the words fail, when the pain is present, when the battle rages, this is where faith is tested, where trust is required – yet the scriptures are plain, in a messy broken world where righteousness, faith, goodness must be fought and contended for. Faith and perseverance are essential. (Ephesians 6:18; Romans 12:12)