There have been many times in the past, and some times not too recent, that I have gone to do a workout or gone to karate class and just totally forgot to stretch. Sometimes I have stretched, but not adequately enough. If you understand the importance of stretching, you know how bad that is. When you’re young, that’s not too big of a deal. But as you get older, it’s a real big deal.

The other day I went out to do a workout in my garage that was fairly quick and easy. All it involved were lunges, calf raises, squats, some punches, and then pushups. That’s all. But I did them all without adequate stretching. I took maybe a minute to stretch.

I felt great afterwards. Then I slept.

Waking up the next morning, my legs were hurting, my hips were hurting, and my… Okay, I’ll just stop before I name everything, because, quite frankly, my whole body was hurting. And then the next day I went to karate class; however, I stretched beforehand. After that, my whole body was really hurting.

I wasn’t hurting because I hadn’t done those things before. I’m not in great shape, but I’m good enough that those things shouldn’t hurt me too badly. However, I failed to do something so vitally important—stretch.

Stretching is just as important as the workout—in fact, more important in some respects—yet it gets pushed to the side very often. And when it does, there can be terrible consequences. But this isn’t about stretching. I just want you to understand how important what I’m about to talk about is. See, when you forget to stretch and then go to exercise, it can have detrimental effects on you. It can make you not want to workout. It can make you have the wrong misconception about working out. It can change your view of it forever, which can change your life forever.

The same is true when it comes to prayer. Too often, we rush into prayer without first preparing to pray, and it has a negative effect on us. Don’t misunderstand. There are different kinds of prayers. We don’t need to prepare to pray over our meal. However, we do need to prepare to seek the Lord if we’re requesting something from Him. We need to prepare if we’re wanting to come into His presence. Am I just making this up? No. I know so because the Bible says so.

We know that we need to stretch before we exercise because our bodies tell us and science—the authority on the subject—tells us. So what does the authority on the subject of prayer have to say?

Prepare Your Heart

And he [King Rehoboam] did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the LORD. –  2 Chronicles 12:14

According to the Word of God, it is evil to not prepare our hearts to seek the Lord. So in turn, for us to not do evil, we need to prepare our hearts to seek the Lord. So before we come to prayer, we should prepare our hearts. This isn’t an issue that’s been corrected by what Jesus did on the cross. We still need to prepare our hearts before we seek the Lord.

May the good LORD provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God… – 2 Chronicles 30:18-19

When Sunday morning comes, do we just get out of bed and head out to service? We shouldn’t. Do you do that before work? Before school? Before a date? You shouldn’t. We prepare to go to special events. We don’t just go. Prayer is a special event. I know it doesn’t seem like it because Jesus paid the price for us to go to the Father so easily, but it is a special event.

So number one, we need to prepare our hearts. How do we do that? How do you prepare your heart to seek a holy God? Well, we do it every church service before the pastor preaches. We worship and praise the Lord. Before we go to the Lord to seek His face, and bring our petitions before Him, we should take time to worship Him. This prepares our hearts to be grateful. It prepares our hearts to get the junk of the world off of us and get into an atmosphere of reverence.

Do We Want Answers Or Not

What is the purpose of prayer for most of us? For most of us, it’s to get help. Prayer is how we get the answers we don’t have, get the help that we need, and make life better. That’s fine. That’s great. God wants to take care of us. That’s because He is a loving father. That’s one of many reasons why Jesus came to earth. That’s why the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and then with Moses. God is our source in all things.

As Christians, we have a storehouse full of abundance that Jesus made available to us. But just because it has been made available to us, that does not mean that we’re going to get them into our lives. That’s not a question of God’s will or not His will. He’s already provided them. It is His will. God has already done something, but we too have to do something as well. Of course, we have to ask. The Bible says that we have not because we ask not (James 4:2-3). So we have to ask.

But there’s a specific way that we have to ask. We can’t just ask flippantly, like it’s nothing. We don’t ask and just toss the thought to the side, as if it doesn’t matter if we get it answered. Too many people do that, and they wonder why their prayers don’t get answered. Well, that’s why. They can live without it. They don’t really need the answer. Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

That word “desire”’ means to “crave” or “require.” If you require something, you have to have it. You can’t live without it. It’s not a take-it-or-leave-it kind of thing. But with that desire, which comes before the actual prayer, we have to figure out how to get that prayer answered when we pray. And we need to do that before prayer.

If you want answers to your prayers, you have to know what it takes to get them answered. Number one, you have to use the name of Jesus (John 14:13-14). The name is what gives us entrance to the throne room of God. It’s the name that gives us the authority to get our prayers answered. So along with using the name of Jesus, we need to understand the authority that is found in the name of Jesus. If you don’t understand that, grab a good book or do a study on the authority of His name. It will change your life.

So what else do we need to get answers to our prayers? We need to know the will of God. If we want our prayers answered, we have to know that the things we are asking for are the will of God.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. – 1 John 5:14-15

So we have to know the will of God for the situation that we are praying about. If you want to know the will of God, it is found in the Word of God. That means you need to read the Bible. In fact, you need to go beyond just reading to studying the Bible. Reading the Bible is like talking to someone through text messaging. Studying the Bible is more like talking to them in person. When you text someone, you get to know what they’re saying. But talking to them in person, you know how they’re saying it. You know their personality.  So study the Word to find out God’s will.

But what if the Bible doesn’t have God’s will for my situation? That happens. If that’s the case, then we need to pray for wisdom, pray to know the will of God, and the Bible talks about that as well.

So what else do we need to get our prayers answered? The Bible is our source.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” – Matthew 21:22

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; – James 1:6-7

If we want our prayers answered, then we have to have faith. I think this is where we miss it a lot of times. Yes, we know the scriptures. We know what the Bible says, but do we really have faith in what it says? Do we really believe what God has said? There is a difference between mentally agreeing and believing in our hearts. I think many of us mentally agree, but we haven’t gotten it from our heads to our hearts. If it’s not in our hearts, even overflowing, it’s likely that it’s not going to do the job of getting our prayers answered.

We may think exercise will be good for us. We may mentally agree, but until it gets in us to the point that it causes us to act, it’s not doing any real good. Not until it causes us to act does it become a revelation to us. We need a revelation of God’s Word. That is going to cause things to happen. That revelation produces faith.

So how are we supposed to get faith?

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17

That is the keynote verse on how we get faith. We need to hear what the Word says. We need to get it in us, not just through our ears. It needs to do more than just go in one ear and out the other; it needs to be planted in our hearts and produce fruit. One way that we do this—to grow our faith—is to meditate on it.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. – Joshua 1:8

Meditate means “to think on and mutter.” To meditate on a scripture, we should read it several times out loud and then spend time thinking about what it says and how it applies to us. In doing so, we’re going to get the Word in us to the point that it goes from information to revelation. It will go from book knowledge to experiential knowledge. It will take us from the place we are to the place we want to be.

Just as it is important to stretch before exercising, it is important—even imperative—that we get in faith before we pray. If we don’t, we’re just wasting our time. The answer to our prayers comes through faith, and without it, you’re just exercising your lips.

The Cost Of Not Stretching

So we know what happens when we don’t stretch before a physical exercise. We get sore afterwards; we can even get hurt. It can get so bad that your body hurts for days or even weeks. It might hurt so much that you might even wish you had never exercised at all. We’ve covered this, but I wanted to reiterate it.

This is true spiritually as well, when it comes to prayer. When you don’t stretch or prepare before you pray, bad things can happen. The major thing, of course, is that our prayers won’t get answered. That’s a bad thing, especially if we really need them answered.

When we go to pray, though, without preparing—without “stretching”—we can tend to think that we’re not the problem. Maybe God doesn’t want us to have what we asked for? Maybe God doesn’t love us enough to answer our prayers. Maybe we’re not good enough. These are the thoughts that the devil will attack us with when we aren’t prepared to pray. Honestly, he’ll do it, even if we are prepared. But we’ll easily discern his lies when we are prepared. We’ll be able to point out all the times God has answered our prayers.

But when we don’t prepare and continually don’t prepare, it can get so bad that it would have been better if we had never prayed at all. Yes, I said that. And I said it for a good reason. If we continually pray without preparing first and without getting our prayers answered, we can start to think worse things than those mentioned. We can start giving into the lies of the devil that he will assuredly be attacking with: You’re not getting your prayers answered because God doesn’t even exist. Yes, that’s when it would be better to not even pray to begin with.

Now, I’m not talking about the person who just received Jesus as their savior. I’m talking about the person who has been saved for years and keeps praying without understanding all we’ve covered. Don’t get stuck on the not praying part. Get stuck on the preparing before you pray part. That’s the key.

The key is to stretch before you exercise, so it’s a good, beneficial workout and you want to do it again. The key is to prepare before you even pray so that you get the answers that the Father wants to give you. This may become so ingrained in you that it is no longer a conscience act. It’s just part of who you are.

So stretch, take the time, and make it count. Have that desire, know the will of God, use the name of Jesus, and get faith. Make your prayers count. Prepare and see your life changed for the better, not the worse. Take time to stretch and prepare, so every time you come back to pray, it is a joy, not a chore. Stay with the Word and the Spirit.