Let us look at the basics of prayer.
The dictionary defines prayer like this; “a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.”
In the Hebrew Bible the word is defined as an evolving means of interacting with God, most frequently through a spontaneous, individual, unorganized form of petitioning and/or thanking.
Prayer is the communication we share with God, our Father.
Imagine, if you will, walking into your Father’s sanctuary. Whether that is a study, an office, the garage, or even the backyard. If you did not grow up with a father, then think about what you would have wanted that place to be.
Now, imagine needing something from him. You walk to the entrance, and you peer in. You stand there waiting for a few indecisive moments until you realize he is watching you, waiting.
You gather yourself together, blow out a big breath of air and you walk in. Then, instead of getting right to the point, you ask him how things are going. You ask him about what he is working on. You thank him for taking his time out to see you. You thank him for the last gift he gave you.
You compliment him on how good the place looks. You compliment his tools or his jacket or whatever else you can think of. Finally, as you realize he is still patiently waiting for you to get to the point, you ask him for what you really want.
You might even go so far as to explain to him why you NEED it. How it will improve your life, or it will improve the way you do things. How you will be able to help others. Then you wait.
Waiting for his answer is the most difficult part.
You know he may say yes. However, you also know he may say no. Or- heaven forbid the most painful of all – he may tell you wait. In the meantime, he will expect you to continue to figure out if what you are asking for is really what you want or need. He may be waiting for you to show how this will actually improve your life.
What about God, our Father?
Psalms 100:4
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Why then do we treat our conversations with God any differently? When we pray, when we seek God’s will in our lives, we are coming to Him in a conversation.
The basic outline of our prayer should be something like what the Psalmist tells us; We enter into prayer with thanks. We thank Him for all the things He has done and provided in our lives. We are acknowledging that He has done things for us.
We then move on to praise. We praise God for the many things He constantly gives us even when we are undeserving. Even when we don’t think that we are worthy, God provides for us.
Then we make our request. We ask Him for the things we are seeking. We ask Him for guidance. We ask Him to give us direction. We ask for whatever we want. There is no wrong answer in what we are asking.
Then we wait.
We wait for His response. Just like an earthly parent, God will give us a “yes”, “no” or “wait”. Unfortunately, sometimes it isn’t the answer we want. We refuse to take no for the answer, and we don’t want to wait. We decide that we should just rush in and do it without His guidance and direction. Then when we fail, we blame God. This way we don’t have to blame ourselves. We don’t have to hold ourselves accountable.
There is a lot to prayer – it can be complex. Or it can be simple.
“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
One of the first prayers we learn as a child is this simple rhyme. We don’t understand the words. We learn to kneel next to our bed, put our hands together, bow our head, and say the words. Then we jump into bed and are tucked in.
With a child’s innocent trust, we have asked God to keep His angels watching over us and taking care of us. We have asked Him to protect our soul from harm.
The next prayer we learn is The Lord’s Prayer. (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4)
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
One of the most well-known prayers that even non-believers have an acquaintance with. We have heard it enough times to be able to repeat it.
This prayer follows a simple pattern of acknowledging who God is, asking for His will in our lives and His protection, asking for His forgiveness as we forgive others and finally asking that He will continue to guide us away from temptation and evil.
The importance of God’s guidance
We learn early to ask for God’s protection and for His Guidance. We learn to ask, but do we really want it? Are we really requesting it or are we just saying the words that we have been taught?
Prayer is an intimate conversation with our Creator. It can be one that we have learned, or it can be spontaneous. The way we pray, how we ask, what we say is between us and God.
- It can be trying to strike a bargain, like Abraham did for Sodom. “If there are 50 good men….”
- It can be a petition for God to reveal something or someone to us, like when Eliezer prayed to be shown Isaac’s wife. God revealed to him Rebecca.
- It can be made out of fear, like Jacob did when he was reunited with Esau.
- Or spontaneously like Moses did when he asks God to be merciful to the people after they created the Golden Calf.
- When Hannah prayed for a child, the bible explains that the prayer was in her heart, her lips were moving without sound.
The bible shows us that there are many reasons we pray. There are many types of prayers and ways to pray. The other thing that the bible reveals, is that even though we know these men prayed, we do not know the words they used in their prayer to God. We know what the prayers were about and the results that came from them.
What does this mean for us?
Prayer is our communication with God. It is our way to be in a conversation with Him where we seek, ask and find. God knows our hearts. He knows where we are coming from. It is not important to be eloquent with our words. We don’t need to spread our arms wide and call attention to ourselves. In fact, that is the exact opposite of what we need to do.
We don’t need man’s attention; we want God’s attention. We want to be humble. We want to acknowledge. We can even bring to Him the times before where He has done for others what we want for ourselves. (Not that God needs the reminders; often we need to remind ourselves what He has done.)
When we pray, we need to learn to accept that along with the “yes” comes the “no” and the “wait”. We need to learn to be patient. We need to realize that God sees more than we do. He can see a lot farther down the road than we can. He has our best interest at heart, we should allow ourselves to accept that.
No matter the situation or circumstance, at any time night or day, you can come to God in prayer. He is always there waiting patiently for us. Waiting for us to have a conversation with Him. He wants us to. He wants us to make Him a part of our life. In all things.
Take a moment to pray from your heart. Wherever you are in life right now, there is something to bring to God. It can be thanks. It can be praise. It can be asking for His guidance. It can be asking for His protection. It may be a prayer for your family. It can be anything. I encourage you to learn to take the time to pray. I want to remind you there is no wrong way to pray.
Prayer can be simple. Or it can be complex. Mostly prayer reflects who we are. Don’t find reasons not to pray, instead find reasons to.