What is Prayer?
What is Prayer: 10 Key Points
- Prayer is communication with God, comprising belief, two-way communication, and a trusting relationship.
- We should listen and speak during prayer, taking time to be still and share our thoughts.
- God is gracious, loving, and desires to communicate with us.
- While God may not always answer as we hope, we trust that He hears and responds to our prayers.
- A prayer from Kyle Moore Abbey* encourages us to trust in God’s will and live peacefully with others.
- In difficult times, prayer can bring comfort and peace to our hearts.
- It allows us to reflect on our relationship with God and seek forgiveness.
- Communal prayer can foster unity and support within a community or church.
- Prayers can take various forms, including spoken words, songs, and acts of service.
- Overall, prayer is a powerful and vital aspect of our spiritual journey, bringing us closer to God and strengthening our faith.
Transcript
One of the questions I’ve had from several people has to do with prayer.
- What is prayer?
- How do I do it?
- How do I know if it makes any difference?
So, let’s just talk about that briefly.
First of all I think a brief helpful definition of prayer is: prayer is a believer’s communication with God.
And that definition of prayer has three components.
First of all, there’s me (there’s you), there needs to be a person who actually believes there is somebody who is listening and somebody who might even be speaking. So, prayer starts with me believing there’s somebody there.
Think about your cell phone. When was the last time you called someone or texted someone who you didn’t think was there? I suspect you’ve never done that, right? We call and text people who we believe are at the other end of the line, if you will, who are in our contacts.
So, prayer starts with me believing there’s somebody there, and somebody there who actually wants to hear from me.
The second component of prayer is communication, and communication goes two ways: it’s both speaking and listening.
One of the things we need to grow in as we pray is understanding it’s not just me coming and spewing out everything that’s on my mind, on my heart, in my consciousness, to God. It’s also taking time to be silent and to listen and to invite God to speak to us.
A very helpful prayer to say here is the prayer of young Samuel who we meet in the Old Testament and his prayer is, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
So sometimes in your prayer just saying that simple prayer, “speak Lord, for your servant is listening,” and just be quiet and see what wells up in you. See what comes to you, see what you may hear, in your heart or in your mind.
If people come to mind, write their names down and say a prayer for God to bless them.
So, prayer is a believer’s communication both speaking and listening with God.
And our understanding of God, which comes from the Bible, is that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
If you have anybody you love in your life, if you’re a parent, if you’re married, if you’re single and you’ve got friends… any of us who have people we love in our life, if they came to us and wanted to speak to us would you make time for them? Of course you would.
In the same way and even more, so a loving God loves to have God’s children come and speak and spend time with the Lord.
So, know that God is there God longs to hear from you to be with you.
God also wants to communicate with you and God does respond to our prayers.
God doesn’t always answer in ways that we may want or hope, or immediately see, but we believe that God answers prayers.
God gives strength,
God offers hope,
God gives companionship.
* I want to close this brief sharing about prayer with a prayer that was at Kyle Moore Abbey in Ireland, that I really appreciated I have as a bookmark in my Bible. Listen to this prayer:
Lord, help me live this day quietly, easily. To lean upon your great strength, trustfully, respectfully. To await the unfolding of your will, patiently serenely. To meet others peacefully, joyfully. To face tomorrow confidently, courageously. Amen.
I pray that prayer will be on your heart today.