What we believe about prayer hinges on what we believe about God. A healthy prayer life requires a proper understanding of who God is.
Have you ever thought about the fact that if you aren’t regularly turning to God in prayer then it means that you don’t really trust God? I (Aimee) don’t think that I truly attached those two points together until maybe two years ago. If we claim to have faith, and then we don’t turn to him with our cares and concerns, our praises and thanksgiving, then something’s wrong. Having faith means believing that He is faithful, He is trustworthy. That means that we believe Him when He says that He's listening, that He is always with us, that He will never abandon is, that He loves us.
While God is our heavenly Father, He doesn’t have the flaws of our earthly fathers. Our heavenly Father is never too distracted, too tired, or too busy to listen, no matter whatever else is going on anywhere else in the world. Our heavenly Father is able to listen and individually hear every single one of His children when they speak to Him, even if we were to all speak at the same time. Our heavenly Father always knows what’s best, is never clouded by bias or an urge to over-protect. Our heavenly Father always loves us, always desires a relationship with us, is always watching over us and protecting us.
God is not limited by what limits us! Praise God!
God knows everything that’s in our hearts and minds. He doesn’t need us to tell him our needs or desires. Prayer isn’t to inform God of what He doesn’t know, but a conversation between a loving Father and His adoring child. Conversations build relationships, and the Creator of the Universe desires to have a relationship with you. He wants to hear all about your day—your joys and your problems—not because He needs you to tell him, but because He desires the relationship! He already knows what’s going on. In fact, very often He knows even better than we do.
In our conversations with God, we’re talking and sharing with our loving Father for our own benefit. We’re being honest and transparent to bring about our own healing. We’re encouraged and grow happier in praising Him for His blessings in our lives.
Being a conversation, we should remember that prayer doesn’t have to be formal to be effective. We can speak to God the same way that we would speak to anyone else. That's because of Jesus! He came down to close the huge gap between us and God. Because of the work of Jesus Christ, we don’t have to set aside special time to talk to God—although setting aside special time is definitely a good thing and is something that I would recommend happen on some kind of regular basis. But prayer can happen anywhere and anytime. In fact, ideally, prayer should happen everywhere and all the time!
Being a conversation, we should remember that prayer is two-sided. We don’t do all of the communicating (that’s a lecture, not a conversation). We should be open to hearing God’s answers, while at the same time always remembering that because God isn’t human He doesn’t always answer in human ways. Sometimes He answers in silence. Sometimes He answers in the events of your life. He’s very creative … after all, He did create everything!
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