What is Prayer?

We often speak of prayer in terms that are more complex than it is, and think of prayer in ways that are shallower than it should be. Video Games may make us think of prayer as weird chants with others in rooms, and movies may make prayer seem like boring monologues before a meal. We have a lot of misconceptions. Prayer is simply, and yet extraordinarily, communication with God. Prayer is talking to God.

Prayer is communication with the one true God, and it is a gift we are given as Christians. We are given the ability and told to speak with God. Prayer is our ability to go before the God of the universe, master and creator, judge—and not be struck dead. This is because in His unearned affection toward us, we can praise Him, share our afflictions, hurts, and worries, and look to Him for solace and deliverance.

Is prayer on it's own powerful? Everyone prays—the Muslim, the Hindu, the atheist in despair may even pray, but without God’s intervention or moving, it’s a bunch of mumbling. I have a very terrible habit of not turning the oven off. If I forgot to do that one day after I left the house, I may send my wife a text asking her if she can turn the oven off. Who am I depending on to turn the oven off? My wife. That text is like a prayer, outside of God acting, there is no other power to it. There is something important about me asking, but outside of asking, I am powerless. If I send the text to the wrong number, what happens? A possible house fire. There is only one person that text can go to, and something actually happens. That is the same with God, our prayers must go to him. You can send all the good vibes and thoughts you want, they will never do anything.

The disciples in Luke 11 asked Jesus, “how do we pray?” And Jesus responded with a sample prayer for them. For looking at how we pray, let’s study this prayer.

“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name”

We start off with recognizing who we are speaking too. The holiest of holies. Holy means distinct, and we are recognizing that God is separate and above all. And that should shape our mentality and attitude in our prayer. Jesus starts off this prayer with praise.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done,

on earth as it is in Heaven. ”

We see that our world is not like it is supposed to be. We see where our will gets us, so we do not ask for that, but we submit our will and desires to God and ask that His will be done. Prayer is not about having what I want done, but about having God act and bring His will. It is having mine and your will conformed to His. When we approach Him in prayer with a list of things we want done, we are treating God like our servant. We are saying, “Holy Spirit, I give you permission” instead of “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

After we are praying and have a heart seeking after God’s will, we now bring our needs to Him and trust in Him to provide. We need Him everyday to provide for us. And it’s not just food and water, we need Him for every breath we take. We see Jesus in this example prayer showing some things the disciples need to ask for. The first is for physical needs, and the second is for forgiveness of our sins. As God forgives our sins, it should lead us to forgiving others. We should remember that they have sinned against us less than we have sinned against God.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Now we see two more petitions in this prayer. Jesus tells us to pray so that we are safeguarded from temptations and enlurement. We ask to be saved from the evil we are in. We realize and recognize that we live in an evil world. This prayer also reminds us that we have a God who is more powerful than any act of evil and capable of keeping from falling into evil hands and desires.

This is the sample prayer that Jesus gives us, and I have seen some pastors make it into the acronym of P.R.A.Y. which is Praise-Repent-Ask-Yield. We praise God for who He is and what He has done. We repent of sins and ask for God’s continued forgiveness. We ask God for our needs. And We yield from our will to doing His will. That is an outline for what many of our prayers may look like. It

This may lead us to wonder, why would we need to talk to God? Surely He already knows of all of our needs before we ask. The Bible even tells us such. We may think that God has far more important things than to listen to the squeaks of His creation, yet the Bible makes it clear that the needs of you and I, and the smallest sparrow are noticed by Him. We may think of birds, bugs, and other creations as unworthy of our time to notice. Yet, God takes joy in noticing and meeting their needs. The King of Creation does not let any detail or particle escape His notice. God knows our needs, and as the rest of Luke 11 shows, he knows how to take care of our needs. As a father, He still likes His children to come to Him, talk to Him, and ask Him of what we need. We see from prayers like Moses’s which saved the people of Israel, and of Abraham’s prayer which saved Lot, God will use our prayers and requests to accomplish His will.

Lastly, the words we pray matter, but so does the manner of our prayers. Jesus tells us to go into a closet to pray, and tells us not to pray like the pharisees did in public. He says that our words may be right, while our hearts may be wrong. Not all of our prayer time should be in public prayer, our best prayer times are when it is just you and the Father. When we pray alone, it helps us to have the right kind of heart. Are we praying to say pretty words to the people around us, or are we speaking and only caring about God hearing.

One day at lunch, as President Johnson’s press secretary was praying, Johnson asked, “Speak up, I can barely hear you.” To which his press secretary responded, “I’m not talking to you.”