Prayer

In the time that I have been involved with ministry, I have heard many say that they do not know how to pray.  Prayer is diffficult for there are many different ways to pray, but I am persuaded that God hears us when we approach Him.  All prayer is a covenant response even if we do not know anything about God.  The desperate person who cries out, "If there be a God, help me!" is heard.  Prayer is a communication with God.  It can be a love communication, an asking or seeking or desperate cry, a desire to sit in His Presence, a time of comforting someone who needs to know someone is in contact with God for them, or a silent waiting in His Presence for guidance and understanding.  For me, the most difficult prayer is what I call, Public Prayer.  It is often a "politically correct" prayer for the occasion and not a connection to God and I do not want to do that.  In our society, prayer is something to criticize rather than to give agreement.  My husband has had people come up to him and ask for a "copy" of his prayer because it had touched their heart.  (Most of such prayers are written up beforehand.)

Prayer is very important because it is a covenant response.  Jesus often spent His nights in prayer, alone with His Father.  Paul said we should pray without ceasing.  We are exhorted to pray and not faint or grow weary.  James said we have not because we do not ask.  James 4:1-3 (J.B. Phillips New Testament)  But about the feuds and struggles that exist among you—where do you suppose they come from? Can’t you see that they arise from conflicting passions within yourselves? You crave for something and don’t get it, you are jealous and envious of what others have got and you don’t possess it yourselves. Consequently in your exasperated frustration you struggle and fight with one another. You don’t get what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And when you do ask he doesn’t give it to you, for you ask in quite the wrong spirit—you only want to satisfy your own desires. 

This is why covenant understanding is so important.  The basic reason for making a covenant is to protect and provide.  Both friends of covenant are protected by the structure of the covenant.  God is love.  Out of His great love He has provided all things for us to reach His goal of man in His image.  When we lose sight of the goal, we lose our connection and begin to set goals for ourselves.  Jesus walked in total submission to the Father's will.  He did not seek His own way but yielded Himself to do only what the Father was doing.  When we walk in that same submission to our Lord, we know peace and fulfillment.  We pray in the manner that the Spirit leads for that moment.  Because our submission to Him assures that connection, we pray without ceasing.  The stress around us does not break the connection, even when we feel the stress.  We know His love holds us.  This is the basic reason why prayer is so difficult.  When we do not have the realization of how great is His love and how complete and powerful is His love toward us, we strive to reach Him and persuade Him to hear us!