Prayer is an essential part of our walk with God, where we communicate with Him and get to
know Him better. So why does it often feel so difficult to develop a lifestyle of communication
with our heavenly Father?
- Unanswered prayer can make it hard for us to trust God when what we have earnestly
prayed for has seemingly been ignored by God. Our hidden doubts can get in the way of
sustaining a prayer life. - The very activity of praying can sometimes get messy rather than leading to genuine
communication. Distractions, doubts and eventually guilt create a confused mess that
leads us to give up. - We often trust ourselves rather than trusting God. Instead of building dependence on
God, we can often feel like we can do life by ourselves, or often surrender a part of
ourselves to Him, overall devaluing the importance that prayer needs to hold in our lives.
Such reasons, and many others, can lead us to struggle to build a relationship and
communication with God, or even fail to see its importance. We need to get back to a true place
of prayer and let God speak to us and reveal more of Himself to us through spending time in His
presence. But how?
Understanding what a Good Praying Life Looks Like
Prayer is the medium for us to experience and have intimacy with God. Jesus describes prayer as
dining with us: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the
door, I will come in to him and eat with Him, and He with me.” (Revelation 3:20). We ultimately
focus on getting to know our Creator through prayer, not the prayer itself.
Prayer is to be intertwined with every aspect of our daily lives. As we walk with God, prayer
becomes interconnected with our growing in faith, learning to endure suffering and being
obedient to Him. We aren’t to seek an experience or feeling in prayer, but rather to submit
ourselves to Him and enjoy being in His presence. This is ultimately a continual journey and
lifelong process.
Prayer helps make us more aware of God’s wider plan. As we spend time in His presence, He
reveals more of what He is doing in our lives and even unanswered prayers begin to make sense
as part of how God seeks to help us grow and learn to trust Him even in the face of uncertainty or
doubt.
Prayer helps put our lives in perspective. As we spend time in His presence, we begin to truly
understand what He is doing in us and allow our daily, often chaotic lives to feel more coherent,
leading to a sense of peace in the midst of confusion and busyness.
Prayer reveals our hearts. Developing our relationship with God will begin to reveal our fallen
nature and parts of our hearts that do not please Him. Although this may feel uncomfortable, we
must allow God to work in our hearts and change us to be more like Him, being patient in the
process.
Now equipped with the knowledge of what we aim for in a life of prayer, how do we develop a life
of prayer? - Childlike Faith in Prayer
“Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew
18:3). Jesus wants us to be fully earnest before Him in prayer. We are to come messy to Him, with
our brokenness and our imperfect prayers, simply laying before God what is on our minds. Only
then can God begin to work on us and we can change to become more like Him. The kingdom
comes: Jesus becomes the king of your life, the real you. - Learning to Trust in Him Again
We can often suffer from a spirit of cynicism and doubt, scarred by previous frustrations and
experiences in prayer. We may wonder whether prayer even works, or even whether answers to
prayer mean anything if ‘it would have happened anyway’. When the storms of life come, and we
encounter the valley of the shadow of death, we can either fall into this mindset or learn to walk
with the Shepherd through it. But Jesus offers a way out of this cynical mindset, taking steps such
as learning to have confidence and full trust in God and yet being wary of the presence of sin,
learning to hope through understanding the Father’s heart, and more. - Surrendering Fully to Him
Surrendering to Him starts by understanding that God is interested in every detail of our lives.
Despite being an infinite and powerful God that we cannot fully comprehend now on Earth, He
cares about you. We are to come to Him like little children, not being daunted by the majesty and
greatness of God but not undervaluing Him. We cannot truly let God work on us, and we cannot
be in full relationship with Him if we do not surrender control and our will to Him. It is not about
us; it is about Him. “Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
These, among many other things, can begin to help us grow in relationship with God and learn to
be dependent on Him through the important tool of prayer. We need to invite Him in, surrender
our broken and flawed selves fully to Him, and let God change the real you.
Heavenly Father, thank you for who you are and who you have made me to be. Thank you, thank
you love me and have given me grace and salvation although I did not deserve it. Help me to
bring my true self before you and know that you will begin to work on me and change me to be
more like You, and help me to be patient and vulnerable before you. Amen.*
Written by Praise (Presenter Kids Praise)
