“The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (James 5:16 NLT)
What’s prayer got to do with it?
When I was a teenager living in a log cabin in the wilds of Alaska, I asked my mother if she ever prayed. She said, “Yes, honey, every time I get a fish on my line, I say, 'God, help me catch it!’” That was it! I never actually saw her pray about anything. Prayer was always a mysterious thing to me. I had lots of questions, but no answers. I wondered why anyone would pray. And would there actually be anyone listening if they did? And I didn’t even know how to pray in the first place if I wanted to.
It’s still like that today
I speak with lots of people, even many Christians, who don’t pray or rarely do. And if they do pray, it’s some kind of formula prayer that they recite before meals or say before going to sleep.
Even the apostles didn’t understand how to pray
The apostles were also confused about how they should pray and asked Jesus to teach them. So, He taught them the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:5–15; Luke 11:1–13). You hear it often recited at funerals and other serious events. But Jesus never meant it to be used in place of personal prayer to God (Matt. 6:7). It was meant to serve as a guide regarding eight things you should include when you pray. He said to pray “like this” not to pray this (Matt. 6:9). 1) Pray to your Father, who is in heaven. 2) Acknowledge that His Name is holy. 3) Invite His kingdom to come. 4) Ask His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. 5) Ask Him to supply your daily food. 6) Ask Him to forgive your sins as you forgive others. 7) Ask Him to keep you from temptation and away from evil. And finally, 8) Acknowledge His kingdom, His glory, and His power forever, Amen! Just keep these things in mind and apply them wherever you can as you pray. The main thing is to pray to God continually about everything! (1 Peter 5:7).
Don’t worry about getting it wrong!
The wonderful thing about prayer is that you have the Holy Spirit’s help with it! He’s your personal interpreter! The Bible even says that we don’t know how to pray the way we should, but that the Spirit helps us and will turn our imperfect prayer into exactly what we should be praying about! That’s right, He helps and corrects our prayers for us! (Rom. 8:26–27). That’s really wonderful because we often don’t have all the information we need when praying for someone. But God knows exactly what’s going on and will make our prayers perfect!
Prayer is your Christian privilege as a member of Gods family!
Prayer is simply approaching God in a conversational way about anything and everything you’re concerned about. It’s really that simple! Prayer became possible for you the moment you received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior; when you openly “declared that Jesus is Lord and you believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead,” you were instantly saved (Rom. 10:9). And you became “born again” (John 3:1–21). This process made you a member of God’s family and a joint heir with Jesus (Rom. 8:17). And God then gave you the right to approach him boldly in prayer (Heb. 4:16). That’s right, you can come right out and talk to God boldly about anything and everything, at any time. In fact, he wants you to (Matt. 7:7).
Therefore
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Phil. 4:6)
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7)