When We Pray

What happens when we pray? What doesn’t happen when we pray? Why do so many of our prayers seem to go unanswered? We can be desperate, pleading with God, but often it seems He hasn’t heard, or He isn’t listening. Yet He tells us, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you” (Psalm 50:15).

“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9). This is how Jesus taught His disciples to pray. “Your Kingdom come ... Your will be done ...” Is this the answer? If so, how do we know what His will is?

“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14). This phrase occurs several times in the Bible. Perhaps we’ve tried. Did it achieve results? “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives” (James 4:3). Is this our problem?

Let’s look at this again. What is prayer? Prayer is giving all our attention to God in a two-way spiritual relationship, where we talk to Him and also listen to Him. This is the key. But do we really need to have a relationship?

It can feel like He’s up there and we’re down here. If that were the case it’s hardly a relationship. Where two people are bound together by a common bond, like family, marriage or love, there’s a unity, a sharing of something special that draws us together. So what is it for us as Christians that binds us together with God? It’s called the Holy Spirit;  a two-way channel through which we can relate to God. God is Spirit, and we must approach Him by the Spirit, as He with us. Spirit to spirit.

Adam and Eve freely spoke with God in the Garden, until the serpent came between them. That’s something else we have to consider, the enemy. He would do everything in his power to drive a wedge between us and God. He would destroy any intimate relationship we have with God by sowing seeds of self-righteousness, hatred, bitterness, fear and doubt. And of course, there’s sickness, pain and disease which is rife in this world. 'In your anger do not sin ... and do not give the devil a foothold’ ( Ephesians 4:26-27).

Then there’s faith ‘the assurance of things hoped for’ (Hebrews11:1). Our relationship with God must be one of complete love and trust, based, not on our own righteousness, but on the blood of Christ. Anything that takes us away from the covering of God must be renounced, so that the Holy Spirit has free rein in our lives, to guide, protect and strengthen, and draw us closer to God.

‘Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water ... for He who promised is faithful’ (Hebrews 10:22-23). ‘Jesus often withdrew to a lonely place to pray’ (Luke 5:16). Perhaps we should do the same.