Prayer is talking with God.

I often hear people say that prayer is difficult. I agree with this, but through trusting God, I have seen my prayer life improve so much recently. I believe as we begin to study prayer, we will realise that it’s not a huge mountain as we often think. In the next few paragraphs, I want to explore a few common questions about prayer which I hope can encourage myself and you to increase our communication with God, and in turn grow in our relationship with Him.

Why is Prayer Difficult?

Prayer can be difficult for many reasons. One common reason is that we are speaking with someone who we cannot easily see, hear or touch. Even though He is real, in the early stages of our walk with Christ, we often do not observe Him with our physical senses. However, we can see Him operate in many ways once we learn how to look for it. As we grow closer to God and practise prayer, hearing Him becomes easier. The Bible does give examples of God’s voice being heard audibly, so we know this is possible (1 Samuel 3:8).

Public prayer can also be difficult, especially when we are new to prayer. We can find ourselves focusing on what people think and not on the prayer and God himself. Two things have helped me with public prayer. Reminding myself to focus on God while I speak with Him and taking every opportunity for group prayer that I can. Praying with others is very powerful (Matthew 18:19-20). The Bible tells us that where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus, He is present with them.

Why Pray?

There are many instances in the Bible where the people of God are encouraged to devote themselves to prayer and to pray continually (Acts 2:42; Romans 12:12; Acts 1:14; Acts 2:42; Acts 6:4; Colossians 4:2; Phillipians 4:6). When building a successful relationship with someone, it is important to spend time getting to know them. Praying is one of the most important ways to get to know God. Prayer allows us to pour out our hearts to Him and enables us to hear from Him. The better we get to know Him, the better prayer becomes. The Bible even gives examples of where prayer has caused God to change His decision in favour of His people (Isaiah 38:5). Prayer has the power of change.  

How to Pray?

Prayer is a conversation with God. Therefore, at first, it may be best to think of prayer as any conversation you may have. An honest conversation where you pour your heart out to Him. Tell Him the desires of your heart and about what concerns you. And do this as often as you can. As you continue to grow in prayer, there are some key ideas which can be incorporated in your prayer if you feel led by the Spirit. Examples of prayer in the Bible reveals that the following are often used in prayer:

• Praise and Worship – Jesus demonstrated how to pray in Matthew 6:9. In this prayer, the first thing Jesus did was to praise the name of the Father. Praising God first reminds us of who He is and sets our focus on Him. Which is where we should be when we pray, as opposed to being distracted by the world.

• Give Thanks – The Word tells us, with prayer and thanksgiving make your request known to the Lord (Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; 1 Chronicles 16:34). As we thank God, it reminds us of His blessings on our lives. This reminder is important as most of us tend to forget many of the blessings we experience each day. We need this reminder to see God’s goodness and love for us. The more we give thanks the more grateful we become.  

• Faith – The Bible tells us that when we pray, we have to believe that we have received it (Mark 11:24; Matthew 21:22; 1 John 5: 14-15; Matthew 17:20). The Bible, on many occasions, has shown us that faith is essential to any believer. What do we believe about God? How great is He? Is there anything too hard for God? Can God help me? If we believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the true and living God, we need to come to the place of fully believing that He can do it. Faith can be difficult, but God does not expect us to do it on our own. The Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17; Hebrew 11; 1 John 5:5), which brings us to the next point.

• The Word – God tells us to remind Him of His Word when we pray and to come reason with Him (Isaiah 43: 25-26). We strengthen our petition when we can use God’s Word to support it. Using the Word also helps us to pray according to His will (1 John 5:14-15). For us to effectively do this, we need to spend time reading and studying His Word. His Word is important.

• Ask – Then ask because the Word tells us that we do not have because we do not ask (James 4:2), according to His will. The more our hearts become in tune with His will, and the more we get to know Him, the more prayer becomes natural and effective (1 John 5:14-15). Additionally, the Bible gives many examples of prayer in the form of a plea, petition or cry. These examples demonstrate the desperation and emotion of such prayers (Daniel 9:3). God sees the heart, and so we should have a pure heart when we ask. Prayer seems to be more effective when we care deeply and passionately about what we ask (according to His will).

How to Improve my Prayer?

• Righteousness – The Bible tells us that the prayer of the righteous is powerful, and God hears it (Proverbs 15: 8, 29; James 5:16; 1 Peter 3:12). Since Christ has redeemed us, He has forgiven us and paid the price for our sins. The price He paid was enormous, and so it is only reasonable that we do not disrespect that by continuing to live the same life as before. Yes, we are unable to be righteous on our own, but we can because of Jesus. Therefore, in everything that we do, we honour God’s gift of salvation by striving to be righteous. This does not mean we cannot make a mistake. It is what we do when we stumble that matters.

• Relationship – As we develop our relationship with God, our prayer gets better and easier. As we begin to understand Him, our prayer becomes more conformed to His will and therefore, more effective. We improve our relationship with Him by spending time with Him, in His Word and in prayer.  

• Intercession – God calls us to pray for others (Ephesians 6:18; 1 Timothy 2:1). Praying for others allows us to exercise obedience to God’s call for loving each other. When we genuinely love others, we effortlessly have great compassion when they go through turbulent times. It is from this compassion and love that we can pray for them with a pure heart.

• Continuous prayer – The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18; Acts 1:14). Constant prayer is about communicating with God in everything that we do. It means keeping our minds on Him all the time. Continuous prayer is not easy, but it comes with spiritual growth as we spend time in the Word and in prayer.

• Fasting – Prayer and fasting seem to demonstrate a more effective petition (Matthew 17:21). Fasting can show our dedication to a petition (Luke 2:37). Leaving the physical things behind allows us to focus on the Father and our petition without distraction. (Daniel 9:3-5).

• Listen – Communicating with God often starts by being one-sided, where we do all the talking. We need to remind ourselves that God speaks. As we grow to get to know Him and we listen for His response, we can hear Him in different ways, sometimes even audibly. Sometimes He uses people, the Word or some other aspect of our lives to speak to us. God is not limited by anything.

• In His Strength and Not ours – We need to continually remind ourselves that when we pray and it is answered, that this did not happen because of our strength, but it is because of God (Exodus 9:29). 1 Peter 4:11 reminds us that in all that we do, give the glory to God because it is through Him that we do it. Being able to give God the glory is essential in our walk with God.  

Prayer can be difficult, but to improve prayer, we have to pray. This statement sounds like an impossible vicious cycle, but this is based on God’s law, not the world’s. So it is possible….

I hope this study of prayer can be an encouragement to help you take that step to pray more, and spend more time in the Word. I know that once we do these things, we will see spiritual growth.

All photos and videos by kyle