Prayer, praying, the ability to pray, to be one who prays often, but what exactly is prayer?

Prayer is the spiritual lifeblood of the Christian life, but what is prayer and how do we pray? We can find countless verses in the subject, but we seem to be just as unable to grasp it as the countless generations before us.

Too often in the church today we see prayer as some form of magical wish granting device, not unlike the mythical genie in a lamp, but this is not true prayer, this is the prayer of James 4:3.

We must flee from the prayer of James 4:3 and learn to pray like what we read in James 5:16b-18, or again to pray like what we read in the first epistle of John, chapter 5 verse 14-15.

The thing about praying is this, praying is coming to speak to God, and to commune with him. We bring our supplications and requests (Phil 4:6) yes, but it is more than this. It is us, entering into the holy of holies, grabbing the ear of God and grasping hold of His immeasurable power.

We grab hold of this power, not for ourselves and not of ourselves, but for the will of God, by the will of God.

From the beginning God’s desire has been for a relationship with His people, and part of a relationship is communicating with each other. God desires us to come and talk with Him, and also that we would listen to him.

Too quickly when we pray we come to him, with this long preformed list of wants wishes and desires, utter those say amen and leave, but prayer was meant to be and is much more than this.

Part of prayer is meditation upon His word, prayerfully reading His word, listening with our spiritual ears to wisdom from the Holy Spirit. it is about talking with God, and being in His presence.

Yes we bring requests to God, bu they must stem from His will and for the good of the kingdom, not just the things that we want for our own sakes. God knows what we have need of, our faith should be to trust Him to provide and meet our needs, but we must be obedient and our prayers must grow to become true praying.

To be the lifeblood of a Christian life prayer must not just be a list of wishes, but become true communication with a God, it must be about growing spiritually, advancing the kingdom and seeking God’s will that it might be done.