You Need Prayer

I want to start off with a bold proclamation: If you have a perfect prayer life, you are excused from the following series! If you are one of those people for whom prayer is easy, if your mind stays focused all of the time and never wanders, if you can pray for an hour and wonder “where did the time go and I want more” or if you have talking and listening to God perfected, you don’t need to be here—you may need to be in denial classes or therapy—but you don’t need to be here!

This series is for the rest of us. If your mind does wander, if you have ever struggled with talking and listening to God, if your idea of prayer is a verbal laundry list of needs that runs on endlessly, if you have ever wondered, “Why didn’t God answer my prayer,” or if you have ever legitimately wondered if prayer even works, then this is for you, and I am right here with you.

I have another bold assertion: All people pray. Even people who say they don’t believe in God make an appeal in times of desperation for some kind of intervention. Prayer is needed in moments of great joy, moments of tremendous fear, when mortality is in question, when sadness is overwhelming, when shame is overpowering, when we need something beyond ourselves. That’s when we need to speak to someone or something beyond ourselves.

Years ago, in a small group I was leading, there was a gentleman who never, ever, prayed out loud. You could tell by his body language that the prayer section of our group made him highly uncomfortable. He would silently squirm, and the closest thing he ever got to an “amen” was when we were done. We would go around the circle, his turn would come, and he would be silent. We would wait, and it became awkward until the leader finally closed and I’m sure this guy would pray a prayer of relief to himself!

I hope you spend the next week learning along with me, and many others, the great wealth of how we can deepen our prayer life with God based on the Lord’s prayer that we find in Matthew 6:5-13:

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
(Matthew 6:5-13 NIV)

God wants nothing more than to hear from us. We should not feel shame or embarrassment, but know that everything we bring before Him is important.

God loves you and wants to hear from you.

So come into this week in prayer, anticipating God to do great things!

You are a miracle!