What IS prayer?

Good question.  I have more...

Is it always religious per se? 

Is it always about asking or begging God to do something for us?

Does it always have to end with an 'amen'?

Do we need to have the right words or phrases for God to hear and answer us the way we hope?

Does God do anything after we pray?

Does God hear us?

And on and on we could go, right?  Lord have mercy on our questions!

I enjoyed an article on the topic of prayer recently from the folks at Renew.org, and the article concluded with this:

"According to Scripture, prayer is an important but not-so-structured part of our relationship with God. We do not have to end with amen. We do not have to close our eyes. It does not have to be a spiritual leader to pray for us. We do not have to use fancy language. Anyone can pray at any time, in any place, for anything. God will listen. The most important thing is to remember why we are praying and to make sure our minds and hearts are prepared before we approach God with our words. Jesus says in Matthew 6:8 that God already knows what we need before we ask. The important thing is to keep that honest line of communication open."

Good right?  Helpful, sure. 

I like the encouragement found in Romans 8:26-27 NIV:  

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Now, let's go be devoted to prayer!

PS If you want to read the whole article (recommended!), the link is here.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash