What Is Prayer?

Prayer is, at its simplest, talking to God. In prayer we bring our thanks, our needs, our desires, and our questions to God through Christ. When we approach God in prayer we are believing not only that He hears us, but that He will answer our prayers. This makes talking to God an act of faith and trust that the Bible says God rewards. 

Hebrews 11:6 “Anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”

How Do We Pray?

The Bible shows us that prayer will often include our thanksgiving, repentance, adoration, and requests. The following acronym using the word PRAY has given helpful direction to many people:

Praise: We approach God by first recognizing that he deserves our worship and thanks. We take joy in who He is, what He has done, and has promised to do.

Repent: We give time for God to search our hearts, careful to turn away from anything that might get in the way of a right relationship with Him.

Ask: Mindful of what we understand to be God’s will, we bring our requests to God, trusting that He is able to meet any need.

Yield: We remember that God is wiser than us, and so we yield our desires and requests to him and acknowledge again that we trust Him no matter what.

Philippians 4:6-7 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Why Do We Pray First?

Prayer is one way we become partners with God. God’s purposes and plans are shown to us in the Bible, and we have an important place in seeing those plans come to pass. We pray because God wants us to participate in His miraculous redemption of people. That makes prayer both a privilege and a responsibility – seeking out and learning what God’s will is, then praying until we see it realized.

1 John 5:14-15 “And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for.”