PRAYER -

What is prayer?

What Did Jesus Say About It?:
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." (Matthew 6:5-6)

"Communication between man and God..."
Billy Graham's organization says this, "Prayer is spiritual communication between man and God, a two-way relationship in which man should not only talk to God but also listen to Him. The Scriptures encourage us to pray and assure us that God hears and answers prayer."
Jesus prayed all the time. First thing when He got up, last thing before sleeping, the Bible speaks of people interrupting Him for many different reasons, but He still prayed almost constantly. Why was it important to Him? Why did He do it so much?
Well for one thing, He was communicating with The Father and The Holy Spirit. In fact, reasoning they were together before man came about, having Jesus IN the "real" world, they still communicate as One, The Holy Trinity, as God is one where we observe that everything He says, happens! From that, we see communication is important. And as He says in the Sermon on The Mount above, we too are given the gift of prayer, to communicate with God, and this is not something to be taken lightly!

"But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."

Quiet and private, seek Him out, "in secret", as our communion with Him is special. As opposed to praying out in the open, "like the hypocrites", private prayer is not an attempt to bolster one's image before others, and your reward, what you gain from God, will be given to you, this is implied in "grace".

Remember, the art of communication, is both speaking AND listening, and as I have found, the listening is far more important! Give Him your requests, tell Him the things you mean to say, but give Him time to respond, as well as speak, whether by words, or to your soul. Like learning to speak, it takes time and maturity to be best able to sit with The Father, the more you do it, the better it will be!

~ Chris Howard

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