I think prayer is one of the most misunderstood of all spiritual practices.  I once was asked many years ago by a child how to pray to God.  She wondered if she had to pray in a certain way for God to hear her.  I told her then and I believe it now that there is no required way to speak to God.  He just wants to hear from us.

Yes, I know Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer after the disciples asked Him how they should pray. But I believe this was meant only to be a guide for us.  Instead it has been over evaluated to give a formula of what parts should be included in a prayer.  This just confuses us and simply makes prayer too difficult.

Essentially, prayer was meant to be a conversation with God. It was never intended to be complicated.  The apostle Paul recommended to pray without ceasing.  This is talking to God throughout our day as if we were conversing with a friend.  It can simply be a heartfelt “thank you” or a plea of “help me know what to do, Lord.”  Sometimes our situation needs a longer conversation or when in desperation, it happens on our knees.  Whatever the circumstance, God just wants to hear from us.  He desires a relationship with us and without conversation this would be impossible.

It never ceases to amaze me the results of our prayers.  During lunch club this summer at my church, we have seen these prayers “on the fly” result in amazing things.  When the electricity went out on the first day of the lunch program, a prayer went up and plans went into gear to bring a grill to the church to cook hot dogs but there weren’t enough in the freezer for the number of kids expected.  Someone happened to drop in later that morning to see if we could use the hot dogs, hamburgers and potato salad that were extra from their graduation party the day before.  Problem solved!  Another time there weren’t enough cookies to serve and a prayer was sent heavenward.  In no time someone walked in with 16 dozen cookies. She said she felt a nudge from God that she needed to bake cookies for us.  She had never baked so many cookies at one time ever before.  God had set into play the answer to this prayer before the need was even recognized.

I’ve personally experienced this phenomenon of having a prayer answered before I’ve even prayed on many occasions.  When my son and I were in Haiti in 2011,  I asked one of the surgeons who is a devote Christian man, to speak to Garrett about his faith. I prayed that my son would be given encouragement to pursue his own faith by the example of this wonderful man.  That same evening before the surgeon had a chance to speak to my son, Garrett shared with our group how one of the Haitian men at the mission had expressed to him how thankful he was that God had gifted him with the ability to repair machinery.  This man was using his gift to glorify God.  I was amazed and more than a little tearful, that God had been answering my prayer through this Haitian man before I even asked.  I was trying to maneuver an answer myself but God had better plans.

Don’t underestimate the power of prayer.  The answers may not always turn out the way we anticipate but sometimes they turn out even better.  His answers aren’t always yes. They may be no or not now.  Sometimes the answer is “I will be with you through this.”  God knows what we need even before we know it ourselves.  He wants to have an intimate relationship with us and give us what is best for us always. Remember, we don’t see the whole picture, but He does.  Trust and keep praying.