I often wonder if we fully understand what happens when we pray. In general most of us were brought up just being told to “pray” – perhaps out loud, perhaps listening to someone else pray, perhaps just reciting a Hail Mary or other devotional prayer. I used to think that prayer was just a problem for teens, but the more adults I meet and minister too, the more of you that I get to know on this site, the more I realize that prayer is  a real struggle for many and it seems that it is primarily because we don’t fully understand it. For some of us, we understand prayer and are able to fully enter in, but perhaps struggle with making the time. I know that I do this very often. I find myself letting prayer slip to the background and in turn not allowing God’s grace into my life.

So, what is happening when we pray?

Well to put it simply, when you begin your prayer, whether it’s by saying, “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Or if you simply say Dear God, or Dear Jesus… at that very moment heaven turns its attention on you. God’s ear opens and the rest of Heaven listens.

When you pray you literally open up the doors to heaven and God’s grace surrounds and enfolds you. When you pray the very Spirit of God comes to meet you. When you pray God draws you into his heart. When you pray “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26).

The more you pray, the more fully he can draw you in. The more you pray the more you can be ready for that “Spirit of God” to enfold you. The more you pray the more God’s grace will enter into your life.

It is often hard for us to enter into prayer because we are either too busy, too anxious, and we don’t believe it is effective. But scripture tells us that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16) We must take time to stop and pray. We must allow God into our day through prayer. We must take our needs and the needs of others to God in confidence that he will hear and answer us.

“So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” – Hebrews 4:16

So, how should we pray? Well, just as we hear in Hebrews 4:16 we must enter into prayer with confidence. What is that confidence? It is a sincere belief and faith that God is listening, that our prayers are effective, and that he will answer our call. We approach God’s “throne of grace” knowing that we “will receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” I often see people pray without much expectation of a result. It seems that often people pray out of duty or obligation but forget that they are not just throwing up a shout in hopes that “perhaps God will find time to reply to little ol’ me”. We are praying in full confidence and expectation that our loving, caring, merciful Father is actually waiting to hear and answer us.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)

Allow these words to sink in for you. “if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” Do not be afraid of going to God with your need, do not grow anxious about your needs or your life. Do not despair at trial or tragedy. Rather take it all to God who, in his perfect will, can answer all of our needs, our worries, our fears. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7)

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