Candace Cameron Bure, Kirk Cameron, Greg Laurie and Sheila Walsh Discuss the Power of Prayer

Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship (a church with multiple locations based in Riverside, California), emphasized that people don’t have to worry about impressing God with the words they use but should feel comfortable, seeing him as a friend and a father who primarily cares about their hearts. 

Cameron said that the first time he prayed to God, he was an atheist, and that he felt extremely awkward. “I felt so embarrassed that someone might see me,” Cameron said. He asked Laurie, “How do you get over feeling awkward and uncomfortable talking to somebody that you can’t see?”

“Think about talking to your best friend. Think about talking to your father—and I’m assuming you have a good relationship with your father,” Laurie replied. “Think of warmth and love and your father delighting in hearing from you. God doesn’t care about the verbiage. He looks on the heart. It’s just moving your heart toward God. Be real with God.”

“You don’t have to speak in King James English,” said the pastor, who even encouraged people to tell God that they feel awkward about praying. “It’s important to verbalize our prayers, and I just say, start doing it, and the more you do it, the easier it will get, and you have a father who loves to hear from you and is looking forward to it.”

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Sheila Walsh, who in addition to her other accomplishments is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, reiterated Laurie’s point about not worrying about using the perfect words when speaking to God. She used to think she needed to use “correct words” when she prayed, but now she believes “God listens to our heart.”

“Prayer is this ongoing conversation with the one who knows us best and loves us most,” said Walsh. “It’s just talking with my father, the one who’s in control.”

She believes that one reason why some people do not pray is because they used to pray and God did not answer their prayers, particularly prayers about deeply painful parts of their lives.

Walsh met a woman once who told her that God could not be both all-powerful and all-loving, essentially summarizing the philosophical “problem of evil.” The woman held this belief because she had lost two sons.