The reason you can ask anything in prayer is because you are friends with God. We seldom pray because we forget what a privilege it is to talk to God. God says, “I am the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and you are My friend and I want to talk to you!” That’s what prayer is. It is dedication but it is also communication.
We often have a hard time believing that God is really interested in us. We can’t seem to conceive that the Creator of the entire universe is interested in car payments and house payments and buying new clothes for the kids for school and the guy at work who irritates you and the fact that you have back problems and everything else. When you fully discover how much God really loves you, prayer will no longer be a problem for you. The problem is not, “I have to pray.” The problem is you don’t really realize how much God cares about and loves you. Why? Because we love to talk to the people who love us the most.
If you find prayer is a duty, a ritual, a routine that you don’t look forward to going through, it means you don’t understand how much God is in love with you and how much he’s interested in everything that is of interest to you. Prayer is the umbilical cord of the Christian life from which we draw our strength.
3. Prayer is an act of supplication.
Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Don’t worry about anything but in everything, with your prayers and your supplications, make your requests known to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The result of your asking, your requests in prayer, will be peace of mind.
Prayer is God’s chosen method of meeting your needs. The Bible teaches that there are some things that God has promised to do only if we pray. Charles Spurgeon once said, “God never shuts his storehouses until you shut your mouth.” Keep on asking.
4. Prayer is an act of cooperation.
God has sovereignly chosen that we can cooperate in his plan by praying for his will to be done here on earth. Prayer is God’s program. Prayer is God’s modus operandi. When we pray for other people, we are cooperating with God. We are teaming up with God to accomplish God’s work in the world.
