I always used to see prayer as a place for my requests. A moment to give God my wants and needs and maybe a little time for others needs. I see it now as a place to talk to someone who wants to hear it all. The good the bad and the ugly. I see prayer as a place between me and a Being much bigger than me. A Being that has the ability to do it all, but a little at a time. I see my prayers to God as a Father/Son relationship. I have seen this through raising my own children, they make their requests and I make a decision on those requests. Sometimes I have to say no and other times I give all I can to their little pleas. Most of my decisions are benificial for their character and by making them it shows my love for them. As a parent though I don't have all the resources to fulfill their needs and wants. Where our Father in heaven has all the resources to do all things, yet he sees and knows when to give those gifts to us.
So, prayer for me has become a place to talk to my Maker one on one. I have seen the reason of prayer as a continuous need in my life and it has given me the encouragement I need. Prayer can be many things for all of us. Some pray in dire need. Many have only prayed on these occasions, their life has drastically changed and sickness may be ready to take them soon, so they resort to prayer. Others pray quick prayers, they make requests and hope for the results they want. They take no time to give God the thanks he deserves, they just want their needs met and that is it. Then there are those that pray out of religious practice. One example is the Muslim religion, they all stop at a certain time of the day and face the same direction and pray out of religious practice, these prayers have no heart in them. They just do it because they fear that if they don't they are going to be harmed in some way. I used to feel that way sometimes that if I don't pray I felt fearful and had let my God down. Not true!
Prayer is a conversation with you and God. A conversation to be done in private for nobody to see you doing it. I don't know exactly why God chose it that way, you would think He would want it done in public to promote his name. He doesn't want it that way, He wants us to be humble and to not be distracted, he wants our complete attention. God wants us to draw near to Him. He wants us to be complete in Him and wants to hear more than our requests. He wants to have a conversation to release our true self to Him. God may not speak clearly to us but He speaks to our hearts. Prayer always makes me feel relieved, I feel like I have talked to the most important being in the universe and the heavens. And I always do. I feel listened to, nobody can interupt me when I speak in prayer. When we talk to others here in life, we're always interupted by someone or something. It makes me feel empty a lot of times. I want to be heard but life and it's obstacles keep us from being heard. I always want to let people know who I am and about my life and it's experiences, but there is always an interuption and no one ever gets the whole conversation. So I go to the one who really wants to hear about me and how I want to be heard and not interupted. God gives us His whole attention and never allows anything to interupt our conversation. What a great thing it is to pray and talk to the God of all that is. Change your prayers from a list of demands to a conversation with a loving Father. Do it that way and you will do it not because you feel you have too, but because you want to. He's waiting and all lines are open.
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