Like this:

Why do we not talk to God more? If you had a chance to talk to your favorite celebrity, or the future spouse of your dreams, wouldn’t you do it? We have the privilege to talk to the God of the universe, the God who created all things, and yet we don’t do it as often as we should, sometimes not at all. Can you imagine what it would be like if your parents didn’t talk for an entire day? I’m not sure about you, but if that happened with my parents, I would think something huge was going on. It is the same thing when we don’t talk to God, but on a much larger scale. This is not between husband and wife, but between Creator and creature, between Lord and servant.

There have been three verses/passages that have really helped me understand prayer much better. I encourage you to read them and meditate on what they mean, and how you can improve your prayer life.

The first is 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “pray without ceasing”

Short, simple, and to the point. We are called to pray without ceasing. But how do we do that? Should we pray in class and ignore our teachers? Should we pray when we’re reading the Bible? (I don’t know about you, but my multitasking skills aren’t there yet). What about when we’re driving? The way that this verse was explained to me was that we are supposed to “text” God. To pray without ceasing is not to be on our knees 24/7, but to be communicating with God throughout the day. It could be a simple “Thank you, Lord, for this blessing” or a quick “Lord, give me strength to endure this temptation.” Short prayers like this will keep us focused on God as we seek Him each day. We shouldn’t neglect the long “phone call” (to keep the analogy going) prayers to God, for we should be talking to God each day for a prolonged amount of time, but we also need to be in constant communication with Him.

The second passage is John 14:13-14, where Jesus says, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

These verses are often misunderstood. I know I was confused when I first read them! At first glance, these verses can mean “Dear Lord, I want a Porsche. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.” And BAM! There’s a Porsche on the driveway. As much as we want these verses to mean that we can get anything we want if we add “in Jesus’ Name, Amen” to the end of our prayers, it is not so. These verses mean that if we pray for things where “the Father [will] be glorified in the Son”, then they will be done. This ought to give us hope and confidence when we pray. If we ask the Lord to help us fight a particular sin, or to save a certain friend, for His glory and according to His will, these verses say that it will be done! This needs to radically change our prayer lives! If we are praying according to the desires of Jesus, our prayers will be answered!

The final passage is James 5:16b, which says: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

This verse is straightforward as well. A righteous man’s prayer will be effective. If we are living holy lives, then God will use our prayers in awesome ways! But if we are living a life of sin and debauchery, God will not be as willing, if willing at all, to answer us when we ask Him for things. Now we shouldn’t wait until we are living a righteous life to pray, but we should reflect on this verse and seek to trust in the Lord more, so that our prayers will be more effective.

These verses really help me to understand how I can improve my prayer life, and what a blessing it is to have the ability to pray. But I hope that you and I will not just read them and meditate on them, but that we will actually put them into practice and pray! One of the most common excuses for why we don’t pray is that we don’t have enough time. But it’s summer! We have tons of time, maybe even too much time! So let’s be “texting” and “calling” God more and more, starting right now.

Advertisement