Prayer
Talking with the Father through Christ: how to pray, what the Lord's Prayer teaches, and whether He truly hears us.
Prayer
How do I pray?
Prayer is simply talking with God through Jesus Christ, with the Spirit's help, trusting that He hears. Jesus gave us the shape of it in the Lord's Prayer: address God as Father, praise Him, ask for daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance, and trust Him with the outcome.
Prayer
What does the Lord's Prayer teach?
The prayer Jesus gave us is a pattern for all prayer: it begins with God (His name, His kingdom, His will), then brings our needs (daily bread, forgiveness, protection), and ends in praise. It teaches us what to pray for and how to pray for it, simply, trustingly, together.
Prayer
Does God really hear my prayers?
Yes. Because of Jesus, believers pray with bold confidence that God hears them, not on the basis of their own worthiness but on the basis of Christ's. Scripture also calls us to pray in faith, in His will, with unconfessed sin dealt with, and with hearts that do not ask selfishly.
Prayer
Why does God seem silent when I pray?
God's silence is not His absence. Scripture shows that His delays are purposeful: He grows our faith, purifies our desires, and readies us for answers better than we asked. The Psalms model honest waiting, and Jesus taught that persistent prayer is rewarded.
Prayer
Why pray 'your will be done' if God already has a will?
Praying 'your will be done' is not an attempt to bend the future around God's hesitation; it is the shape of trust itself. God's will stands regardless, but the prayer changes us, aligning our hearts with His, inviting us to ask within His will, and freeing us from the fear of outcomes.
Prayer
How do I know God's voice from my own thoughts?
God's voice comes to us today chiefly through His word, illumined by His Spirit, and confirmed by wisdom and the Body of Christ. His voice never contradicts Scripture, always points to Christ, and produces humility, holiness, and peace. Test every inner impression by the Word and by the fruit it bears, the way the Bereans tested even the teaching of the apostles.
Prayer
What is fasting, and does it belong with prayer?
Fasting is the deliberate giving up of food, usually for a season, in order to devote ourselves to God. Scripture shows it joined to prayer, humility, and seeking the Lord, and Jesus assumed His followers would fast even as He assumed they would pray and give. Fasting is not a way to earn favor or twist God's arm; it is a discipline of dependence, an expression of hunger for God Himself, that belongs naturally with prayer.
Prayer
What does it mean to pray in the Holy Spirit?
To pray in the Spirit is to pray in dependence on the Holy Spirit and in line with His work. He helps our weakness when we do not know how to pray, He intercedes for us according to God's will, He dwells in us making us children who cry 'Abba, Father,' and He empowers the church's prayer. It is not a special technique for the few; it is the Spirit-empowered prayer of every believer, prayed through Christ and aligned with God's will.
Prayer
What does it mean to pray in Jesus' name?
To pray in Jesus' name is not to add a magic phrase to the end of a prayer; it is to pray in the authority and person of Christ, on the basis of what He has done, and in line with His will. Jesus promised that whatever we ask in His name, He will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. To pray in Jesus' name is to come to the Father through the Son, asking what honors Him and aligns with His purposes.
Prayer
Does God still speak today?
Yes. God has spoken, and God still speaks. He spoke through the prophets and has spoken finally and fully in His Son; He speaks through His word, which is God-breathed; He speaks by the Holy Spirit, who opens the word and guides God's people into truth; and He speaks to the hearts of those who hear His voice and follow. God is not silent today: He speaks in Christ, in Scripture, and by His Spirit.
Prayer
Does prayer change God's mind?
God does not change, but He does relate to us in real time, and Scripture repeatedly shows prayer changing what happens. Several prayers in the Bible are answered by an evident turn in God's announced course, and Jeremiah teaches that God's word of warning or promise is conditioned on how people respond. Prayer does not move an unmoved God; it is the appointed means by which a loving God does His moving work.
Prayer
To whom do we direct our prayers?
Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, in His name, helped by the Spirit: prayer in Scripture runs to God through Christ, never around Him. Our one Mediator always lives to intercede at the Father's right hand, and even the angels in God's presence refuse reverence from men, saying, worship God.
Prayer
What is the relationship between prayer and giving?
Prayer and giving are the two hands of dependence on God: prayer receives from Him, giving returns to Him and passes His gifts to others. Jesus teaches them side by side in the Sermon on the Mount with the same warnings, the same secrecy, and the same reward from the Father who sees in secret. Both begin with God's generosity; both guard against performing for people.
Prayer
What do I do when I feel far from God?
Feeling far from God is not the same as being far from Him. Scripture gives the feeling an honest voice in the psalms, then sets facts underneath it: He has promised never to leave, nothing can separate us from His love, and anyone once far off has been made near in the blood of Christ. Where sin has dulled the sense of nearness, confession clears it. And when words run out, the Spirit intercedes while we wait for Him, because waiting on God is often how He is found.