Prayer is an important part of every Christian’s life. Prayer is how we communicate with God to have a close relationship with Him. How we pray can be a matter of personal preference though and we know this because there are many instances in the Bible where people are praying, and it doesn’t always look the same.
Jesus gives us the perfect example of what prayer should look like. He did more than just pray, He lived a life of prayer. There were times Jesus went off by Himself to pray. Scriptures say He would get up to pray early in the morning while it was still dark (Mark 1:35). He prayed over meals. He prayed as he encountered those needing healing while he and His disciples walked through cities and towns. As we read about His ministry, we see Jesus was in constant communication with His Father. So much so that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and He gave them the Lord’s prayer, a template of how we should pray.
Abraham is someone who had many difficult conversations with God. He is known in the book of Hebrews as a hero of the faith, so we know his conversations with God come from a place of faith. One such interaction tells us Abraham is walking along the road and negotiating with God about Sodom, the city God had decided to destroy because of its wickedness. But because Abraham had been praying for Sodom, God allowed Abraham to negotiate to save the city if only 10 godly people could be found in it. In the end though it was destroyed because there was not even one godly person found there. This shows us God does indeed care about the things we care about, and faith is important as we offer our prayers to Him.
Job also had tough discussions with God. God permitted Satan to destroy everything Job loved. While Job is sitting in a pile of ashes, he and his friends are questioning as to why these things were allowed to happen. God patiently allows Job and his friends to lament his condition and to question God’s reasoning. God answers Job but probably not in the way he would have liked. God basically says I am God, and it doesn’t always make sense. Something I remind myself of from time to time. God’s patience with Job shows he had a close relationship with Him and was allowed to express his many emotions in a heart-to-heart conversation.
This is a great reminder that prayer helps to build our relationship with God, and no matter what our prayers are about or how they look, we know God listens and desires to have constant communication with us. Just like the relationships we have with the people in our lives, communication is key to building those strong connections that will see us through the most challenging times in our lives.
