I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD,

the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

How is your prayer life? If you’re like many Christians, you would probably have to admit that you don’t

pray as often as you know you should. You may be reluctant to pray often because it’s a humbling

experience. When we pray, we die to ourselves, and death hurts. Too often, our focus may be less on

God and more on prayer itself.

Prayer communicates our desires to God our Father. Those who don’t sense their needs do not truly

pray. In contrast, the Bible pictures true prayer as an offering that rises up to heaven and seeks God’s

attention. Through prayer, we cast our anxieties on God, cry out to Him in trouble, and make our needs

known to Him in every circumstance.

Prayer is also a means to have an intimate relationship with our Creator God. We pray because we were

made to commune with God. In Psalm 27:8, David says, My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your

face, LORD, I will seek. We pray because God calls us to speak to Him, and believers cannot help but

respond, even when we aren’t sure what to say.

However, you may be less inclined to pray if you don’t think prayer changes things. After all, why pray if

God already knows our need? If it doesn’t make a difference, why pray? God uses our prayers to bring

about changes in us. Prayer teaches us to seek God’s will and come to Him with a desire that our lives

would reflect God’s glory and the image of Jesus Christ. It serves the purpose of exchanging our will for

His perfect will for us.

The Bible declares, The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16b) God uses

prayer to bring about His will, not because He is dependent on prayer, but because He has chosen to use

prayer to that end.

As we pray in the Spirit, we naturally ask God for those things God is pleased to bring about. This is the

confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything in accordance with his will, he hears

us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of

him. (1 John 5:14-15)



Let’s remember that when we are discouraged or feel helpless, that’s when we need to go to the Lord in

prayer—and pray that the Lord will change both our circumstances and us.

By Jim Connell