A Cup of Cold Water

Sunday, I had an unusual faith-testing experience. In many ways it was a trivial trial, certainly nothing to be overly upset about. I confess that I was anxious and stressed about what happened. At the same time, I realized that God was teaching me about His Sovereign relationship with us and what He chooses to bring into our lives that we might serve others and in so doing serve Him. 

Sunday evening Ron wanted to go to church extra early as he was singing a solo that night. He was upset and wound up and certain we weren’t going to make it on time. As it was we waited outside the church for fifteen minutes until the doors were opened.

When I went to start my car to move it out of the driveway, it wouldn’t turn over. Two of the men who arrived early, pushed the car out of the fire lane and into a parking spot. I mentioned I would need help getting the car started after services. Now there is nothing I hate more than being stuck with a broken car. It unnerves me.

I went into the auditorium, where Ron was practicing and sat on the front pew next to a developmentally disabled man. He said his name was Chuck (not his real name) and began to tell me about the church and how he had belonged to it for years. He told me he had taken the bus to church, and then asked, “Can you take me home?”

I replied, “My car is broken down, but I will be glad to find a ride for you.”

Because I was feeling anxious about the car, wondering if it would be an alternator or starter or battery and not knowing if a battery jump would work or if the car would have to be towed, I felt it was best for me to help Chuck find a ride rather than take him home. It was going to be difficult enough for Ron who becomes disoriented  and upset when he is out of his comfort zone and thrust into unfamiliar situations.

As we waited for the evening service to start, Chuck continued to mention every few moments that he needed a ride home, and I kept reassuring him I would make sure he got one. But he wasn’t convinced because he could see that I was anxious and uncertain.

After the service we waited at the front of the church, thinking that one of the men would help us, but they left. Then I mentioned our need to a staff member who said he would get help for all of us.

I asked a couple if they could take Chuck home, but they said they were going shopping. My first thought was, Why couldn’t they take him home and then go shopping?

Ron, Chuck, and I left the auditorium and waited in the hallway for help but no one came. Chuck didn’t look directly at me but spoke to the air saying, “There are no more buses coming, and it’s dark.”

I again promised him, we would make sure he got a ride home.  I was feeling overwhelmed by two needs I could not take care of without help. I don’t remember praying at all, but God was fully aware of my concerns.

By then I thought about calling a towing service, but I don’t have a working cell phone. I started to see if I could find a phone when the staff person saw me and realized we had not gotten the help we needed.  He came and said someone was outside ready to get our car started, and he would make sure Chuck got a ride home. Our car started and we were able to get home. It turned out that our car needed a new battery.

What did I learn from this unnerving experience? 

First, one of the major things God is teaching me is that serving Him is an everyday experience, an every moment exercise. I must be open and aware when He charges into my life and presents me with a divine appointment to serve others. These moments usually come crashing in as unwanted intrusions. They are the last problem I want to deal with, because I was most likely right in the middle of taking care of some duty and have so many other pressures to handle. Nonetheless, God calls me to respond, Now.

Second, God presents people needs to us when we least expect it, and we need to be willing to shift gears to help and not lock into our own agenda.

Third, we need to change our attitude and mindset. If we act like the person is intruding on us and that we really don’t want to help, we only make the person feel humiliated and small and that we don’t care. It was the reaction of Job’s friends to his losses and needs that increased his pain to an intolerable level. No one should have to feel ashamed that he/she needs help. We need to feel reassured and loved and cared for.

Fourth, we need to reach out to those who are vulnerable, whose lives may be difficult, who need that extra mile of giving from us, and extra assurance that we care and will follow through to help or get needed help even if it is inconvenient and when we cannot do it and need to ask others to help.

Finally, this is the least of reasons for giving, but it is a reminder of Jesus call to serve. “If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded”
(Matthew 10:42 NLT).

Scriptures to Ponder from The Message

 Deuteronomy 15:7-11  “When you happen on someone who's in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don't look the other way pretending you don't see him. Don't keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don't count the cost. Don't listen to that selfish voice . . . and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He'll call God's attention to you and your blatant sin. Give freely and spontaneously. Don't have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God's, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.”

Luke 6:31-34"Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that's charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.”

1 Timothy 6:17-19 “Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.”

A Simple Answered Prayer

Yesterday, the Lord answered a simple prayer. It had been raining most of the morning and along with the wind, it was a chilly Santa Maria day.  I got up at  6:30 am, showered and dressed, then went to help get my grand-girls off to school, urging them to dress, eat, brush their teeth, comb their hair, and get their backpacks and lunches. It's always a race against the clock with me urging the girls to get moving while they move at a poky pace.

I got Sierra out the door to catch her ride and watched the other two girls until right before 10 a.m. when I  took Sadie to Kindergarten and Delaney to preschool and then went to a doctor's appointment. I was done by 11 a.m. and ready for a nap. Grandma's need them.

I sat in the car for a few minutes and read, which is my respite from the insistent needs of Ron and the girls and the phone and all the other tasks that call my name. It started to pour, a pounding rain that thundered and rattled, so I thought I better get home. I put my key in the ignition, but my car would not start. I waited and tried and it would not start. I panicked when the car didn't start after several tries.  I didn't have a working cell phone, so it meant I needed to go back to the doctor's office and use their phone, which I did.

I was told it would be a thirty minute wait for an Automobile Club tow truck. I've been stuck with a broken car many times, and the wait had been that long if not longer. I had eaten a piece of toast for breakfast, but I am a diabetic, and I was starting to have a low blood sugar attack. There was no place to eat close by; besides it was pouring rain. If the car had to be towed to the mechanic, how could I pick up the girls at school? I was fearful about the cost of car repairs. Our bank account was already broken. I was playing the "anxious" game in my mind; I am a winner when it comes to worry at times like that. Finally, I simply prayed for the Lord's help. It was a quick cry of the heart.

Within a few minutes, the tow truck arrived in the thundering rain. The driver reminded me that my car lights were on, which I had forgotten. The car has this annoying habit of not turning off the lights when you turn off the ignition. The battery needed charging, and so did my faith. Within five minutes I was on my way relieved that the car was fine and grateful that God had heard and responded to my simple prayer.

Simple Prayer

Soon after my husband Ron suddenly lost his eyesight we went to the Braille Institute, which offers many helpful services for blind people. I was trying to lead him by the hand into the building.

He was frightened by the changing shadows and the rough and smooth textured sidewalks, certain I was leading him into an obstacle he would trip over.

I kept saying, “Trust me. Just trust me.”

But he was terrified as we walked from the sunlight into the shadows, and from darkness back into the light again. I kept reassuring him, “The sidewalk is clear.”

He still didn’t believe me, and I couldn’t understand why he didn’t trust me to safely guide him.

As we inched our way into one of the rooms, both of us feeling forlorn and frightened, Pablo, one of the employees, said, “Let me show you how to guide him.”

Pablo told us about his grandmother who had been blind as he showed me that Ron needed to hold onto my arm instead of trying to pull him along by the hand as I was doing.

Finding Time to Pray

A few years ago, I met with Lisa and Peggy who expressed similar frustrations. We discussed the barriers and fears that we have about prayer. Why don’t we pray more? One shared how a woman in their church had started an intercessory prayer group and no one came. Why? we questioned.

Peggy, a mother of five and caretaker for her own mother,  said, “Sometimes I think God doesn’t see what I have to do in a day. If He only knew, He’d understand why I don’t have time to pray. Of course, I know He knows,” she said, suggesting “Perhaps, we could try praying for two minutes at a time throughout the day.”

We also realized that we become caught in the trap that we don’t have enough time to  pray now, but we’ll spend those hours in prayer when we get older and have more time. But will we have more time? As I pointed out, I’m in my sixties (71 now) and working harder and have as heavy of obligations as I did when I was younger. So the three of us agreed that waiting for the days when we had more time to pray might never come.

We agreed that we needed simple, practical ways we could pray. We needed a balance between developing a more disciplined prayer-life and not becoming too legalistic and rigid.

Prayer needed to be attainable and doable. We needed concrete ideas and clear direction on how and what to pray specifically for others. We needed to have a beginning place to build our prayer-life on, and not start off by trying to be an on your knees at 4 a.m. prayer-warrior.

A good beginning place would be to pick a routine task and commit to joining it with a time of prayer until the task was done. When we have our morning coffee, it could become a time of prayer rather than reading a newspaper. We don’t have to keep thinking that we have to squeeze an extra minute to pray. We can do tasks that don’t require our attention and pray at the same time.

We could build a habit of coming into the Lord’s presence for a few moments at a time as we were doing our regular tasks. While we’re driving, doing dishes, laundry, vacuuming, or any other routine task that doesn’t require much thinking but would provide an opportunity to pray.

Though we didn’t realize it at the time, we were talking about Simple Prayer, “the most basic, the most primary form of prayer.” It is called the” Prayer of Beginning Again.” (Foster, 9.)

Simple Prayer

Simple prayer is just that basic requests, short and to the point, talking to the Lord about our daily concerns. It’s everyday talk not flowery words or theological language that sounds super spiritual. Just being yourself and talking the way you do in daily conversation.

Richard Foster wrote, “There is no pretense in Simple Prayer. We do not pretend to be more holy, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God—or ourselves.” (Foster, Prayer, 10.) Simple prayer is being as real and truthful and transparent with the Lord as we can be.

We don’t have to be afraid that the Lord will criticize or tune us out. We can talk to the Lord without thinking ahead of time about what we need to say in order to persuade Him to hear and answer us.

Rosalind Rinker said, “The more natural the prayer, the more real He becomes. It has all been simplified for me to this extent: prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other.” (Rinker, Prayer: Conversing with God, 23.)

Simple prayer is conversational prayer. It is like curling up on a soft sofa for a leisurely chat. It’s talking heart to heart with our beloved Friend who knows us better than anyone else.

We can relax in His presence and be ourselves without apology or explanation. It’s a mutual friendship for the Lord desires we know Him with the intimacy that He knows us.

We are safe and secure and can have complete trust in our soul Friend, the One with whom we can tell our greatest concerns and will keep our deepest confidences. We can even sit quietly together without trying to fill silences.

Some Christians may feel that simple prayer is too self-centered, always asking, begging, and pleading is not pleasing to God. Our prayers need to be more centered on others.

Foster said, “What these people fail to see, however, is that Simple Prayer is necessary, even essential, to the spiritual life. The only way we move beyond ‘self-centered prayer’ (if indeed we ever do) is by going through it, not by making a detour around it.” (Foster, Prayer, 10-11.)

The Lord cares about our personal concerns. The Bible is filled with cries for help. “Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior” (Ps. 38:22). “Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need . . . ” (Ps. 142:6a).

Simple prayer is a beggar’s plea. When blind Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging and heard that Jesus was coming, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  The crowd rebuked Bartimaeus, but he shouted the same prayer all the louder until Jesus stopped and called to him (Mark 10:46-50).

“‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ ‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you’” (Mark 10:51-52b).

What a simple exchange between Bartimaeus and Jesus. We have this misconception that the longer and more eloquent the prayer the more power we have to persuade God.

In Hallesby’s book, Prayer, he wrote, “Prayer is something deeper than words. It is present in the soul before it has been formulated in words. And it abides in the soul after the last words of prayer have passed over our lips.”  (O Hallesby, Prayer, 16.)

Simple prayer is so much deeper than talking to the Lord, which we think it must be. “Prayer is a definite attitude of our hearts toward God, an attitude which He in heaven immediately recognizes as prayer, as an appeal to His heart. Whether it takes the form of words or not, does not mean anything to God, only to ourselves.  (O Hallesby, Prayer, 16.)

Simple prayer can be one word, such as, “Jesus.”  It can be a passing thought about a need or talking to another person about our concerns that was not prayer at all. For the Lord hears and knows everything on our hearts. “You know my every thought when far away.”  “You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord”  (Ps. 139:2b; 4 nlt).  As Jesus said, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8b).

 Simple prayer is a moan or cry of the heart without words. For He sees our tears and hears our weeping. In Genesis we see such an example in the story of Hagar and her son who were lost in the desert. She was so desperate she went off a short ways from her son because she could not bear to watch him die.

God sent an angel who told Hagar, “‘Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there’”  (Gen. 21:17). Then the angel led Hagar and her son to a well of water and provided for their needs (Gen. 21:16-20).

Simple prayer can even be a conversation with other people that the Lord overhears. The Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron because they didn’t have food. The Lord heard and provided for their needs, but He was angry with the people for grumbling intead of simply asking and trusting Him to provide (Ex.16:1-4).

Then there was the woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She came up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his cloak because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed” (Mark 5:29).

She immediately stopped bleeding. Jesus felt power going out of Himself and asked who had touched His clothes. She came forward and told Him that she had been healed.

“He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering’” (Mark 5:34). Jesus overheard her thoughts and responded even though she wasn’t praying to Him.

Let us be encouraged that Jesus hears our thoughts we don’t realize are prayer. He desires to show us that He is aware of our every need. He longs for us to watch and see how He is working and answering.

Our Father in Heaven

"In this manner, therefore, pray: 

      Our Father in heaven,
      Hallowed be Your name.
      Your kingdom come.
      Your will be done
      On earth as it is in heaven.
       Give us this day our daily bread.
       And forgive us our debts,
      As we forgive our debtors.
      And do not lead us into temptation,
      But deliver us from the evil one.
      For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:9-12).

Jesus gave us the perfect model for simple prayer (Matt 6:9). Yet the Lord’s Prayer is so profound and has such great depth it covers all the essentials of prayer including everything we need to bring before our Father.

This prayer shows us that we don’t have to say many words to reach His heart. “It is so simple that a child can say it, and so divinely rich that it encompasses all that God can give. A model and inspiration for all other prayer, it draws us at the same time back to itself as the deepest utterance of our souls before God,” wrote Andrew Murray. (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,  30.)

In the Lord’s prayer, we are saying we will give honor to our Father’s name, our Father’s kingdom, and our Father’s will. We present to Him our daily needs, our daily sins and weaknesses, and our daily dangers. We confess our daily need for forgiveness and to forgive others. We pray “our” and “we” that we may include others as well. We begin by honoring our Father and end by glorifying Him with praise.

Our Father in Heaven

Start prayer like this, Jesus said. “Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9a). Call him “Father, dear Father” (Rom. 8:15). He is a caring, loving Father who welcomes us. For we are His very own children, adopted into His family, and He desires our companionship.

Murray said that when we say our Father we are placed “at once in the center of the wonderful revelation that Jesus came to make: His Father is our Father, too. It is the essence of redemption: Christ delivers us from the curse so that we can become the children of God.” (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,  30-31.)

“The title Father tells us much about God’s character. It reveals that He cares about us and takes us responsibility for us. As our Father, He desires what is best for us and loves us so much that He disciplines us for our own good. He is approachable and is involved in all aspects of our lives.” (Lee Brase, Praying From God’s Heart, 28) 

“The knowledge of God’s Father-love is the first and simplest, but also the last and highest lesson in the school of prayer,” wrote Murray. “Prayer begins in a personal relationship with the living God as well as a personal, conscious fellowship of love with Him. In the knowledge of God’s Fatherliness revealed by the Holy Spirit, the power of prayer will root and grow.”  (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,  31.)


The word “heaven” may give us the feeling that our God and Father is far off and impersonal. But the Lord promises, He “is near us whenever we pray to him” (Deut. 4:7b).

So let us come to Him as children excited to see our Father who waits for us with open arms. His door is always open. He is the only one we can be sure will hear us and talk to us, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Why Pray?

Jesus said to the disciples in teaching them how to pray,  ^"When you pray, don't talk on and on as people do who don't know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers. Don't be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask" Matthew 6:7-8 CEV).

"O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.. . . I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence" (Psalm 139:1-5, 7 NLT)!

My first question in response to the above verses is: Why pray?  The Lord already knows everything I need before I ask Him. God is sovereign and He knows everything about me and everything that will happen to me from the beginning to the ending of my time here on earth.  

So then, why pray?


Pray because God loves us and desires to have a personal relationship with us.   "This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love" (1 John 4:7-12 MSG)! 

Pray because the Lord desires that we know and love Him more and more. Through prayer we can grow to love the Lord passionately with all our heart and with all our soul in the deepest part of our inner being and know Him with all our mind by spending time with Him (Matt. 22:37).  Two people who love each other desire to be together and to share one another’s life. Through prayer a precious relationship with the Lord grows. 

Ron and I have been married nearly fifty-three years. Our love for each other has grown over time, as we have supported each other through the various seasons of our lives—through hard winters that tested our faith and our marriage; springtimes of new beginnings that stretched us to grow; warm and restful summers that provided relief from trials; and the learning periods of autumn that challenged us to adapt and change. 

In the same way our love-relationship with the Lord grows and changes over time through prayer and our dependence upon Him. As the Lord sees us through the various seasons of our lives, we are drawn closer to Him and our love is deeper and richer. For the Lord’s love is an everlasting love; He draws us unto Himself with lovingkindness (Jer. 31:3). 

Pray because we need the Lord’s guidance and direction in everything we do as we don’t know the way ahead of us. He promises to lead us by ways we have not known, along the unfamiliar path we walk on each day. Surely, He will guide us and  turn the darkness into light before us and make the rough places smooth. He will not forsake us (Isa. 42:16).   

Pray because the Lord is our greatest source of help and strength in trying times. When we are struck by heartaches that overwhelm us and can do nothing about, we become more aware of our need to pray. We are faced with our total dependence upon Him when we have no one else to help us and nowhere else to go.

The more we share our sorrows with the Lord and seek the reassurance found in His Word, the more we are aware of His caring presence. The Holy Spirit is the source of all our comfort, the only One who is always beside us at all times in all our troubles, who is our constant support in suffering (2 Cor. 1:3-5).


Pray because that is the way we find out how the Lord will provide our needs and what He wants us to do in the process. 

Pray because we need to be changed by the Lord so we may glorify Him. Through prayer the Lord transforms us by helping us renew our minds and to no longer conform to worldly ways (Rom. 12:2). 

God’s purpose above all else is that we love Him, glorify and honor Him, and by our obedience He transforms us into His likeness. “And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more”  (2 Cor. 3:18 NLT).

Our purpose for praying needs to shift from being focused on the answers we want to God Himself.  If I don’t see my most important requests answered, but I grow in faith, see His transforming work in my life, and become more centered on Him and not on self then His will is being accomplished in my life. 

I am constantly looking for answers and waiting for results, but this defeats me every time. What are we looking for then? In prayer, we are seeking to the know the Lord more personally, to understand and do His will, and to bring Him glory. Then we are able to see His answers, for His ways and will are often far different than ours.

Pray for yourself and intercede for others because it is the way you see the Lord at work in your own and other people’s lives. When we pray for and with others, we are not only encouraged by what the Lord is doing in our lives, but we see His work in their lives, which also strengthens our faith. Moreover, those we pray for are lifted up and encouraged. One of the highest ways we express our love for others is to pray with and for them. 


Praise the Lord because His steadfast love is better than life (Psalm 63:3). "I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High" (Psalm 7:16 NLT). "I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High" (Psalm 9:2 NLT). "I will praise you with music on the harp,because you are faithful to your promises, O my God. I will sing praises to you with a lyre,O Holy One of Israel" (Psalm 71:22 NLT).


"Hallelujah! Thank God! And why? Because he's good, because his love lasts. But who on earth can do it— declaim God's mighty acts, broadcast all his praises? You're one happy man when you do what's right, one happy woman when you form the habit of justice" (Psalm 106:1 MSG).


Pray because our prayers are precious to the Lord. In Revelation we are shown just how important our prayers are as we are given a picture of a time to come when the living beings and twenty-four elders will fall down before Jesus the Lamb, holding golden “bowls filled with incense—the prayers of God’s people” (Rev. 5:8 NLT)!” 

At that time incense will be mixed with the prayers of God’s people and offered on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke from the incense together with the prayers of the saints, will go up before God (Rev. 8:3-4).

Conversational Prayer

Before Jesus gave His disciples the Lord's Prayer or the Model Prayer as it is also called, He taught them how to pray. I find great comfort in knowing that He desires that we pray sincerely and simply, and that God is turned off by phony pray-ers and insincere, manipulative people. Their prayers are directed at their audience in the guise of addressing God. Don't ever think that those who seem more spiritual than you do have a special "in" with God.


Many Christians pray fervently in a heavenly prayer language, cry aloud to God, dance in the Spirit, and feel that their prayers are not effective unless they intercede with such passion. God certainly hears their prayers and answers, but because He knows that we are all different in our personalities and walk with Him, He lovingly receives and responds to those saints who pray in a quiet persistent way. What a relief to realize that can be ourselves when we pray. 


God doesn’t want to hear long speeches either. He simply wants to carry on a conversation with us. Simple, conversational prayer is talking with Jesus about the everday stuff of life. It’s being yourself and talking with a friend who’s easy to talk to. Its like curling up on a soft sofa for a leisurely chat.

Richard Foster wrote, “We do not pretend to be more holy, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God—or ourselves.” (Foster, Prayer, 10.) Conversational prayer is being as real and truthful and transparent with the Lord as we can be. We can relax and be ourselves.

In addition, some Christians love to talk and will pray for hours on end. Others don’t enjoy talking at all and will offer brief prayers while many of us fall in between. How little or much we talk to the Lord has nothing to do with whether He hears us or not or the effectiveness of our prayer life. God knows us better than we know ourselves and hears us just the way we communicate.

We don’t have to learn how to talk better or be afraid He will criticize or tune us out. We don’t have to keep apologizing for the way we talk or keep trying to explain what we mean because we fear He’ll misunderstand us as others may do.

We can talk to the Lord without thinking ahead about what we need to say in order to persuade Him to hear and answer us. Rosalind Rinker said, “The more natural the prayer, the more real He becomes. It has all been simplified for me to this extent: prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other.” (Rosalind Rinker, Prayer: Conversing with God, 23.)

Conversational prayer is talking heart to heart with the One who knows us better than anyone else. It’s a mutual friendship for the Lord desires we know Him with the intimacy that He knows us. We can even sit quietly together without trying to fill silences.

We are safe and secure and can have complete trust in our soul Friend, the One with whom we can tell our personal concerns and will keep our deepest confidences. Being with the Lord is the most intimate of all relationships.

Conversational prayer is so much more than talking to the Lord. O Hallesby wrote, “Prayer is a definite attitude of our hearts toward God, an attitude which He in heaven immediately recognizes as prayer, as an appeal to His heart. Whether it takes the form of words or not, does not mean anything to God, only to ourselves.”  (O Hallesby, Prayer, 16.)

Prayer may be a moan or tears without any words. It may be as brief as a beggar’s plea. When blind Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging and heard that Jesus was coming, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  The crowd rebuked Bartimaeus, but he shouted the same prayer all the louder until Jesus stopped and called to him (Mark 10:46-50).  

“‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ 


‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you’” (Mark 10:51-52b). 

What a simple exchange between Bartimaeus and Jesus and with such a miraculous answer. We have this misconception that the longer and more eloquent our prayers the more power we have to persuade God.

Crying out, “Jesus,” is the most powerful name we pray. We can cry out His name in times of desperate need, when we long for a sense of His presence, or to stand against temptation and He will hear and respond.

In Hallesby’s book, Prayer, he wrote, “Prayer is something deeper than words. It is present in the soul before it has been formulated in words. And it abides in the soul after the last words of prayer have passed over our lips.”  (O Hallesby, Prayer, 16.)


Finally, God welcomes our prayers about our daily concerns and daily needs. As Richard Foster said, “Very simply, we begin right were we are: in our families, on our jobs, with or neighbors and friends. Now, I wish this did not sound so trivial, because, on the practical level of knowing God, it is the most profound truth we will ever hear. To believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary junctures of daily life is the stuff of prayer.” (Foster, 11.) To believe that God hears us and responds to us just the way we are frees us to be ourselves when we communicate with Him.

Jesus, Teach Us to Pray

In this study on prayer, we have seen God's Role in Prayer. God created prayer. It begins with Him. He is speaking to us all the time. He is our heavenly parent; He is the Father we go to when we have needs. We pray directly to God the Father to seek His help and provision. 


Second, we have discovered the Holy Spirit's Role in Prayer. The Holy Spirit dwells within in us and guides us in prayer. He helps us in our weakness, intercedes for us. He is our comforter, counselor, and the one who convicts us of sin. 

Now we we will examine Jesus' Role in Prayer as our Teacher.  "It came to pass, as He [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples (Luke 11:1 NKJV).”


Before Jesus gave them the Lord's Prayer, He taught the disciples how to pray (Matthew 6:5-7). 


First, Jesus started His lesson on prayer by rebuking phonies. He said don’t pray showy sermons like hypocrites do in public so they can impress others (Matt. 6:5). “‘When you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! . . . ’” (Matt. 6:5 MSG)?

What a relief that we don’t have to pray in a showy way or be intimidated by those who do. God doesn’t want to hear long speeches either. He simply wants to carry on a conversation with us.

In one of Jesus’ prayers He showed us the kind of person to whom His Father will reveal things. “‘O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike’” (Matt. 11:25 nlt). To put it more bluntly, “‘You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people” (Matt. 11:25b MSG).

Our Father reveals Himself and listens to ordinary Christians who have childlike faith. Be assured that you can truly be yourself with the Lord and talk to Him the way you ordinarily do in everyday conversations. Who is the one friend you can easily talk to and be yourself? Think of the Lord as that friend, relax and talk to Him in the same way.

Certainly, we need to pray in a respectful manner, not cursing, joking, or acting foolish and silly. But if you have difficulty expressing yourself or have a hard time making yourself understood, be assured the Lord desires to hear you and knows you so well you don’t have to keep explaining yourself to Him. You don’t have to be afraid or freeze up as you may do around someone who is critical of the way you talk and doesn’t understand you.

Ask the Lord to free you from your fears and hang-ups about talking to Him, for He desires to spend time with you. He welcomes our prayers when we feel helpless, in great need, and can’t seem to say what we want to say.

The moment you feel He’s not listening, thank Him for hearing you out. The Spirit of God will reassure you of His presence.

Second, Jesus said we can pray by ourselves behind closed doors with the assurance that our Father who sees us praying in secret hears our every word (Matt. 6:6). He cares about our most personal requests that we feel we can’t share with others. He will reward our closet prayers by answering them out in the open. What hope!

Here’s what the Lord wants us to do when we pray alone, “‘Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.’” (Matt. 6:6 MSG)

Third, Jesus said we can pray briefly with the assurance that He hears and answers. We don’t have to “heap up empty phrases” thinking we’ll be heard because of our “many words” (Matt. 6:7 ESV). We don’t have to pray over and over again about the same thing. How encouraging!

Short prayers are powerful. So when we begin to feel guilty that we’re not praying long or hard enough, let us remind ourselves that the Lord hears and responds to our brief requests.

“Moreover, we don’t have to learn special prayer techniques that will gain us more favor with God. “‘The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply” (Matt. 6:7-9a MSG).