Prayer—Your Lifeline to Jesus

We are promised that all who call on His Name will be saved.[1] Prayer is calling on God for mercy, for help or for fellowship. He delights in listening—no request is too small. Learn to let your need drive you to Him every time: You cannot wear out the welcome mat and He has promised to always answer us.[2] Prayer brings us through communication into communion. The peace of Christ is the clearest sign of His presence with us. This is promised to us whenever we release our prayers to Him.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.

Why You Need This Connecter

Imagine having someone hanging around you filled with exactly the help, or wisdom, or comfort, or encouragement that you need, but never being allowed to speak to them. That would be incredibly frustrating, wouldn’t it? You don’t have to pray: You get to pray! Not only is the Lord always willing to listen to your every word, He can actually do something about all of your predicaments. That’s reason enough to start talking to Him.

Our need for God’s mercy and help extends to every nook and cranny of our lives, as well as that of our loved ones. Interceding—carrying requests to God—is a natural place to begin, once you know by faith that He is there and that He is listening.

Be sure you remember that conversation is a two-way street. Learn to wait in silence for Him to speak to you. Even if you don’t hear words, you will receive impressions. By these means He communicates understanding, sympathy, and the clear sense that we are not alone. Prayer draws us into intimate fellowship with our best Friend, divine Lover, and majestic Lord. We begin with short term needs for intercession, but the long-term goal is intimacy.

How It Works as a “Safety Net”

Prayer is our most direct life-line to the Lord. It could take a few moments to phone a friend, your Bible is probably back at the house, a worship service might be days away, but you can always go immediately to God in prayer. In fact, He wants you to! He tells us to “come boldly” to His throne anytime we need mercy or His divine assistance.[3] He invites us to call on Him so that He can answer us.[4] And He promises that all who call on His Name will be saved.[5]

When we are under attack by temptations or troubles that might disconnect us from God and carry us off the playing field into the land of unhappy outcomes, call on His Name. This safety net works for three reasons:

1) As you begin praying hard for God’s help, you become occupied with the things of God and that keeps the temptation from gaining ground,

2) God immediately “hears” that you really do want His help and starts sending it, and

3) Your preoccupation with prayer eventually shifts your focus off of the tempting thing and back on to the most desirable thing of all—your beautiful Lord and Savior.

As your focus shifts you become free!

Problems to Avoid

Do not make the mistake of thinking your request or concern is too small — that you shouldn’t be troubling the Lord with it. No concern is too small! God really, really loves you, delights in listening to you, and wants to answer your prayers. He may not answer your prayer in the way that you’ve made it (we don’t really know what is best for us), but He will always listen to your heart and treat you right. Don’t let false humility hold you back.

Don’t become demanding, either. You will eventually discover that your Father will give a good listen to your tears, your fears, even your pain and anger. He seems to welcome the kind of trust that enables us to expose our heart to Him. What doesn’t work is becoming strident and stubborn, insisting on our own solution to the problem we are praying about. That’s when the heavens can go strangely silent. That’s when the Lord seems miles away. Even if you think He has done wrong, He hasn’t, and He will be gracious and patient in helping you with your feelings. But God will get as quiet as Jesus before Pilate when He is being stubbornly accused. He will simply and silently out wait you. It’s best to walk humbly with your God.

Finally, watch out for falling into routine and ritualized prayers. Would you like someone to talk to you by memorized lines, saying the same thing over and over again? Neither does Jesus! He told us not to pray using vain repetitions.[6] Such prayers are fine for church and may be occasionally helpful in private, but learn to let your conversation be natural, free and wide ranging—just as it would be with a good friend whose affections you cherish and whose wisdom you trust.

Keep Growing!

Worship  Worship is that higher form of our conversation with the Lord where we are not petitioning Him for what we need but thanking and praising Him for who He is and what He has already done. This brings us speedily into close communion with Him. We can worship with others in church, in our quiet times, and simply by doing all that we do as a love gift to Him.

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