Prayer is the way that we communicate with God. It can have many purposes and formats. The Bible is full of advice on how to pray. Jesus himself prayed to his Father often and gave his apostles a model for speaking to God.
God wants us to pray to Him. “Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things.” (Jeremiah 33: 3) “If any of you lack wisdom, you should pray to God, who will give it to you.” (James 1: 5) Jesus assumes that we will pray to God, “When you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” (Matt. 6: 6) The Bible teaches that God wants us to pray to Him and assumes that we will.
Much prayer is supplication. We are asking God for something and acknowledging our inability to get it for ourselves. “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7: 7) “I urge that petitions, prayers, requests, and thanksgivings be offered to God for all people.” (1 Tim. 2: 1)
Prayer requires faith. It is not a magic formula for getting what we want. The supplicant must trust that God is and can hear us. “Whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists” (Heb. 11: 6) “If you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, ‘Go from here to there!’ and it will go. You could do anything!” (Matt. 17: 20)
When praying, we want to seek the will of God, not change it. “We have courage in God’s presence, because we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will.” (1 John 5: 14) Jesus taught through parables that persistence is important when praying. In the parable of the widow and the judge, the widow kept on demanding her rights until the judge got tired of all the trouble and granted her request. “Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help?” (Luke 18: 7)
There are some conditions for having our prayers heard. We need to seek God’s will and persistence helps. Prayer requires an attitude of humility and repentance. “If I had ignored my sins, The Lord would not have listened to me.” (Psalm 66: 1“If they pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again.” (2 Chronicles 7: 14)



“If they pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again.” (2 Chronicles 7: 14)
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