Big Questions about . . . prayer

Teen Our Daily Bread

BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT . . .

Prayer

Prayer

P

rayer can seem so difficult! And boring. Have you ever been in a church service when someone has said, “Now let’s have a time of prayer . . .” only for them to ramble on for ten minutes?! Is that what we’re meant to do with God? Are there places we have to go to pray? And how do we know God is even listening?

Prayer doesn’t need to be formal and boring. It’s meant to be the way we do life with God Himself!

Here are a few big questions about prayer, answered for you by readers in the Our Daily Bread Ministries family to help you make sense of it in your own life. So get stuck in!

And if you want more, check out What is prayer? at ourdailybread.org/lookingdeeper

What is prayer?

I

n many ways prayer is just a fancy word for how we live out our relationship with God each day. It’s all about spending time with him, like in any relationship. We only get to know people when we are with them, speaking and listening, paying attention to them and doing life with them. A life of prayer means that the person we’re doing everything with is Jesus.

God wants us to talk with him, sharing our feelings, problems and needs. He cares about us and wants us to get to know him and his love better. And it’s a gift!

Imagine you wanted to hang out with the Queen. There’s no way you could just rock up to her palace, knock on the door and expect to spend the afternoon together. You’d need her to invite you.

Generally, getting the Queen’s attention has to be earned by good works, great achievements or rising to the head of the national government.

But none of these things are needed for us to get God’s attention. We have been given the gift of completely unlimited access to him! When we trust Jesus, God makes his home with us (JOHN 14:23; COLOSSIANS 3:3). So it’s like we are always in God’s presence. He doesn’t want us to be distant, but for us to bring our thanks, cares and worries to him. We just have to speak, out loud or in our minds, and we already have his undivided attention. This is why the Bible calls us God’s children (1 JOHN 3:1), because no ruler would think of giving this kind of access to anyone else. Kings and Queens need space from their subjects, but never from their own children. They alone can barge into the king’s bedroom at 2 a.m. because their sock fell off or they had a bad dream—and expect a welcome. That is the life with God that Jesus has won for us through his death and resurrection.

Why should I pray?

A

guy was losing his fight against cancer. He just kept getting worse. Then one person said, “Well, we’ve tried everything else. I guess it’s time to start praying.”

But is God meant to be the last person we turn to? Should we only pray when we’ve got a problem we can’t fix, but ignore him the rest of the time?

The Bible tells us to “rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18). God isn’t just there for disasters or when everything seems to be going wrong. And he isn’t a last-gasp solution! Giving our lives to Jesus means talking to him every day, not just when we’re struggling. He wants us to talk with him so we can get to know him better!

Why should we pray? So we can stay close to God, get to know him better for ourselves and let him change us to be more like Jesus. When should we pray? Every day! God makes a boring day exciting, and a stressful day full of hope.

What should

I pray

about?

G

od isn’t impressed by how long our prayers are or how many people hear us saying them. What God really wants is for us to mean what we say to him, no matter how long the words or the prayer. Look at these words from Jesus: “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (MATTHEW 6:6-8).

Jesus taught his followers this prayer:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” —MATTHEW 6:9-13

What should

I pray

about?

This prayer is sometimes called “The Lord’s Prayer”. It isn’t a prayer that we are just meant to memorise and then say back to God. It was an example prayer model that Jesus gave to his friends to help them understand what prayer is. And it teaches us about the sorts of things that should go into our prayers— praising God, trusting God, asking for his help and obeying him.

Ultimately, we can (and should) talk to God about everything!

Sometimes we will want to simply praise God, making no requests at all. Other times we will maybe just focus on a temptation we can’t seem to beat or a person we’re struggling to forgive. Within this prayer model we are given

this important guidance: let’s focus on God, not ourselves. It also shows us how straightforward and to-the-

point our prayers can be. It’s always best to use our own words to say the things that are on our minds, because God wants a personal, real and honest connection between us and himself.

HowI pray? should S

ome people speak very ‘properly’ when they pray, using lots of long words that no one else has heard of! Others chatter away like they are talking to a friend sitting next to them. Some people like to pray with their hands together and eyes closed to shut out the things around them. Others pray with their hands raised and with

their eyes looking upwards. Some people just sit and talk quietly.

None of this is right or wrong; we all have our different ways.

Is there a standard way to talk to our friends and family? Of course not. We speak to them, laugh with them, cry with them, sit quietly with them, eat with them and do hundreds of other things with them.

There is no set way to make relationships work, and so there is no set way that we have to pray. We can simply talk to God and know that he listens. We can tell him our fears, worries, needs and anything else. We can even ask God to help us speak to him.

We read in the Bible that Paul, one of Jesus’ followers, wrote to a church telling them:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” —PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7 Prayer is not something you do only when you go to church. You can pray to God on your own, with someone else or in any situation. So pray whenever and wherever. It’s always the right time to talk to God! Whether that’s in school, at home, walking to a friend’s house or wherever. Talk with God as much as you can, keeping him the very centre of everything you do.

Staying connected John 15:1-17

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (V.5).

M

y phone is getting old. On full charge, I’ve got about ninety minutes, so I keep it plugged in all the time.

But lately, my phone has reminded me of a biblical truth: our need to stay connected to Jesus. He describes this idea in John 15. Of course, since they didn’t have smartphones, Jesus uses an illustration his friends understood at the time: a grape vine. The branches need to stay connected to the vine so that they can grow grapes.

By describing Himself as “the vine”, Jesus says he is our source of life.

To grow well, we have to stay connected to him. When we attempt to make a go of it alone, our ‘fruitfulness’ (how effective we are for Him) fades: “Remain in me . . . apart from me you can do nothing” (V.5).

So how do we “remain” in Jesus in our daily lives? The Holy Spirit unites us with him (JOHN 14:15-21), and we can experience that lifegiving unity as we talk to him throughout the day. Our conversations include confession (“Jesus, I’m sorry for . . .” ), thankfulness (“Jesus, thank you for . . .”), sharing the needs of others (“Jesus, please help . . .”) and honesty (“Jesus, I’m feeling . . .”). Prayers like this are a way we remain in touch with him through each moment. And they can help us trust and love him (VV.9-15), so that we might live lives rooted in him that show him to the world.

AH How would you describe your prayer life? Do you often make time to catch up with God? What would it look like if you shared everything with Jesus throughout your day?

BECAUSE WE’RE ALWAYS CONNECTED TO GOD, WE CAN PRAY ALL THE TIME. IT’S AN ONGOING CONVERSATION. This article is from the Our Daily Bread Teen Edition annuals. Fancy getting hold of them? You can ask for your copies and see all our other resources at ourdailybread.org/teen

God wants us to talk with him, sharing our feelings, problems and needs.

Scripture taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved. © 2019 by Our Daily Bread Ministries. All rights reserved.

D2243