Prayer

 But now, oh Lord, you are our father, we are the clay, and you are the potter. (Isaiah 64:8)

When I initially became a Christian, one of the concepts I was introduced to was the fact that God is holy (perfect and without fault). It was also brought to my attention that I am sinful, and both of these statements are true. But the conclusion they led me to was unhelpful. I became fearful of approaching God, especially in prayer, especially in the moments when I was well aware I had fallen short of His glory. This ultimately led me to pray less. 

The Bible, however, shows us something contrary to this. Throughout the Bible, we see multiple instances of people talking to God, whether in times of trouble, when they finally become aware of their sin, when they are deep in treacherous pain, or when they overflow with joy. Or, my personal favorite, when they see God for who he is or recall his character. 

This leads me to this conclusion: all times are the right time to talk to God. We don't approach God only when we are happy or sad. We approach God always. Yet still, we create various hindrances to avoid prayer; we don't have the right words; we are unworthy; we assure ourselves that God doesn't want to hear from us. Or, we think to ourselves, God already knows.

These can be very unhelpful. The Bible reminds us that God delights to hear from his children. He wants us to talk to him. Also, there is such great comfort in pouring out all your thoughts to your maker, the one who understands you best. Also, we do not approach God of our own merit, but based on who he is and all that he has done.

I would say, simply put, prayer is talking to our Father. A great privilege we have as children of God, at some point in time, we were far from God, strangers, but through the blood of Christ, we have been brought near. We now have a relationship with God; he is our father, and everyone knows that in any good relationship, communication is crucial. When we read our Bible, we hear from God, and when we pray, we talk to God. We talk to everyone we have a relationship with, why not talk to God?

There is not a lot, if anything, we can do without God. He is the one who puts the air in our lungs and ensures that the engine that keeps us running runs; in fact, he is the engine that keeps us running. Prayer shows our ultimate dependence on God. He doesn’t necessarily wait for our words to act, but he loves to hear from his children. Prayer also gives us hope, for all the places and people we can't get to, we have an omnipresent God who can get there. So, prayers give us the platform to give all those places and people to him.

There are multiple books on the topic of prayer, and each offers its own approach to prayer, various tips and tricks on how to pray more, less repetitively, or better. But at the core of all these books, more often than not, is the idea that we should pray. I think simplicity is often missing in many discussions about prayer. With so many methods and definitions, prayer can become less approachable. That said, I have gained helpful insights from many books, and I still apply some of them in my life today. There are approaches I greatly appreciate that have been learnt from books/friends, i.e. Sentence prayers. 

Last year, I went to a youth camp called Crossword, and my co-leader suggested a method to just get the kids praying called sentence prayers(which are concise single-sentence prayers), and I love it and have been doing it with my Sunday school class whenever I get to teach. What I love about it is that it is so easy, and because the kids only have to focus on praying for one thing, they don’t feel the pressure they would normally feel having to pray through a lot of things. This means most of them are actually often eager to pray.

 Prayer is not an exercise of expertise on tricks or methodology; it is the exercise of faith by children fully reliant on their father. As children, we should be eager to speak to our father - whether in joy or sorrow, whether broken or in pain. We come to him as his children, with the knowledge that our father delights to hear from us, that alone should spur us on.

Again, prayer is then a privilege worth exercising for the glory of God and our own good. It reminds us that we are clay, He is our potter, we are children who are nothing apart from our father.