What is Prayer?

Prayer is a universal Christian practice shared by believers across denominations. Maybe you’ve visited a friend’s house and prayed before a meal or visited a church and heard the congregation say the Lord’s Prayer. Individuals pray. Groups of believers pray together. Some people pray regularly, while others pray in desperation. When there are no words that can bring comfort amid heartache, people often say, “I’m praying for you,” like when you see a friend for the first time after her divorce or a neighbor after his wife’s funeral. We hope these words offer solace, but unless we know what prayer is, they tend to be another meaningless platitude. So what is prayer? 

Prayer is an Invitation from God

In the ancient world, prayer was a commonplace religious practice in all cultures. The nations surrounding Israel used prayer as a tool to cajole the gods and keep them happy so they would provide a great harvest, protection from other nations, and good health. 

The Israelites also engaged in prayer as a religious practice, but for them, prayer was an invitation from God. Yahweh set himself apart from the gods of the other nations by making a covenant with his people. As he says in Exodus 6:7, “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.” God’s covenant provided a sure foundation for the relationship with his people. Therefore, the Israelites did not need to pray to God to appease him; rather, they were invited to nurture their covenant relationship with God through prayer. 

God continues to extend this invitation to his people today. The apostle Paul describes this covenant relationship in even more intimate terms. In Romans 8:15, he writes, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” God has secured our audience before him by the Holy Spirit living within us. We need not be afraid. We are welcomed into his presence at all times through prayer.  The Father will always hear our voice

Prayer is an Act of Faith 

Praying also demonstrates our faith. We can shout our beliefs from the rooftops, but if we do not live out our faith, then, as James says, our faith is as good as dead. Tish Harrison Warren, author and priest, says, “Faith, I’ve come to believe, is more craft than feeling.… And prayer is our chief practice in the craft” (Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep, p.8). Like a painter requires paint, a Christian requires prayer to engage the faith God has given him or her. Prayer is an act of faith because it assumes that a divine being who can’t be seen is good enough to listen and powerful enough to respond. 

Jesus’ half-brother James knew all about God’s power through prayer. He read about this great power in the Hebrew scriptures and saw it in real-time in the early church. He writes in James 5:17-18, “Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” Elijah is a legendary prophet, but before we start feeling like we can’t measure up to such a great leader, James reminds us that he “was a human being, even as we are.” He acted by faith by “earnestly” praying, and God responded in power. Therefore, James encourages his church to take a step of faith and pray for those around you who are sick (James 5:15). Like in the Lord’s Prayer, we ultimately pray for God’s will to be done, but James reminds us that healing may very well be God’s will. 

Prayer is a Catalyst for Love  

As we act in faith, through prayer, we become more closely attuned with God, ourselves, and others. A prayerful person is in an ongoing conversation with God. As is the case when a stranger becomes a friend, the key to knowing God better is keeping the conversation going. As the strange becomes familiar, God reveals to us by the Holy Spirit more of who he is and who we are. 

Then, as we seek God’s will in prayer like Jesus did, we become people who reflect Jesus’ love into the world. Love is always the end result of true attunement with God. Eugene Peterson writes, “A prayed and praying faithfulness carries us into the long life of love in which and by which the world will not perish”(Where Your Treasure Is: Psalms that Summon You from Self to Community, p. 180). As praying people, we align ourselves with the only kind of love that is more powerful than death itself. 

It is in God’s nature to listen, hear, and respond to our prayers. By doing so, he transforms us from the inside out into faith-filled people of love. 

Cultivate Your Prayer Life

Prayer is an invitation to a new way of life. It is a practice that can never be mastered. Whether you are a child or an adult, a new believer or a mature Christian, prayer is something we can all grow in. May we all seek to grow closer to God through prayer. 

Want to grow in the practice of prayer? Study the Lord’s Prayer with Groundwork. In our seven-part series, “The Lord’s Prayer,” hosts Scott Hoezee and Darrell Delaney examine in-depth the ancient prayer that Jesus taught his disciples and discuss its continued value for our prayer lives today.