Prayer is a significant and central aspect of all Christian faiths. It is something that lies beyond academics and our IQ levels. Prayer builds up our relationship with God and is the heartbeat of the Christian faith. Without a prayer life, our knowledge and relationship with God would be only a mere glimpse. The bigger prayer life we have, the greater relationship with God we’ll have. Prayer works through every aspect of Christianity, and nothing will rise beyond your prayer life. Through prayer we pour our soul onto God, sharing our desires, gratitude, and praise. 

 

The Holy Spirit helps us to pray and intercedes for us with words that cannot be explained. 

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26). 

 

Prayer has been doubted, mocked and downcast throughout history. However, you should never feel ashamed of praying because it is prayer that connects us to Heaven and brings us closer to Heaven and to God. Prayer is what gives us a personal relationship with God. If you think of any relationship, it is built on communication and conversation. Without those two things, we cannot be in a relationship. 

 

Prayer gives us the spirit and knowledge of who God is and brings us to love Him more. God cares about us and our lives. If we think about His sacrifice for us, we will realise that we matter more than His very life. So, He wants us to be in a relationship with us and hear from us. He loves us more than we can ever imagine. 

 

Believe it or not, our prayers don’t actually change God’s mind about things. He is all-knowing and all good etc; however, prayer does make a massive impact on our own life. It draws us closer to the Lord, and through prayer, God changes our hearts and minds through prayer. God can do everything and anything by himself; however, because He loves us so much, He wants us to be like “co-managers” for our life - working together to bring out a greater good. He wants us to co-operate in His will, and we do that by prayer. 

 

Without prayer, we can’t say that we have a relationship with God or would like a relationship with God. To summarise what prayer is, it's basically communicating with our Lord and Saviour and is the key to our relationship with Christ. Prayer is praising God for all that He is; it is also giving thanks for all our blessings, and asking Him to provide for our needs and the needs of others. 

Sometimes we may want sometime more in our faith life – more wisdom, more knowledge of God, more courage. When we desire these sort of things we may not know what to do, and we may feel like a weaker Christian. But the truth is, when we ask the Lord for these things that we desire for us to be closer to Him, we should have confidence that He will give them to us. 

 

“For this reason I tell you: When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for.” (Mark 11:24)

 

Even Jesus prayed for us and with us throughout His ministry. His disciples asked Jesus how to pray, so Jesus gave us the most perfect prayer that summarises what we ought to pray for. The Our Father (or the Lord’s Prayer) goes like this:

 

Our Father

Who art in Heaven

Hallowed be thy name  

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth, as it is in Heaven

Give us today our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses 

As we forgive those who trespass against us

And lead us not into temptation 

But deliver us from evil. 

 

(See Matthew 6:9-13)

 

Confessing our wrongdoings to the Lord is also a major part of our prayer life. Through our genuine prayer and confession, God gives us the grace and mercy that we need to carry our daily cross. 

“But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing.” (1 John 1:9)

 

Prayer is the most powerful weapon in our Christian faith. There are countless times in the Bible where the importance of prayer is spoken about, from God himself and the faithful in both the Old and New Testament. 

 

Prayer is not limited to kneeling and saying a structured prayer. Prayer can be talking to God directly, praising Him through songs/chants, or reading the scriptures. Prayer is a personal conversation between you and the creator. What you say in prayer can be long or as short as you like it to be, though, the most important thing it must be is genuine. 

 

Prayer is a conversation, and in all conversations, it is a requirement to listen as well as to speak. Of course, Our Lord is not here physically with us murmuring of assent, taking notes as we speak; however, we must remember, we need to not only open our hearts to talk to Him but we need to listen to Him. God loves us so much; He wants us to come to Him like a loving Father who wants his children to get what they need to sustain them. 

 

Catholics begin prayer with the sign of the cross. This way of entering into prayer is a unique and special way, as it focuses our mind on the one who are praying to, which is the Trinity – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is important to make the sign of the cross slowly and reverently, as we are using the holy name of God, and are entering into communion with the one who made Heaven and earth. 

 

We should make time for prayer every day. Scripture says to never stops praying and that we should give all our requests to God, no matter how big or small. 

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

 

Many people may notice that Catholics use a lot of formal prayers throughout the week. These prayers could be "The Lord's Prayer", the "Hail Mary", "penitential prayer", etc. These formal prayers support you when you can't find the words. For example, if you receive some terrible news and you're struggling to find words to say to God, these formal prayers are there to give you the words when you don't have the words. Praying the Our Father or Hail Mary is a guide and gives us a way to give thanks and ask for our needs and desires by saying words from the scriptures, even in our darkest, most challenging times. 

 

But what do we do when our prayers haven’t been answered? 

Sadly, this is a common thing that has happened to almost everyone at different times in life. For many people, this is the making or breaking of a continued relationship or trust in God. If you have been affected by this, please know that you are not alone, and that God is still building you up and working for your greater good. When your prayers don’t seem to have been answered, apart from being honest with God with how you are feeling, it’s important to wait patiently. We don’t always know why some prayers are answered, and why some aren’t, as we know that God hears all prayers. There can be many reasons why God may not answer at that particular time, but know that it doesn’t mean He doesn’t love you any less. Sometimes our prayers are answered in a very different way than we could have imagined, and it may take years to realize that what the Lord gave us was actually for our greater good. Sometimes God is still working on what we’ve asked Him to do, and He wants us to be patient. At other times, God may not give us what we asked for as He knows that it wouldn’t be for our good. 

 

“But as for me, I will pray to you, Lord; answer me, God at a time you choose. Answer me because of your great love, because you keep your promise to save.” (Psalm 69:13)

 

During these times it’s always important (as hard as it may be) to continue in prayer and be consistent in reflecting God’s will for us. We have a massive army of faithful Christians here on earth and in Heaven who acts as a intercessor in for us. 

 

If you would like to understand the Catholic approach regarding Mary as our mediatrix and/or intercessory prayer, This form of prayer is covered more fully in the topic of Mary and the Saints.