Conversations with God

What is prayer? How do I pray? What do I say? I’ve been asked all of these questions. In fact, they are some of my favorite ones to answer for teenagers because prayer is so important in our walk with God.

Growing up in a Christian home I was taught to pray at an early age. In middle school, I began writing my prayers out in journals.  Now I have hundreds of journals filled with prayers for my family, friends, and myself.  I love to look back over them and see how God answered them and see how my prayers have grown over the years.

As a teenager, I was taught to pray in an order of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.  I loved it! I liked structure and details so every day, I praised God’s name (adoration), confessed sin in my life (confession), thanked God for all He had done (thanksgiving), and asked God for things that my family, friends, or I needed (supplication).  But as I began to grow in my relationship with God, He showed me that it wasn’t about the order of how I prayed but the heart behind my prayers. 

prayer is a conversation with God. 

Jesus teaches about prayer in Matthew 6:5-15.  He cautions us to not pray out loud with selfish intentions but instead with a humble heart. He also shows us how to pray and not to pray. Jesus says not to go on and on with our words thinking that more words mean we will be heard.   Instead, we are to simply praise God’s name, ask for His will to be done and to meet our needs, seek forgiveness and ask Him to guide our lives. All those things I was taught about prayer are here in this passage.  But it’s not a formula to follow.  Jesus just wants us to have a conversation with him.

That’s what prayer is - a conversation with God.  Like you talk with a friend, God wants you to talk with Him. Don’t worry s about what you say.  Just say what is in your heart and then watch and listen. God will answer. It may not always be the answer you want but God will use His Word, others, or moments in your life to speak and answer you.

Start a conversation with God today. Don’t wait thinking you need the right words.  It’s just you and Him.  
Just share your heart and wait for His answer. He wants to hear from you!