What is prayer? Countless books have been written on this topic, endless debates are still going on as to why we need to pray. Indeed, it is very hard for the human mind to understand why an all-knowing Person would like us to tell Him anything, much less to tell Him what to do. I suppose it is a mystery that will never be fully resolved before we meet our Lord.
Do we still need to pray if we cannot fully understand what is prayer? I think so. If we waited till we fully understand how a plane flies, most of us will never board one. We pray because the Scriptures clearly say that we must pray. But praying is not a skill that we are born with – we all must learn to pray. In Luke 11:1, one of the disciples asked Jesus “Lord, teach us to pray …” This tells us that prayer is indeed learned – it is a spiritual discipline that requires time and effort to acquire much like learning any other skill. Just as the disciples learnt to pray, we also must learn to pray. We will start off being unsure and doubtful about prayer before slowly maturing into prayer warriors.
Unfortunately, Christians sometimes think that prayer is something that should come naturally, and therefore become discouraged when they feel that their prayer life cannot compare with the spiritual giants they perceive around them. Knowing that Jesus’s disciples started as prayer newbies who required their teacher to teach them to pray using a simple template (also known as the Lord’s Prayer) should give us hope and encouragement. The more we discipline ourselves to pray, the more we will know how to pray.
May we constantly come to the Lord in prayer by faith, knowing that He is hearing and answering our prayers.