Prayer is a weapon that few of us remember we have. It is relational, not transactional. It is our direct connection to the Father, which was only made possible through Jesus.

Prayer is a personal relationship with God, not a group relationship. If the only time you pray is in front of people, you are not engaging in the personal aspects of prayer.

If you find prayer daunting and don’t know where to start, Jesus gave us the blueprint.

Jesus followed four steps (Matthew 6:9-13):

The first step is praise. We want to enter into His throne room with shouts of praise, declaring the might of His name rather than praising ourselves.

The second step is repentance. When we focus on who God is we can’t help but recognize our own sinfulness and confess it to Him.

Thirdly, we ask. We bring everything before Him (Ephesians 6:8). We bring our hurts, our excitement, our shame, and joy. We lay it all at the feet of Jesus and ask for His heavenly counsel and intervention.

Lastly, we yield. We simply say that His will is better than anything we desire. If the things we want are not His will, we surrender them and seek the things He has for us.

Prayer is powerful, and we have to use it. God hears our prayers (Psalm 66:19) and knows us (John 10:14). If you never speak to God in prayer, do you expect Him to recognize your voice?

It can be difficult to be honest with God about the hard emotions. We keep the anxious thoughts to ourselves and try to act as if everything is fine.

We’re afraid of what He might say, or worry about how there might not be an immediate answer from Him, or think we may offend God.

But He already knows every thought that we have! 

When we are honest with God, it strengthens our relationship with Him (Psalm 62:8; 2 Corinthians 12:9). It might feel intimidating when speaking to our holy God, but we must not forget that He is also our loving Father!

He cares for you and wants to hear about every feeling we have, whether we are joyfully singing His praises or crying out about how we are upset with Him.

Throughout the Psalms, David cried out to the Lord in his pain, using words like “anguish,” “crushed,” and “forsaken”. (Psalm 55:4, 22:1, 38:8).

If the man after God’s own heart can have this raw honesty with Him, surely, we can speak to Him about our broken spirits truthfully.

Jesus lived as our perfect example, showing us all the ways we should live, including this vulnerability He had with God (Matthew 27:46).

Modeling our lives after Jesus includes the fact that we should be honest with our Father about all of our emotions. 

As you spend time in prayer today, do not try to hide how your soul is hurting or your doubts from God. He wants to spend that time with you and work through it with you (Philippians 4:6-7).