“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27 NKJV)
Prayer is worship. Our praying should be full of adoration, affection, and fondness for God. It is one of the best ways in the world to love Him.
Prayer is petition. We can ask anything -- even the most difficult things -- and know that God hears us. George MacDonald said, “Anything big enough to occupy our minds is big enough to hang a prayer on.”
Prayer is asking for understanding. It is the means by which we comprehend what God is saying to us in His Word.
Prayer moves what we know from our heads to our hearts; it’s our hedge against hypocrisy, the way by which we ring true.
Prayer focuses us and unites our fragmented hearts. We have a thousand necessities. It’s impossible for us to simplify them and integrate them into one. We should pray with David, “Give me an undivided heart” (Psalm 86:11).
Prayer is all these things but it is more: it is the means by which we fit in. It is the way God aligns us with Him and enables us to collaborate with Him in complete union and oneness. Seen in that way, prayer is more like listening than anything else -- being quiet in God’s presence, waiting on God until we know what to do. “If you pray the work,” Mother Teresa said, “you will know what to do.”
-- David Roper in “A Beacon in the Darkness: Reflecting God’s Light in Today’s World”
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