Prayer

What is a Prayer? Is it merely closing our eyes and putting forward all our bucket list in front of God? Or is it about asking for that one wish you desperately want God to fulfill? Or is it about a Father (Heavenly Father) and Son relationship being enhanced through an intercession?

Many of us get confused as to what exactly a prayer is. Since most of us don’t know what prayer is; so of course how to pray stays a mystery. We get entangled between desires of flesh and appetite for the soul. We basically create a war zone in our mind and it starts playing tug of war between spiritual needs and materialistic/fleshly needs. Unfortunately, if we do not know the meaning of “Prayer” in its essential sense; materialistic needs win the war hands down. And we basically get nothing in and out of prayer. Prayer is a kind of device give to mankind by the creator to stay in touch with him 24*7. In fact, for praying there is no time boundation and there is no specific time; pray as and when you feel like getting connected with Jesus. In fact, Jesus has given a brief outline as to how should we pray -

Matthew 6: 6-13
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, a the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

John 14:13
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Now, remember these are the words spoken by Jesus directly to us. Well, in simpler terms he is hobnobbing between us and our Heavenly Father. In these above-mentioned verses Jesus is telling us the method to pray, i.e to whom to address our prayers, in whose name we should ask our prayers, how should we pray and most importantly what should be included in prayers. Look, Jesus tells us to pray in private; it doesn’t mean that you can’t pray in public, of course, you can pray in public but the integral part about praying in private is the “no-nonsense showoff”. Sometimes, people go overboard in showing their praying skills because of the eloquence of speech that God has gifted them. Lord knows our heart even before we start praying, also he knows whether we are swanking in public to get the attention or we actually mean what we pray. If we actually mean what we pray then why not to pray in private where no one will watch and hear us; only interaction we will have is with the Holy Spirit. The concept of praying secretly is to let your heart open to Heavenly Father. Sometimes, when praying with others or in front of people we might not feel all that comfortable in asking for the forgiveness of our sins that we commit, but in private where nobody listens to us apart from God, we will be able to express our heart in a better way. Then Jesus also guides us that we shouldn’t babble as the gentiles do. Even if we repeat a word or sentence again and again the importance of that particular word or sentence would remain the same and most importantly our Heavenly Father knows the difference between our needs and desires. He knows what is best for us. All we need to do is pray and trust him because after all he is our creator and he knows what is important for us. Jesus also tells us as to how to start our invocation; it’s always a humble act to cognize the fact that our creator is a Holy God and his name will always be honored before anything. When we pray, we may feel that our prayers aren’t being answered; the reason behind that is God has a better plan for us which right now we can’t ponder on right now because we are preoccupied with our own ideas. But, our Lord isn’t like that, he knows what is right for us in future and if we allow his will to happen in our life than our life will definitely ameliorate. That’s why Jesus tells us to accept the fact that Heavenly Father’ “Will” is the ultimate wish and let it happen in our life through asking it in prayers. Next, he told us to ask for our daily bread from the Lord. Have we ever wondered as to why we work so hard in our professional life? The simple answer isn’t to acquire materialistic possessions (of course that we acquire in due course of time) but to earn daily bread for ourselves and our family members. The food which we get is a blessing to us given by our Heavenly Father. Imagine the plight of those who aren’t able to satiate their hunger because of lack of food. To show the importance of food, Jesus fed 5000 men. Also once they finished he ordered his disciples to collect the food so that nothing is left over.

John 6:10-12
And Jesus said, MAke the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
Lastly, Jesus tells us to pray in his name. This is because Jesus is the only begotten son of Heavenly Father, lead a sinless life on earth and adhered to all the wishes of Heavenly Father. Jesus sinless and selfless life is an example to us as to how we should simply obey the commandments of our Heavenly Father.
Prayer is a time which should be exclusively kept for interaction with the Holy Spirit. Through that interaction, we come to know as to what are the plans designed for our future life by Lord. It is time to introspect our lives and tell Jesus as to what we feel about our life and things around us. Prayer can also be deemed as meditation; where we just think of our savior and put our entire concentration and focus on the Bible. The scripture gives us immense knowledge and understanding of the life. Through prayers, we can remember the right scripture at the right moment in daily life.
Why has Jesus emphasized so much on prayer in the Bible? Why to kick out Satan we need to have a life dedicated to Jesus through faith and prayer? In the Book of Mark (Mark 9:17-29), a little boy was troubled by a Spirit which made him unable to speak. When the father brought his son to Jesus and asked for his mercy, Jesus rebuked the foul spirit and made it come out of that boy’s body. Later when his disciples asked him how couldn’t they rebuked the spirit but Jesus could Lord answered them -

Mark 9:29
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
So, this answer explains everything to us. We are perfectly capable of extirpating evil spirit through our constant endeavor through prayers to our Lord. Prayers have multitude of powers to make our faith immortal. Prayers transcend our spiritual life into a new sphere which can be experienced only with the supplication of our souls in Jesus. A life without prayer is like a life that goes on without any meaning to it. Prayer adds life and meaning to our dead and corrupted soul. We need life to rejuvenate the dead soul and we need meaning for helping it redeem it of sins.
Sometimes, we take prayer as a Christian ritual which we have to do. The day we start thinking like that is where all the blessings vanish. Because God doesn’t want us to do something out of compulsion. He wants us to have faith on him unconditionally and to ask him for anything in Jesus name in prayer with 100% trust and credence. The Bible also talks about praying constantly in spirit.

Ephesians 6:18
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
The Bible not only tells us to pray constantly for ourselves but it also tells us to pray for our elders, brothers, and sisters because we never know who requires our intercession with the Lord on their behalf. Maybe some of them are really striving hard to win the spiritual battle and with our prayers, they may get just that extra push required to cross the line and win the war against Satan. Also, when we pray without ceasing it opens up our spiritual life and we start getting the meaning of each and every word that is written in the Bible. We often misunderstand and start blaming God for what we haven’t got, some of us even go an extend of ridiculing our Lord, but we need to understand that our prayers should be in accordance with the Bible and righteousness. We just can’t pray anything to Lord and ask him to grant us. We can’t ask in prayers to hurt someone or finish someone, that would be a mere foolishness on our part. Prayers should be free of covetous wishes and jealousy. If someone is being blessed with some materialistic or spiritual gift from Lord then that is between God and them, we have no right to interfere and ask God for an explanation. But our duty is to diligently grow in Lord and ceaselessly praying for his mercy and blessings. Many times we don’t realize the blessing that he already has bestowed upon us. We just need to harness those gifts, talents, blessing given to us by Jesus. We can only do it through constant supplication to Jesus.
Let our prayers be stronger than enemy’s attack, let our prayers be more enduring, let our prayers glorify our heavenly father, let our prayers be a benison for others in their spiritual life.
Our prayers should act as a bridge between our soul and Lord, once that bridge gets built and daily serviced, then our walk in Lord becomes so easy. Prayers give us that inner strength to keep our faith intact in the face of adversity and happiness. It's keeping that equilibrium and doesn’t allow us to go astray in either case.

1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray without ceasing.
Always remember to pray continuously. Even if busy, pray in your heart. The day we stop praying that day Satan would deceive us with his wickedness, therefore always stay connected to our savior Jesus.