What is Prayer?
Prayer is conversation with God. In prayer we talk to God, we listen to God, and we receive the gift of communion with God. In prayer we bring praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, and intercession to God.
Prayer is an expression of our gratitude for the grace given to us through Christ. The Heidelberg Catechism calls it “the chief part of the gratitude which God requires of us.”
John Calvin called prayer “the chief exercise of faith” by which we receive God’s benefits. In prayer “our hearts may be fired with a zealous and burning desire to seek, love, and serve (God).” Calvin said we are invited to bring our concerns to God as we are held in God’s “bosom.”
Jesus taught us to engage in private prayer, going into a secret place of communion with our “Abba,” the most intimate term for a loving and loved father in Jesus’ time. A life of prayer is nurtured by spending time in solitude, in communion with God. Through prayer we enter a heartfelt, intimate relationship with God.
But prayer is not a private affair. Even when we are alone in prayer we are part of a community. In communion with God we offer our praise hallowing God and praying that God’s will be done on earth, as Jesus taught in the model prayer he gave his disciples. Then we bring petitions for our needs, physical and spiritual, praying for others, not just ourselves.
The Bible tells us to pray at all times. We are to be attentive to God in every moment. Psalm 16:8 says, “I keep the Lord always before me.” But if we are to do that we need specific times of prayer in which we practice attentiveness to God. John Calvin said those times include “when we arise in the morning, before we begin daily work, when we sit down to a meal, when by God’s blessing we have eaten, when we are getting ready to retire.”