Why pray?

Why don’t my prayers work?

Some people think that prayer is a bit like talking to a magic genie or saying a magic spell. They think that all you need to do is say the right words and then the great genie in the sky must do whatever you have asked. But prayer does not work this way at all!

Prayer is about a friendship

Prayer is about talking to God and having a friendship with him – a friendship that does involve asking for things but also involves thanking him, praising him, worshiping him and saying sorry to him.

God is not a magic genie that must obey our every wish – we have no rights to demand things from him but when he thinks it is best for us he very generously gives us things as a free undeserved gift!

God allows us to talk to him even though we are sinful creatures – but more than that he wants us to talk to him! He wants us to share our lives and experiences with him and he wants to help us in the way that is best for us.

Prayer is about us living our life with him and showing him that we know that he is there and can help and assist us with the things that we come across in life.

The Bible explains that God wants us to present our requests to him, he wants us to express our needs and wants, our sadness and joy. God wants us to know him as our loving heavenly father who loves us so much that he gave his most precious son to come and rescue us.

Please come and chat now with us – we are very happy to pray with you about the things that are worrying you.

God always hears our prayers

When we pray to God the Bible tells us that he hears us and that he knows what is best for us. Do we give a child everything they ask for, when we can see a better way for them or a better experience for them? No, and neither does God because he can always see the big picture and he always knows what is best for us and our journey through life. Sometimes days, weeks, months or years later we can see why the thing we wanted wasn’t best for us – other times we simply need to trust that God knows best even if we can’t actually see why for ourselves.

Does prayer work?

Yes, God hears all of our prayers and answers them in a way that is best for us – sometimes his answer is ‘yes’, sometimes ‘no’ and other times his answer is ‘wait – not yet…’

What words should we use when we pray?

God doesn’t want us to pretend, he doesn’t want us to say what isn’t true, he wants us to be honest with him and talk to him from our heart. He doesn’t want us to say set words, or magic phrases, he wants us talk to him with our own words imagining him in the room sitting beside us.