The Bible says in Psalm 116:1-2 NLT, “I love the LORD because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!”

I think one of the biggest difficulties for believers today is understanding how to pray. There is so much confusion and so many differing opinions out there it can be so hard to figure out what’s right. Imagine how difficult it must be for someone new to the faith. There are so many questions running through their heads. What do I say and how do I say it? Am I saying the right things? If I don’t get it right, will the Lord hear my prayers?

The final day of Pastor Rick Warren’s Essentials For Living devotional told us to have deep significant talks with our Creator. It all goes back to us having a love relationship with God. What God wants more than anything is for you to be in a loving relationship with Him. You’ve heard the phrase, “It’s about relationship not religion. ”

I love this excerpt from the devotional which really captures it for me. “What do you talk about if you want to express love to God? Anything that you’d talk to your best friend about: your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your anxieties, the things you’re embarrassed about, the things you’re proud of, the things you’re ashamed of, your goals, your ambitions, your hurts, your cares – every part of your life.”

Wow!! You mean God want to know about all these aspects of my life. God is way too busy for that. He doesn’t want to know those things about little ole me. I’ve got a secret for you, God already knows all those things about you. So you may ask, “If He knows all these things already then why do I have to talk to him about them?” Because when you take time to have that type of deep conversation with God, you are expressing your love and longing to be close to Him.

Think about it this way, how do you feel when those you are closest to, a spouse, a child, a best friend, come to you and wants to talk about all the things they hold closest to their hearts. You feel extremely special and loved knowing this person really wants to be that close to me. They love me enough to truly want me to be a special part of their life.  This is what our Heavenly Father wants.

I can remember when I was younger and growing up in the Church. I was taught the way to talk to God was through specific prayers that were said in a certain way and at a certain time. Those types of prayers can be effective because you are reaching out to our Father but I never felt like God was someone I could truly talk to about life. He was this figure that was almost out of reach for me, but I still had to pray to Him. After awhile the prayers became more a duty and something I just repeated from what I had memorized.

As I grew in my relationship with Christ, I started to become more comfortable with speaking to God. I didn’t feel the need to say specific prayers at a specific time. I felt that I could talk to God anytime and my connection to Him grew. Now I talk to God on a regular basis, many times throughout the day. I don’t feel any restriction on what I can talk to Him about and I can tell you my connection with Him never felt stronger.

I still find those quiet times to truly have deep conversations with God.  As Matthew 6:6 NLT says, “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything will reward you.” But I won’t hesitate to have a quick chat with Him when I need to. I truly feel He is that accessible to me and more importantly He wants to be!

So here’s the action step for today, have a conversation with God! If there are things in your life you’ve been worried about, excited about, etc. talk to God about those things. Don’t worry about how you say it, or whether you’re saying it right. Just find a quiet spot and start talking to God. You can have this conversation out loud, you can have it quietly within your mind or you can even write these things down in a letter to God. I don’t want to put limits on it, I just want you to have that conversation. I promise once you start doing this it will become easier and easier and you will feel closer and closer to God. And what an awesome feeling that is!!

Truth in Love! ~ Chuck