Prayer
“6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:6-8, NIV).”
Prayer is communicating with God, being in fellowship and communion with him. As Jesus says here, it isn’t a way to show other people how spiritual we are, or to use lots of words to be impressive. It is us sharing our hearts with God and listening for his still small voice. In fact, what God has to say to us is more important than what we have to share with him. Yet our loving Heavenly Father does want to hear from us. He wants to know how we are feeling, what we need, whether for our daily provision, protection, or avoidance of temptation. And yet God is holy and awesome, and so our prayers acknowledge God’s greatness, his mercy, and his love through our praise and adoration. We thank God for all God has done for us, and continues to do for us because his mercies begin new every morning.