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Prayer
How to pray, why pray at all, and what to make of prayers that seem unanswered.
- 1Why doesn't God answer my prayer?Sometimes he has answered, and the answer was no, or not yet; sometimes our own refusal to listen or obey blocks the conversation; and sometimes heaven is silent for reasons we are not given, as it was for Paul and, in Gethsemane and on the cross, for Jesus himself. What Scripture never teaches is that unanswered prayer means an absent God, and the same Bible that records the silences commands us to keep asking, seeking, and knocking. Bring the unanswered prayer itself to him. That too is prayer.
- 2How should I pray?Simply, honestly, and to the Father, in the pattern Jesus gave. His own prayer starts with God's name, kingdom, and will, and only then asks for daily bread, forgiveness, and protection. Prayer is not a performance or a formula. It is talking to a Father who sees in secret, at whatever length the moment actually needs.
- 3Why pray if God already knows everything?Because prayer was never mainly about informing God. Jesus says the Father knows our needs before we ask, and in the same breath teaches us to ask, because prayer is how children speak to a Father, how our wills are bent toward his, and one of the means he has chosen for doing his work in the world. A wise father who knows what his child needs still wants the child to come and ask. So does God.
Where these lead
The questions these answers open onto, in the neighbouring categories.
Where is God when it hurts?Suffering, Evil & Hard QuestionsWhat is faith?Salvation & the GospelWhat is God like?God & the Trinity
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