Prayer

"Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, 'Father, I thank You that You have heard me.'" John 11:41

"Pray without ceasing..." 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Prayer is very important. It is one of the ways that we can communicate with God. There is no specific where or when you're supposed to pray, God is always there to listen. You don't need to pray only at church or at the specific time of before you go to bed. These are good times to pray, but every time is a good time to pray! You could pray while you're walking, swimming or driving a car (just don't close your eyes!). There also is a time to go alone to a quiet place to pray, like Jesus when He prayed before Judas betrayed Him. If anything, don't make prayer an exercise or a daily ritual, prayer should be like breathing or having your heart beating. Offering up anything and everything to God. When someone sends me a card, or note I always (almost) feel like telling them thank you and continuing chatting about lots of other things. That's one of the ways relationships grow, by communication. Could you imagine for a moment that you're mute, that nothing comes out of your mouth but silence. Besides using sign language, you'd never be able to talk about things that make you happy, your thoughts, your problems or feelings. Talking about things really helps sort things out and God wants to hear about all those things so don't pretend to be mute. He's always listening, the whole world is practically His ear. Many people have talked to God, so can you. In the Bible there are people who pray for guidance, blessing, thanksgiving, other people, confession, forgiveness and so much more. We can tell Him all this and He will answer us. He doesn't always answer us in the way we want but His answers are always perfect. Throughout all this talking, asking, explaining, listening and answering you learn more about your Heavenly Father and He gets to share the experience. Definitly something you don't want to skip out on.