COM 101 - Intro to Prayer

Isn't it absolutely insane that the God of the universe actually cares enough about you that He specifically told you to bring your needs to Him? Sometimes it blows my mind and other times I think, "Well, of course that makes sense." As a mom, the one who gave birth to my children, I could only hope that they would come to me in times of need. Just the same, the One who created you desires that you bring your little and big concerns before Him, so that they can shrink in His powerful presence.

 It's not so much an attitude of "Don't worry, be happy". 

But instead, God says, "Don't worry, talk to Me about it."

Phillippians 4:6 says plain and simply, "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything." 

EVERYTHING. Nothing is too little or too big for Him to handle. He WANTS you to bring it to Him. 

The verse goes on to say, "Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." 

When you thank God and ask God, He will bring you peace. This peace comes from relationship with Him and a relationship requires communication. When it comes to prayer, it is not selfish to put yourself first sometimes. He wants you to get insanely honest with Him, run to Him to celebrate your highs, and fall in complete desperation at His knees. He wants intimate conversation with and about you. If I remember anything from my COM degree it's the following definition that got pounded into our brains: communication is when a sender gives a message and a receiver hears the message and provides feedback. I drew a version of this model, much like the one below, on many exams (if not every flippin one!). But if we want relationship with our Creator there has to be communication (*medium = PRAYER).

Even though God knows your heart before you speak a word out of your mouth, He wants you to talk with Him about yourself, not just to be heard, but because He knows it will bring you peace. And also because He just wants to chat with you... you're His child and He wants to know what's up. Again, much like typical a parent. When we know something is wrong with our child's heart and maybe we may even already know the exact reason why, we still desire that they talk to us about it because 1) we care! 2) they'll feel better if they admit it out loud, and 3) we can most likely help them with it.

Likewise... God definitely cares enough, He told us prayer gives us peace beyond understanding, and God (unlike us) is most definitely equipped to do something about it! So go ahead... He already gave you His Message, now give Him some feedback. Chat it up. He's waiting for your call.