“Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky up into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

There is a man taking a jog through the park. As he is jogging through the park, he sees this man throwing a brick into the sky. The man picks up a brick and throws it into the sky. The brick flies up then falls to the ground. He picks it up and throws it up again. He keeps repeating this over and over.

The jogger makes his way over to this man throwing the brick. The jogger watches him for a little why longer than tells him, "The brick is always going to come back down.” The man looks at the jogger and simply says, “The brick doesn’t know that.” And he throws the brick back into the sky.

When we pray, we are kind of like the guy throwing the brick, unless we are blessed by some physical miracle that proves to us God exists. We must have faith that He is out there. We can argue it logically. However, we cannot point to a physical object in the sky while declaring, "This is God," without using some form of faith.

To atheist and non-religious people, prayer makes no sense. Why would we spend time talking to a “being” we can’t prove to exist?

The answer is we, religious/God believing people, pray as a reminder to ourselves that we don’t belong here, but belong somewhere else. We have faith that there is a higher power beyond our physical universe who is an intelligent designer who created the world around us.

While praying, we enter into ourselves to find God. We search out God's constant desire to be with us.

In the silence that we find in the depths of our souls, that is where we find God. We can find Him in the quiet silence. Inside of that silence, we can thank Him for every blessing. We can ask Him for help. We can listen to Him.

“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” ― Mother Teresa

What is prayer?

Most people would simply say that prayer is talking to God. It is each little conversation. In a very basic sense, those people would be correct. Yes, prayer is talking to God, but it is so much more than a conversation.

Prayer is a state of being, not a position or action.

We don’t need to be on our knees when we pray. We don’t have to be looking towards the little dipper exactly at midnight each night to be able to find God within ourselves.

Prayer is putting ourselves in a state of being. A state of being where we are in God's presence. A state of being that allows us to listen to God’s word. A state of being that is not dependent on us.

Before everyone dives off into sacrilege and blame me, a silly voice on your computer screen, please don’t use this as an excuse to exclude positions of prayer from your praying. Praying on your knees is a great way to help put you in the proper reverent mindset when being the in the presence of the creator of the freaking universe.

However, if you already pray, that is great. Keep doing it, but realize that there is proper state while you are praying, but you do not have to be kneeling or doing some special physical action to be able to pray.

You need to put yourself in a state of prayer. In this state, your mind is quiet. Your conscience is quiet. You don’t hear the person next to you. You don’t worry about your late homework or your exam in two weeks. You only focus on one thing: being in the presence of God. Talking, listening, and experiencing His presence and love is your sole purpose.

When we pray, we "leave" our physical world behind. Spiritually, our souls are outside of spacetime. By praying, we enter a place that is no longer apart of the physical world.

Our prayers don’t care about time, gravity, or any other physics laws. Our prayers are directed to a purpose. Maybe our prayer is one of forgiveness. We pray for forgiveness to a specific action. That prayer meets God, who is outside of time, who sees you complete the action you are praying for. At the same time, He sees you praying for forgiveness, even if it is years apart to us.

To recap, prayer is where we go into God's presence and include him in our lives. We must enter a state of prayer where we enter ourselves, into our souls, and finds God’s presence. Every little prayer, every little moment, all equal the same. No prayer is worth more than another because the only thing that matters is being with God. Being in the moment, in silence, in forgiveness, in joy, in love with the creator of the universe.

"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?" ― Corrie ten Boom

Why should you pray?

A lot of people don’t understand why prayer is essential in our daily lives. They think that prayer is pointless.

First, God wants us to pray. He wants us to be in His presence. He wants us to work on our relationship with Him. God calls us to pray.

To understand this better, let me set some ground rules. We know that God is all-powerful and can do whatever He wants to do. However, He calls us to prayer anyway. He calls us to include us while He governs our life. We join Him in prayer that we can cause an effect on our lives with prayer.

Maybe you want to argue that prayer is never going to change God’s will for something. God is going to do what God wants to do. Well, God is also all good. Since God is all-powerful and all-good, then let us ask again what is the point of prayer. Why should we do it if we can’t change His will?

I just want to say this is ridiculous, and no one asks this for a reason. We don't approach every situation saying it is God's will. We don’t say, “If it is God’s will that I have water today, then He will provide.” No, if we are thirsty, we go out and find some water to drink. We do not sit back waiting for a divine intervention to bring us water.

Just as in prayer, if we need something, we do not just blindly put it up to if God wills it, then it will happen. No!

In prayer, we come into God’s presence, so we get to work through the problem together. We get to be side by side with God working on whatever problem or prayer you brought to Him.

Just like any relationship, our relationship with God needs attention and time to flourish and develop. We can’t grow spiritually if we aren’t devoting serious time to prayer.

Relationships are all two-way streets. Both sides of the relationship need to put time and effort into the relationship. God is always wanting to be with us in prayer. He is always calling us to spend a minute thanking Him for the blessing of waking up. He is always calling us to tell us how much He loves us. God is always trying to build the relationship between Him and you.

We must also work tirelessly to build the relationship. We must also talk to God when we pray. It isn’t always listening. Sometimes, especially when we need forgiveness, we must initiate the prayer. We must go to God and ask for forgiveness. When we get an A on an exam, we need to initiate the prayer to thank Him for the blessing of intelligence and maybe extreme luck.

Other times, we must listen. Especially when we are lost and need help finding what God’s plan is in our lives, we just need to listen to God. Listen to His love and will for our lives.

Sometimes, our relationship needs a little space. Sometimes, its okay to not say anything and to listen. Sometimes, prayer is simply just spending time with God. Neither one is talking. Those moments are ones filled with just love and faith.

"Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference." ― Max Lucado

How to pray?

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question. I am not a theologian or Saint. I am definitely not the Pope or Dalai Lama. My journey of prayer has been a long and painful one. I have more room to grow than the progress I’ve made. To quote Mother Teresa for the 1000th time,

"If I ever become a Saint, I will surely be one of darkness."

That quote is a little out of context, but it drives home the point. I do not fill in every moment of my day to pray. I do my best to pray as much as I can. That is all I can really do. Here is my advice on how to pray:

Find somewhere quiet; maybe that is in church, your room, your bathroom, or a park somewhere. Once you are somewhere quiet, spend a couple minutes or seconds just quieting your brain. All the crazy thoughts going through your head are distracting. Just empty your thoughts. Look for a silent spot inside of you. In that silence, that is where you will find God.

Silence is a powerful thing. It can be scary at first. the entire world does not want you to leave it, but that is what happens when you pray. You find yourself in complete silence. Suddenly, you find peace. You find hope and love. You find God.

Then your prayer life explodes. You realize you can come to Him and ask Him everything you want to during any moment of your day!

We ask and then we listen. We listen and then we ask.

Am I going to win the lottery? No. Am I going to get a 4.0 GPA? Only if you work hard.

The point is we develop that relationship. We spend time in that silent spot within ourselves where we can listen to God instead of our own F'ed up thoughts.

The most important thing to working on prayer is the consistency. Even if you know you are praying poorly, do not stop praying. Do not stop working on getting to that connection with God. You will get better. Pray is how we grow spiritually. You must put in the effort to actually get better.

Find a good time to pray. Every day, you should just spend a couple moments to pray. Eventually, you will be able to find 10,000 moments during the day to spend in prayer.

Pray while you clean your toilet. Pray while you cook your breakfast. Pray while you work out. Pray while you are at work. Pray! Pray! Pray!

Praying during your most stressful and difficult daily routines is a great way to turn those into the best part of your day.

The hardest part of praying is just being there with God. The hardest part is just coming up to God and being with Him. Talking to Him is easy. What you say is not always important, but spending five minutes during a day to pray is important and insanely difficult.

The more opportunities you find to pray equals more opportunities to include God in your life. Suddenly, you and God get to work side by side throughout your entire life.

I challenge you to spend five minutes every day for the next two weeks just thanking God for all the good things that happened to you that day. Just a simple thank you for each blessing in your life. That is it.

“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” ― Meister Eckhart

There was once this guy on an airplane. He was super tired from a rough day at work. He was flying home to see his family. All he wants to do is sleep and wake up at home. As he waits during boarding, he hears a noise at the front of the plane. It is this loud screeching.

The noise keeps getting closer and closer until he sees its source. The noise is coming from a small bird. The man carrying the bird has headphones on apparently to drown out his fiendish companion. The man continues to move down the aisle until he arrives by the business man's row.

He sits next to him and puts the birdcage in between them. The man tries to fall to sleep while the plane takes off. However, the businessman can not fall asleep. The bird is a non-stop screeching machine. He tries to ask the man to shut the bird up, but the man just ignores him. The businessman asks one of the attendants, but they say there is nothing they can do. The businessman lasts another two hours before he snaps. He couldn’t take the bird screeching anymore. He grabbed the birdcage and walked to the front of the plane.

He opens the door and throws the birdcage out the plane. The man returns to his seat and falls asleep. Suddenly, he is awoken by a ton of commotion. Everyone is looking out the window. He leans over to get a better look and spots the cause of the wonder outside. Flying right next to the plane is the bird still screeching. Before he can even wonder at the amazement of the situation, up comes a brick hitting the bird.

“We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray.” ― Corrie ten Boom