Prayer.

It's a common theme in church sermons, in small group discussions and even in the secular world. I will go on social media and see that a crisis has happened and then all of a sudden the hashtag #prayfor____ (insert your name/country of choice) has taken over my Facebook page. At first this warms my heart to see so many people wanting prayer for a specific tragedy that has happened and for the people involved.

Then I start to scroll through my newsfeed and see that several of my atheist friends have shared the hashtag and it makes me stop and ask "Why do they want people to pray to a God that they don't believe exists?" This question has started to plague me ever since my senior year of high school when the first major terrorist attack happened in Paris. I quickly started to see how the significance of prayer has been downplayed and how it has turned into something as mediocre as well-wishes and best thoughts. Because of these things I started to downplay prayer in my own life and have always struggled in my prayer life since.

So what is prayer actually? If you looked in a dictionary the definition would tell you something along the lines of "A petition to God or a god." Wow, that sounds like a lot more than simply hoping the best for someone. So why has it been downplayed? How can something such as prayer start to fade in its significance?

I'm not going to say that I know all the answers, because this is still something I am struggling with in my Christian walk. What I do know is that the Bible tells us to bring everything to God. Paul writes in Philippians 4:6 "Don't worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done" (NLT).

Let's break it up. Paul says that we are not to worry about anything, but in place of that worry we are supposed to go to God with all our worries and needs. This is pretty simple so far. He ends the verse by saying that we are to thank God for all he has done. This is new and an addition to the definition of prayer. So not only do we approach God with a petition, but we also thank him for everything.

Now back to the real issue. How do we pray? If prayer is not just thinking "Oh I hope so-and-so gets better," then how should we do it?

I don't know. Prayer is a conversation between you and God and every other person is different, so their prayer style will be slightly different from the rest. What I do know to be true is the fact that prayer is between a person and God. Between creation and its creator. And for Christians, between child and Father. With this in mind, prayer is something to be done in respectful reverence. We shouldn't be afraid of prayer and approaching God, but I think we also need to always be aware of who he is.

The Alpha and Omega.

Beginning and End.

Creator.

Holy.

Father.

Let's begin the revival of prayer. Let's reiterate the significance of approaching God in conversation. Let's come to God fully broken and in the realization that we need him, with love and adoration, and with reverence. Let's actually pray.