Over the years a lot of people have asked me about prayer.  What is  it?  How do you pray?  Some have said that their prayers have gone unanswered, whilst others have felt that they didn't really know how to get started. 

The first thing to point out is that true prayer is not simply asking GOD for things.  Nor is it directing GOD to do what we consider to be the right thing to do.  When you consider it, though, a lot of our prayers are like this--expecting special favours, personal attention to our everyday needs.  We tend to forget that GOD has a great deal to do in keeping this universe going without worrying about our whims and fancies.  Must we really bother him about finding car parking spaces, choosing the right holiday or helping our children to pass their exams when many people in the world are starving to death or agonizing in their state of dereliction?  Yet that seems to be the level at which many Christians operate in their prayer life.  It is a level of spiritual immaturity.  And it is grossly selfish.  Sometimes of course, when faced with great challenges of the moment, with inexplicable sadness or tragedy, we do cry out to the Lord for help.  But that is the genuine prayer of a soul seeking strength and support in the hour of utmost need.  And the Lord in his infinite compassion hears us.  There is a world of difference between the soul who makes a desperate cry for help and someone who treats GOD as a private valet. 

When asked about prayer, Jesus gave us a model for all time. 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...

Christ's teaching is that the right approach to prayer is to enter upon the pure contemplation of the Eternal GOD in his everlasting domains of Heaven--to behold the beauty and the majesty of GOD, the mystery of his being, the depths of his compassion and the sheer wonder of his love.

The best way to pray is through silence, where the unutterable becomes the vehicle for such contemplation.  Only by penetrating the truth in this way do we discover the peace of GOD, which passes all understanding.  Only then do great things begin to happen--whether we ask for them or not.