Have you ever thought or maybe heard someone say, “I’ve tried praying and it didn’t work” or “God never answers my prayers”? Why does it seem that God doesn’t hear our prayers? One reason that it seems like God doesn’t answer prayers is that we really don’t think God will answer us, when we pray and ask Him for help it’s just sort of something we do in passing, just a religious rite and then we move on not really expecting an answer. And, many times God does answer but we chalk it up to coincidence or maybe we realize it was God but quickly forget about it.

I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase, “All that’s left to do now is pray.” When we say that it usually means we’ve tried every other thing under the sun to help with our problem or need so now we’ll try to ask God for help. Why do we wait until all other options fail us and we find ourselves desperate for help?

Somewhere along the way between childhood and adulthood we make a wrong turn in our minds and attitude about God. As a child we rightly see God as a loving Father but as adults sometimes we see Him as an uncaring, disinterested tyrant and sometimes we even refuse to admit His existence. Many times the reason we don’t ask Him, the reason we don’t pray for help at first is our view of God.  Why bother asking Him for help we think, He doesn’t care, we’ll have to make a deal with Him, or He just wants to punish us, so when we see God in that light, of course He is our last resort.

When Jesus came, one of the things that He taught about was how things truly are — He told us how good and loving our Father is. Jesus wanted to break that wrong concept of God that people have. Jesus taught us that God so loved us he gave us everything and that He was happy to give us His kingdom. Jesus said if human fathers, with all their shortcomings and issues, could give good gifts to their children how much more would our heavenly Father give us good gifts.

In fact, when they asked Jesus to teach them to pray He started the prayer with “Our Father who is in heaven“, which, when you think about it, is very encouraging. We have a loving Father who is in heaven, a Father who is able to help all that come to Him. We have to return to the childlike faith and believe that God exists and that He will help us.
Another thing that Jesus said about prayer is that we should keep praying and not give up and that if we believe we would receive whatever we ask for in prayer ! 

So, the most important things about prayer are first, we have to understand and believe how loving God is and how much He wants to help us. At times maybe we feel that we just can’t believe He will help us when we pray, or the situation is just too big for God to help, but our Father will even provide the help we need when we feel so inadequate. He will provide His Spirit to help us pray.

Secondly, is persistence. Persistence doesn’t mean that day after day we wear God down to the point He finally gives in. No, persistence means that God is given the opportunity to change our hearts so that we start to believe that He will answer us. So we go from doubt, that God will help us, to maybe God will help us, and finally to I KNOW God will help and then He is able to answer us.