How is prayer communicating with God?

In prayer you do not address a general law or a first principle, but you address a living Person. You do not commune with eternity, or with infinite space, but you commune with the Father of eternity, with Him "who fills the highest heavens, and who also dwells in the lowliest hearts." You do not hold converse with abstract goodness, but with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; with God in Christ; with Him whose express image Jesus is; with Jesus Himself; with your Friend within the veil; with your Father who is in heaven.

Prayer is so much more miraculous than all the various means of communication we tend to admire in our electronic age: it connects finite human beings with God, it enables tiny creatures to make their voices heard in His presence, and it allows us to enjoy communion with our Father as children, and to express dependence on our Lord as servants.

It is communion with God. Brethren, prayer is not an apostrophe to woods and wilds and waters. It is not a moan let fly upon the viewless winds, nor a hopeless behest expended on a passing cloud. It is not a plaintive cry, directed to an empty echo, that can send back nothing but another cry. Prayer is a living heart that speaks in a living ear, — the ear of the living God.

And, in the first place, I feel impelled to say that it is extremely necessary for you to remember that in prayer you address God. The Psalmist said, "Unto Thee will I pray. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer to Thee, and will look up" (Psalm 5:2-3). Prayer is the exercise of heart Godward in earnest petitions for needed blessing.

But we have spirits also for we are spirit, soul and body, and the spirit can only be satisfied and at rest in God Himself. Hence we have the Word of God and prayer bound up with these creature mercies. “They are sanctified,” we read, “by the Word of God and prayer.” The Word of God directs us as to how to use God's mercies, and prayer is the expression of our need of grace from Him in order to use them for His glory. In the Word, God speaks to us, in prayer we speak to Him. And the Word used for prayer here means we “freely address” Him. It should be a joy to us to know that in these every day, and what might be called mundane things, God would have us commune with Him, if these gifts are received in the right spirit, every part of a man is benefited, and God is glorified by the thanksgiving. These seducing spirits would spoil all this.

The word translated "prayer" here, you may not have perceived, is the opening of this intercourse with God by which we can speak to Him about anything and everything — even the commonest matters which concern us day by day. I refer to it because all this is very intimately connected with the strength of our testimony. Abram knew its principle well; but now God has revealed Himself incomparably more fully than in the days of Abram, and our familiarity with God ought to be in the measure of His communications to us. As it is said, "every creature of God is sanctified by the word of God." It must begin with Him. It is first He who speaks to us; then we speak to Him; and the consequence of His so speaking to us is that we freely speak to Him. It was just the want of simplicity and vigour, if not reality, the want of living thus before God, that enfeebled the testimony of Lot. Assuredly power of public testimony depends, after all, on faith in what is unseen, and the resulting intercourse that goes on between God and our souls.

Prayer brings one into the presence of God and promotes communion with Him. Without communion with God, spiritual life cannot be sustained and renew ed. "They that wait upon, the Lord, shall renew their strength" (Isa. 40:31). When we read the Bible, God talks to us and when we pray we talk to God. Both are necessary for communion, growth and development of the new nature.

God has given us His truth that our thoughts may be fashioned like unto His own. This is to enjoy communion with Him. Our previous study, on standing and state, naturally prepares the way for the consideration of this blessed theme of realized fellowship with God, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9). He, who has thus so richly blessed us, desires to have us in living, happy communion with Himself, and this is the instinctive desire of every renewed soul. By nature and practice we are alienated and an enemy to God by wicked works, but when grace has wrought in the soul—when new birth has taken place—at once there springs up a yearning for fellowship with the blessed One whom now we address by the Spirit as “Abba Father” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). Now this communion is not a human thing. Man in the flesh can have no fellowship with God. It is only known and enjoyed in the power of the Spirit. The direct means for its maintenance are the Word of God and prayer. In the Bible, God speaks to me. In prayer, I speak to Him. I use the word prayer here in its widest application; not merely as offering petitions, but as lifting up the heart to God in praise likewise.

First - Prayer is the language of request addressed to God. It is important to distinguish between prayer and worship, though they may both be found together in the same address to God. In worship, we give something to God - our thanksgiving, praise, or adoration. "Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name" (Heb.13:15). Praise, then, is an offering, but prayer is a request. The common phrase 'offering a prayer' is therefore a mistake. We may offer worship, praise, adoration, thanksgiving. Prayer, however, is not an offering to God, but a request of something from Him.

This has been described as 'the intercourse of a dependent one with God.' It may take the form of communion in one brought nigh, or it may be the making requests for oneself or for others. There are twelve different words used for prayer in the O.T., and eight in the N.T., with various shades of meaning, as there are in English: 'asking, begging, beseeching,' etc. In the synoptic Gospels the word used in connection with Christ is that most commonly employed for "praying," but in John's gospel the word is that generally rendered, 'ask' or, 'demand.' The change is explained by the different aspect in which the Lord is presented in John.