Prayer. Many people today say they engage in prayer, either as a form of meditation, a ritual, an emergency, or as a religious expression.
But what is prayer? What is it for? Why do we do it? What are we expecting and do we get it? Is there something or someone who listens when we pray? If so, what’s their role in prayer?
To start, let’s look at a definition of the word “pray”:
Pray: to inquire, to request, to demand: – ask (counsel, on), beg, borrow, lay to charge, consult, demand, desire, earnestly enquire, greet, obtain leave, lend, pray, request, require, salute
While the above definition came from the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, it is very similar to other definitions you will find in other dictionaries.
We see examples of this word in older forms of communication such as: “And where might you be going, pray tell???” Or: “If I may pray upon your good graces and have you attend dinner this evening”.
In other words, to pray or engage in prayer, is engaging in conversation where you are making a request of the person you are speaking to, thanking them, curious about something they said or did, greeting them, perhaps even politely demanding that they fall in line.
These days, we speak less of the word pray/prayer in relation to each other or to those who are in leadership over us, and more of the word in use toward a higher power, or toward aspects of nature, whether physical or spiritual. Prayer is often considered to be a spiritual exchange as it is most often directed toward spiritual beings. I say often, because I do run into people who pray to plants, animals, water, the sun, moon, etc.
In Scripture, we are told not to pray to these things.
Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:7-10
Many cultures around the world have made likenesses in the form of statuettes that would sit in a shrine the people would set up in their homes, businesses, trail entrances, city gates, etc. While some cultures today still do that, others have chosen to forego the making of the statuette of say, a particular plant, and simply either grow it in their yard, in a pot in the house, or set up a shrine to it out on the trail.
At one wellness fair we went to in 2024, we were encouraged to look into a herbal conference series, as the table guest thought we’d do very well there. This year in 2025, they will be in the Kootenays, and one of the lists on their site is about what to bring with you. A bullet on that list is: items for the nature shrines, and a note that you’ll get your items back. This is very much a form of modern/ancient worship of the plants God has created. Romans Chapter 1 puts today’s death culture squarely as a result of a mass turning against/away from God the Creator to focus solely on the created thing.
With the rising interest in spiritual things in recent years, being sure we are praying to Creator and not to the created thing, is extremely important.
Who is Creator?
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:1Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
Isaiah 44:6In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 1:1-4That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:9-14Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Colossians 1:12-20After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Revelation 4:1,2,10,11
The four passages of the New Testament above, all refer to Jesus Christ as Creator God. We are told in Scripture:
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
1 Timothy 2:3-8
Jesus said of Himself while walking this earth:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 14:6
Jesus is Creator God, the One Who we pray to and the One through whom we pray to God the Father who sent out His Word (Jesus) to create the heavens and the earth in Genesis chapter One. We are also able to pray to the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Jesus said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
John 14:12-17
Now before we run off with the earlier verses in that passage and figure that we can literally ask God for any little thing our hearts desire and it will be granted, let’s look at a few other passages of Scripture.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Matthew 6:5-13
I wrote a 365 day devotional prayer journal using The Lord’s Prayer as an outline. This is Jesus teaching us a pattern to use when we come before God in prayer.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
James 4:3These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
1 John 5:13-15
In these two passages above, we are told that if we are asking for selfish requests, we more than likely will not get them, but if we ask according to God’s Will, which often involves passing on to others from the abundance God grants us, we will get our request.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:14-16Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 Peter 5:7Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:31-33
These passages tell us to not worry, but to understand that God cares about us, already has our best interests and needs in mind, and we can approach Him boldly. But it doesn’t always mean we get what we asked for right away.
And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
Daniel 10:10-14
Sometimes, the wait is similar to what happened to Daniel when Michael had to help a messenger angel who’d been sent with the answer to his prayer. Sometimes the wait is due to spiritual warfare going on that we can’t see with our physical eyes and we just need to be patient and wait. The answer is on the way!
Sometimes, the wait is because God’s idea of going from point A to point B is a bowl of spaghetti instead of a straight line. I wanted to become a Biblical Natural Health Coach after 2017, but it wouldn’t be till 2020 when instead, so it seemed, God led me into life coaching and I obtained my Basic Life Coach certification because of covid deals at an international college in the UK. I immersed myself in various aspects of coaching at that time, sitting in on various webinars, challenges, some of them copy related, some camera related, some content repurposing related, etc, and bought a couple challenge creation courses from a Christian business coach. Then stimulus cheques began going out, and I realized I finally had the money to buy the natural health practitioner program I wanted from an online herbal college in the US. We were in a difficult time financially, so my kids made me wait until I had a year’s worth of bills set aside, THEN I could pay for it! Needless to say, the training wasn’t completed until March 2022, but I had it! Did I get the training I needed??? You bet I did! Did I get it how I thought I would??? NO!!! Very much no!
We’ve also seen in our household, how God’s answer has required preparation in other quarters to get people into position that would facilitate the answer to our prayers. Sometimes we forget that God works through people, and those people need to be willing to be used of Him. If they aren’t willing, He has to look for others, and Scripture tells us that His will will be accomplished, whether we are willing or not, He’ll find those who are willing to be of use in His plans.
This is the case for how my daughter’s horse came to her, “the horse that started it all” as we say these days. If it wasn’t for the people God had to put in place to facilitate the conception of the horse the year Ashley prayed, then the people that had come along to buy her as a yearling and train her for the track, and buy her and have her shipped up to Canada, and surrender her to a horse rescue who shipped her to our region, and the people God would bring to town who wanted to get into horses who we met on LinkedIn and then in person to find ourselves a year later gifted this horse found at the rescue, Bella would never have even happened!
But Bella DID happen, DID come to Ashley after 8 years of waiting, at the young age of 6.5yrs, and the gift came dressed in overalls! Bella had been abused at the track and local trainers wanted nothing to do with her! It was up to Ashley to ask all the why’s, uncover the answers, retrain from track-broke, help her heal the PTSD, and uncover the most amazing, caring, responsible, fun throughbred mare we could ever have asked for! It was her health issues that got us unto foraging in the first place, that led to me wanting to change careers into natural health coaching and now Ashley into her own herbalist certificate. But God’s answer to Ashley’s request required two horses to come together, which meant owners of horses facilitating it. The answer was literally 8 years in coming! Daniel may have only had to wait 21 days, but Ashley had to wait for 8 years before God brought Bella along.
There are people out there who will teach that sin in one’s life is why they haven’t been answered.
Those who teach this might quote such verses as:
Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Isaiah 59:1-2
While Scripture does say that sin is a barrier between us and God, it is not always the reason we haven’t gotten the answer we asked for. It does mean we should take stock as Jesus teaches in the Lord’s Prayer, asking God for forgiveness for anything we might have done, it doesn’t necessarily mean all prayer requests are not heard.
Unfortunately, this teaching was so prevalent during Bible times, that the following scenario took place:
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
John 9:1-7
It is good to ensure we are not deliberately harbouring sin in our hearts and lives, but it is not a key to immediate and favoured answered prayer as some out there teach. Sometimes, a lack of any immediate answer may not be sin at all, but a mere case of timing as in the scenario from the Gospel of John above.
We must always give God reign to be the Sovereign He is, and understand that sometimes He says yes, sometimes He says no, and other times, we are waiting. The wait may be due to spiritual warfare going on that we are not privy to. Other times, the wait may be a timing thing, the time when we asked was not the right time. Still other times, choosing to work through people means getting them into position to facilitate the answer to prayer, and that takes time.
God wants to be part of our everyday lives, and the more we are thankful for His tiny contributions in our everyday, the more frequently He will show up in more noticeable situations.that arise. We have SO many stories of God being an active part of our household’s daily life, from ideas for solving repairs, to grocery shopping, to surprises for us or others through us, to scenarios with Bella, and now the herbal health journey we are on.
Prayer is a conversation between us and God. It is more than making requests or sharing concerns, it is also praying for others and their situations, showing gratitude for what’s been going right, and for the surprises along the way, asking the Holy Spirit for wisdom and insight, and the means to do what He reveals.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
James 1:5-7
When we ask in faith, we know without a shadow of a doubt, that in God’s sovereign purpose and timing, He is more than able to answer our prayer. We do not need to waver, wondering if He will or not, because He will. It may not always be what we hope for, but He always answers. In the case of asking for wisdom, that is given as we are open to receive it. As with most prayer requests we bring to God, if we have a set idea of how our prayer should be answered, we might miss God’s answer because He answered another way. God’s wisdom is above man’s wisdom. It may not always make sense to us right away, but if we don’t rush into whatever we needed the wisdom for, and take time to continue seeking God for any clarification we need, it will come. Often we just need to wait a little bit more, and the logic comes together in a way decidedly outside the box, but causes the situation to resolve better than we anticipated.
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Isaiah 55:6-12
If you would like private, personal coaching around the subject of prayer or spiritual warfare, reach out to me and lets chat.
