If the Christian faith is to have any meaning at all for our lives, prayer is essential. The word ‘prayer’ can sound quite off putting at first. Perhaps we have not done any praying recently – not since childhood or when there was a real crisis in our lives. This can make a person who wants to come back to praying feel rather guilty. We wonder what our motives really are and then imagine an irritated God wanting some sort of explanation for our laxness.

 

This is not what prayer is about. When we feel the need to pray, whatever the reason and whatever the circumstances, it is because God is present to that need. He knows how badly we need him and longs for us to reach out to him. Prayer is a renewal of friendship. All a person needs to do, to renew their friendship with God, is to say ‘hello Lord’ (this is how most of my prayer times start) in the way you would to any friend, even a friend you have not seen for a long time. If the ‘hello’ is real, if it comes from a real desire to know and be known by Jesus Christ, you will sense the gentleness of his touch, the ‘still small voice’ of his loving response.