This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

1 John 5:14 (NKJV)

When was the last time you prayed to God? Do you remember what it was about?

Some people pray and then do nothing and there are those who do everything but never pray. These two extremes fracture our friendship with God by creating unreasonable expectations of what we seek from God and what God wants for us.

We must learn to pray with perseverance and persistence. When we actively engage with God, we avoid apathy and inactivity. Furthermore, we avoid becoming overachievers and going off on our own to places God did not intend for us to go.

True prayer leads to true freedom.

Prayer is meaningless without Christ. When we revolve our prayers around Christ, we find our way to Him—for He is the centre of our being and doing. When we understand the reality of Christ is in us, our prayer life becomes authentic and alive. This makes our prayers effortless and restful because we are content to be with God rather than striving to get God to do something. Then, while praying, we are not the one who speaks the most, but we are the ones who listen the most. The person who listens the most is the one who receives the most. And that is exactly how prayer is supposed to be.

Despite our best efforts, nothing changes unless we pray.

When we pray from a place of trust in God's love and integrity, we experience a nudging rhythm and momentum in which one part of life influences the other. Hannah's prayer resulted in the birth of Samuel, who became a judge of Israel. The prayer of Nehemiah set in motion the return of the exiled Jews to their country. The believers' prayer for Peter resulted in his miraculous release from prison.

When your prayers are free of selfish reasons and poor motives, you become the most liberated and productive person around. Prayer has a way of revealing hidden fears and worries in our hearts and preparing the way for faith to flow from the inside out. Faith works through love, and when God's love abides in you, there is a holy boldness and fearlessness to believe all things are possible.