Prayer has become a vital part of my Christian life.  Over the years, the Lord has taught me many things about prayer and has shown me many times just how interested He is in every detail of my life. Here are four lessons I have learned.

Lesson 1 - Prayer is Two-Way Communication

Often I have come to feel the Lord Impress on my heart, “Evelyn, I want you to go and talk to this person about me. Share with her how much I love her and want her to commit her life to me.”

Back when I was in my first year of teaching, there were a number of young people in the rural community I was placed in. People who were my age. After a while, it became clear to me that I had been placed in this community by my heavenly father for a reason; to share my faith with them. However, as I was beginning to see that this was what the Lord was asking of me, I also found myself unsure whether I could share as he impressed upon me.

“But Lord”, I would argue, “I can’t do this. I feel too self-conscious and inadequate for this.” I thought the Lord might give me another route to get this assignment done or that He might accept my reasoning but this wasn't the case.  It just seemed as if the told me, “OK, have it your way,” and in saying that He stepped aside, leaving me without peace, knowing I wasn’t following God as He called me to.

The next few days I continued to do a lot of reasoning with myself. After all, I wasn’t that well versed in explaining the way of salvation.  There were many others who could do it better than I.

“But I’m asking you to do it,”  His voice kept saying.

“What will they think of me? I'm supposed to be teaching kids at school.  This is out of my territory.” I argued. I knew in my heart that I was just making excuses and oh, how miserable I was. Finally, after a few days I prayed, “Lord, I’ll go talk to this person at my first opportunity, only give me back the joy of the Lord.” With this prayer, peace and joy flooded my heart.

Surprise of surprises. When I went to share my faith with this girl, it wasn’t that hard at all. Satan had tried every tactic he knew to stop me from sharing what Christ had done for me, and in the end, it proved fruitless.

Jesus says in John 14:15, that If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  Could I say I loved God while also refusing to share with others what He has done in my life when he called me to? What a thrill to be able to share when the Holy Spirit touches our hearts. It is a victory over the forces of evil since we know that Satan would like nothing better than our silence.

Prayer is so much more than asking the Lord for this or that.  As we come into God’s presence, He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.  God speaks to us just the same as we do to Him. Oh, the blessings of being obedient to the nudging of the Spirit. We never know what far-reaching results such obedience has.

Prayer is our communication with our heavenly Father. It’s a two-way line and we need to listen for His instruction and not just ask for this or that or another thing. Through listening to God and obedience lies the only route to peace and joy in the Lord.

Lesson 2 - Prayer is Hampered by Holding Resentments

“Lord, I have agonized and prayed for so long. You have promised to answer my prayers, but nothing is happening.” This was my prayer as I sat in my quiet place, meditating and praying, and while I was listening, the Lord brought Psalms 66:18 to mind. “If I had cherished sin in my heart the Lord would not have listened.”

Living in the same house with my mother-in-law for a year and a half, and following that, then in the same yard, I finally realized how many resentments and hurts I was capable of carrying. My children’s grandma was a wonderful Christian lady, but I don’t think a single house was ever meant to have two ladies in charge. 

It seemed our Christian life had become stagnant and we weren’t involved as far as Christian service went.  And so, as I prayed about this, that same verse kept coming to mind. I knew I wouldn’t let the Lord use me if I wasn’t willing to let go of these resentments and hurt feelings.

When I finally said,” OK Lord" and went to my Mother-in-law to ask her forgiveness and to make things right, I felt the Lord’s approval and blessing come over me. Shortly after this, the doors opened for us to be involved in a Bible study group with families out in the country south of us. What a blessed time we had in singing, sharing and studying God’s word every week all winter.

The truth of David’s words in the Psalm became very real to me as the Lord taught me this lesson.  There have been many times after this when I have had to search my heart to make sure there’s nothing in the way.  “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” Psalms 139:23a has been a constant prayer of mine ever since.

Part 3 - Prayer is Bolstered by A Forgiving Heart

Closely related to letting go of resentment is the forgiveness we need to extend to others. Matthew 6:14 says that if I want my Father’s forgiveness, I need to forgive those who have hurt and offended me.

There have been times that the Lord has brought names to my mind. People who I felt had wronged me. Soon it was impressed upon me that if I wanted peace with God and to grow in my relationship with Him, I had to go and make things right. What a blessing to once again have that peace and joy and know that the spiritual line to glory was clear once more.  As fallible people, this finding ourselves in need of forgiving others will happen again and again, but the important thing is to be willing for the Lord to put his searchlight on our hearts and help us clean house.

As I pray and seek God’s counsel, the answer to this issue always seems to lie in my attitude. If I can forgive the person who I feel wronged me, from the bottom of my heart no matter what, then I have done my part. The rest of the problem must be left in the Lord’s hands.  If I don’t do at least this, then I am carrying baggage that I should not be carrying. Baggage that will keep me too encumbered to truly focus on what the Lord sets for me.

When I can do this, forgive, as difficult as it is to do, the joy and peace I seek comes to my heart and I can again focus on the Lord and intercede in prayer for others.  How thankful I am for the Holy Spirit who teaches us so many things as we grow in our Christian lives.

Part 4 - Prayer is About Perseverance

One time, I found myself laying in my bed wide awake with a heavy burden on my heart. Words weren’t always needed to communicate with the Lord what I wanted Him to know. Romans 8:26 says that the Spirit prays for us with groans that words cannot express. However, after a couple of hours, this intense prayer burden lifted and I found myself able to go to sleep.

In hindsight, I could clearly see that this was a spiritual battle that I was fighting. The enemy, unseen but very real (Eph 6:12). What a privilege it was to be called to intercede in prayer.  In Matt 7:7, we are told to ask, to seek and to knock. Or as I read it, to be persistent, and the answer will come.

A few nights later this same burden found me again. I could sense that this was a spiritual battle taking place.  I couldn’t see what was going on but the Holy Spirit could, so I held this burden before the Lord. God promises to answer us abundantly as we pray (Eph3:20) and so I held unto that verse. In time, it seemed I had prayed through the burden again and restful sleep was mine the remainder of the night.

This same pattern carried on for a long time until all of sudden the burden no longer came on me. At that time, all I could do was start praising the Lord for answered prayer even though I didn`t see that answer yet. It felt weird to me at first but what a joy filled my heart.  I hadn`t seen the answer yet, but I knew it was on its way. A little while later a phone call came to confirm that a long-standing prayer item that was on my heart had been answered. Praise the Lord!

This is a single example of how I have learned to pray and intercede. Sometimes we don’t know all the circumstances when we pray for something important to us, but that doesn’t matter.  As we are obedient to bring such burdens before the Father, we can be certain that the answers will come as they should.

The answer may not come when we want it or how we want it. It is possible we may never see the answer to our prayers here on earth.  My father never saw the answer to his prayers for my brother to come to know the Lord, but now he is a Christian and involved in church all the same.

What a privilege as a child of God to be entrusted with this awesome responsibility to intercede for others. This is one of the greatest callings we as Christians can have. Which is wonderful news as it is a calling that can be lived out no matter our health or circumstances. We don’t realize how great the spiritual battles that are going on around us are, but we are asked to contribute to them through prayer all the same.

However, despite the gravity of the circumstances that call us to talk to our Lord, the best thing about prayer is that we’re assured victory in the Bible itself. So let’s not give up until we have prayed through. Victory is just around the corner.