Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name ...
What is prayer?
Most of the definitions tend to center around the idea of communication or communion with God. God knows our thoughts, so why bother praying?
Prayer is a formal message to God. This is brought about in the difference between asking and dropping hints. Almost all of the similarities apply. If we drop hints we hope to get something, but don't really have the desire or courage to ask, or the faith to expect an answer. Sometimes the person we drop hints to understands and we get what we want. Sometimes they understand that it is a hint and deliberately ignore it. Sometimes they try to fulfill it in a different way. But dropping hints shows lack of faith and conviction.
Asking has a greater input requirement (falling back into computer-speak). It requires careful consideration, being presented correctly (both the request and the timing – asking your parents for something when they are in a bad mood is not good timing, neither is wording it insensitively).
One of the things I've been working on over the past few weeks is B2B (Business to Business) interaction. This requires agreed message formats being passed between business entities automatically. For this to work we need to know who and where to send the message to, what to include in the message and how to send it. The same applies to talking with God. We need to know who to send it to: God. We need to know how to send it: via Jesus Christ who is our High Priest and mediator. And we need to know what to include: Jesus gives us a template for the perfect prayer in Matt 6.
I remember going to a Fraternal at Kendal about 15-20 years ago on the subject of prayer. The speaker came up with the 10 commandments of prayer, but personally I think he missed one; prayer is personal between us and God, so rules don't really apply. Jesus did give some recommendations. These are don't do it for show and don't think that the longer the prayer the more you are going to be heard.
I started off saying that prayer was of more use than dropping hints. That is true, but only for us. It strengthens our faith and commitment. God knows what we need. The verse just prior to the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:8) has these words;
for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Once we've made up our minds to follow Jesus and love God, he cares for us at all times. Our prayers (and hymns) are ways of showing our love in return. If we love someone, we talk to them. If they are away from us we write letters or talk on the telephone (how often to you contact your girlfriend/boyfriend?) The same applies to God and Jesus; they are not physically here with us (although they are in spirit), but in the words of a BT advert, “it's nice to talk”. (And with God we don't need to pay the phone bill – Jesus has already paid our debts for us)