WHAT IS PRAYER?

What is prayer?

Prayer is not an emotional release or an escape valve. It is much more than just asking God for a favor. Most important prayer is not a religious exercise.

You should be getting results each time you pray. God responds to faith. So just repetition and beautiful words do not get the ear of God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:7, "But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."

Let me give you an example from my own experience. Not long after I became a Christian, I asked a minister to pray for me. I was expecting to hear a long, beautiful prayer. One that would cause people to fall on their knees in repentance before God! What I heard was just the oposite. He laid his hands on my chest, bowed his head, and said , "Lord, bless him. Meet. Meet his every need". He then turned and walked away. I was left standing there thinking, how could he do that to me? I have big problems. It should have taken at least 20 minutes of hard praying to cover everything.

The major difference separating that minister and me was the degree of faith at work in our lives. He was operating in faith, praying exactly what he meant. I was a baby Christian, looking for a physical manifestation of some kind.

The longest of time or how hard you pray makes no difference. When you pray in faith, you have confidence in God's willingness to use His power to answer your prayer.

The man who has confidence in God is very difficult to defeat. He knows, regardless of what comes, he can pray and God will move in his behalf. The key then, to success in prayer, is expecting results. Many Christians think, I will pray and maybe something will happen. They say, "I am just hoping and praying."

If you are only hoping to get results, you will never receive from God. "Hopping to get" is not the same as believing you receive." The promises of God bring hope in hopeless situations. However, hope has no substance by itself. "I hope to get healed someday". You hope to receive someday, but somedays never comes. Faith brings hope into reality and gives it substance. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The object of hope becomes a reality through faith. Hope is always in the future. Faith is always now.

Faith causes you to receive from God. The believer who is operating in faith believes God's power went to work the moment he prayed.

From, Kenneth Copeland. Prayer, your foundation for success. 14, 15 p.