Oswald Chambers once said, “we look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.” Prayer is not a one-way conversation – us speaking to God, but a two-way dialog. While the Bible encourages us to share with God the things that are on our hearts and for us to bring our requests to Him, the truth is God would like to get a word in edge wise so we can understand what is on His heart. In this message we’ll look at the kind of changes that prayer brings about not only in our circumstances, but also the kind of changes that prayer can make, deep inside each of us, as we listen to God.

Have you ever prayed, wondering if it was actually accomplishing anything? You spend hours talking to a God you cannot see or hear, thinking you are just throwing words at the wind... and in response, the heavens are silent. Do our prayers actually make it to God? Do they actually change anything when it’s all said and done? In this message, we’ll be making a case for the fact that there are times when we need to pray as if our life depends on it… because it does! Our prayers do accomplish things, but they’re not always the things we expect. We’ll be recounting a remarkable story where a life was literally held in the balance, and the only thing that made a difference when it was all said and done were the prayers of a small group of people.

Once we learn to “just pray” we have to mature in our approach to prayer. And one of the most important ways is in the realm of what we ask for. Once we move beyond the right motive and the right requests, we are called to examine the boldness of our prayers to God. While anyone can mouth bold requests, the big question is can we back up bold request with bold faith? After teaching the disciples the Lord’s model prayer, Jesus shares a story about a man who boldly asks his neighbor for bread to serve his guest… at midnight… and uses the story to teach us to pray boldly to God. And when we do so within His will, we please Him with our boldness because it shows our confidence in Him.