Earlier I asked, What questions do you have about church, Christianity, discipleship, God, or theology?

Tonya asked, do our prayers change the will of God?

Before we tackle that question, I think we need to define our terms. What is prayer? Who is God? What is the will of God? My answers will rely heavily on what we find in the bible.

So, what is prayer? The simple answer is that prayer is a conversation we have with God. Prayer is not supposed to be a one-way conversation. Biblical prayer is not a ritual practice, where we recite meaningless phrases. Prayer is a conversation.

Jesus said, “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles (anyone who is not Jewish) do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.^” (Matthew 6:7-8 ESV)

If you are going to have a two-way conversation with someone, it really helps if you get to know the person you are going to talk with. What are their likes and dislikes? What do they want to talk about?

It also helps if you tell them about who you are. Tell them what you like and don’t like. Talk to them about the issues that concern you.

And if you are having a two-way conversation with God, it helps, after you’ve talked about what you are concerned about, to stop and listen to what God has to say.

I know that sounds strange to many people, but God really wants to talk to us. In Jeremiah 33:3, God says through the prophet Jeremiah, “Call to me and I will answer you …” In John 10:27 Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

Learning to distinguish the voice of God from other voices takes some practice. In the short passage in Matthew 16:15-23, Peter went from recognizing the voice of God in verse 17, to listening to the voice of Satan in verse 23. Learning to hear God’s voice takes time.

You can get better at distinguishing God’s voice by regularly reading Scripture (which Christians describe as the Word of God). It also helps to talk about what you are learning and hearing with other Christians.

So, prayer is a conversation with God, but before we can answer, do our prayers change the will of God, we need to know who is God? We’ll look at that question in the next post.

What do you think? When was the last time you had a conversation with God? What questions do you have about church, Christianity, discipleship, God, or theology? Ask me and we’ll talk about it soon.