Short Answer
Prayer is like a child speaking to a loving Father—bringing requests while trusting His wisdom. Ask God freely, but always submit your desires to His will, knowing He knows what is best.
The Overview
Prayer is meant to be relational, not complicated. It reflects the connection between a child and a father—bringing needs, desires, and concerns openly before God. At the same time, God is not just a father, but the sovereign ruler of all things. This means prayer includes both asking and reverence, holding together intimacy and worship.
A key principle in prayer is submission to God’s will. While believers are encouraged to ask for what they need, they must also recognize that God’s wisdom is greater than their own. This is why prayer should always carry the posture of “if it is Your will.” It is not about getting everything we want, but about aligning our desires with God’s purposes.
Sometimes, God’s answers may not match our expectations. We may pray for ease, but experience difficulty; pray for health, but face illness. These moments do not mean prayer has failed. Instead, they reflect God’s larger plan, where even challenges are used for growth, shaping character, and accomplishing His purposes.
Ultimately, prayer changes us as much as it brings requests before God. As we pray, our hearts begin to align more closely with His will. Over time, we learn to trust Him more deeply, knowing that He is working all things together for good—even when we do not fully understand His answers.
Key Takeaways
- Prayer Is Relational
It is like a child speaking to a Father. - Ask Freely
God invites believers to bring their requests. - Submit to God’s Will
Trust His wisdom above your desires. - God’s Answers May Differ
He may allow trials for greater purposes. - Prayer Shapes the Heart
It aligns your will with God’s will. - Trust God’s Plan
He is working for good in every situation.
Transcript
[00:00:00 – 00:00:57] Uh Rick says on YouTube, if you’re listening on YouTube, get the chat going here. Rick says, “Disciples asked uh Jesus how to pray.” But for what I get, but what I get from that is asking the father that his will be done. I struggle with prayer. Can you give me some practical advice? Well, maybe Rick, you can give me a little bit more uh on that. And then I see you’re starting our partners program soon. That’s great. But here here’s the thing. Yeah. prayer right from a human perspective
[00:00:28 – 00:01:28] uh is precisely the kind of experience a child would have with a father. I’m asking you for this and I’m asking you for that with a great sense of difference that you’re the father of the universe. You have all power. I’m supposed to worship you. Hallowed be your name. All of that sort. But at the end of course, right, we recognize in every prayer as it says in in in um James chapter 5, we’ve got to say if the Lord wills. And Jesus taught us that if the Lord wills. So we should definitely
[00:00:58 – 00:01:50] say all of my prayer requests, I’ve got to submit it to the wisdom of of God. There’s a phrase in the New Testament called praying in the spirit, which is a great way of thinking about the fact that I’m always wanting to pray what the spirit would want. As Romans 8 says, even when I’m praying the wrong things, the spirit’s intervening according to the will of God because he knows the mind of God because he is God. And in that picture of intercession, I always want to say, “Oh, I I just I may be
[00:01:24 – 00:02:18] praying wrong here. Maybe the spirit uh is interceding with the right prayers when I’m asking the wrong prayers.” So, Rick, here’s what I’m going to say. We need to have that sense of holding our requests loosely because God has promised for us. He’s working all things together for good. And sometimes we’re not asking for a hard week, a hard day, or a daughter with with birth defects or whatever it might be, right? But they happen. Our car breaks down and and and our life breaks down or we get diagnosed
[00:01:51 – 00:02:44] with cancer. The reality of all that is we know that sometimes when we pray for good health, God brings us sickness. And God says it’s all going to work together, including all the reasons he brings trials into our life to make us what he wants to make us and to do through us what he wants us to do. even in Paul’s life to keep him humble with a chronic illness because he’s one of the most privileged persons in all the New Testament era. So, we’ve got to say yes, giving at the end of a prayer if the
[00:02:17 – 00:03:03] Lord wills, right? That clearly seems like, well, then what good is it to ask? It’s good to ask because we’re supposed to ask. And sometimes God is waiting to give us what he wants to give us because we need to ask for it. And if God says ask, we need to ask. And our minds are going to [snorts] think, “Okay, God, what do I think you want to do that’s in line with what you purpose to do?” And we’re going to ask God to do that. And sometimes he’s going to change that in
[00:02:40 – 00:03:05] the sense of, “Hey, that’s not what I want right now.” But we are often learning, “My will is being conformed to his will, Rick, in our prayer lives.” And I think that is is very important. All right.
