Dr Paul Allen

The Lord's Prayer (1886-1896) from the series The Life of Christ, Brooklyn Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) " Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." ( Ephesians 6:18 ) It is obvious that Paul's command to "pray without ceasing" ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17 ) is to be understood metaphorically (after all, we do have to sleep and work, as well as pray), but it is also to be taken seriously. Even during waking hours, of course, the attitude of unceasing general prayer is not meant to supersede special periods of concentrated prayer. Jesus spoke thus of the importance of intense private prayer: "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret" ( Matthew 6:6 ). Christ Himself has set an example: "In the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into

Image via Wikipedia Biblical prayer is one-way communication made available to man by the grace of God in order that man may communicate with God. While today God primarily speaks to man through His written Word (the Bible ), He encourages man to speak to Him through prayer. Prayer is not complicated or difficult.  In a nutshell, it is simply talking to God . Prayer is a grace-gift from God to man, that is, man does not deserve such a privilege and can never, by his own works, merit it.  The Bible’s first clear reference to prayer, i.e., talking with God, is found in  Genesis 3:10 , when Adam replies to God in the Garden of Eden ; although it is assumed that Adam had many conversations with God prior to this time.  From that point (fall of man) on God and man continued to talk, even outside the Garden of Eden ( Genesis 4 ), but it was not until  Genesis 4:26  that … men began to call on the name of the LORD .  The word “call” in this context is the Hebrew word,  gara , whic