Communication is the core key to wonderful relationships. Good friendships develop from good communication. Great marriages spring from great communication. Godly people arise from godly communication. When we pray we are communicating with God, and prayer should never be viewed as a one-sided conversation.

Have you ever been talking with someone and that person not make eye contact with you, or react in a way that physically communicates with you that they really aren’t engaging in what your saying? If you’re a parent of a teenager you have. It doesn’t feel good. In fact, it has the potential to raise up frustration and anger in your heart. I wonder if that’s what has taken place in the hearts of many christians today. Perhaps people are frustrated or angry at God because they are talking, but not perceiving that God is listening.

Now here’s another perspective; have you ever been in a converstation with someone and that person be so engrossed in what they were saying that they didn’t give you a word in at all? Maybe they even cut you off if you began to speak. You know that annoying conversationalist that just keeps on and on until you find yourself wandering in your own thoughts. The complainer that really just used your ears for a springboard for their venting tangent.  I wonder if that’s also what has taken place in the hearts of many christians today. Perhaps they are using their prayer life as a platform to complain.

In the 3rd chapter of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 Jesus said for us to ask, seek and knock and we would receive, find and the door would be opened to us.  This followed the model prayer in chapter 6: Our Father in heaven (recognize who God is), Hallowed be thy name (acknowledge God is holy), thy kingdom come thy will be done as it is in heaven (in regards to everything your going through this is a temporary home, heaven is eternal), give us our daily bread (your needs are important to God). And forgive us our trespasses (confess you are a sinner in need of a savior), as we forgive those who tresspass against us (as difficult as this may be for some your eternal future hangs in the balance), lead us not into temptation (know that God will provide a way of escape), but deliver us from evil (satan has no power of you). Amen (so be it).

Would it radically change your prayer life if you knew that God really heard you when you prayed, and if  you knew that He will give you an answer? Prayer is simply having a two way conversation with God. You speak, then listen. Listen to him through his Word. Incline your ears through godly friends. Hear by going to church. Listen through worship. Pay attention to what the Spirit has to say to you.

I want to urge you to pray with a radical faith knowing that when you seek him with your whole heart El Elyon, The Most High God, will actively engage in your prayer.

I can identify that this can be especially hard while going through a difficult season. There are those times in life when frustration and anger can possess our emotions to a point that prayer is a last resort. Feasibly your dilemma is self inflicted, or from the sin of someone else and you just can’t muster the humility to pray. Possibly your the wife of a man addicted to pornography and it eats at you like leprosy causing you to feel isolated and alone. I have found that I can talk to God about anything, in fact it is with Him that I can be most raw.

It’s been many years since I began to pray radically for both my husband and my own addiction to pornography. Yes, I said both. Hindsight is 20-20. My God delivers! Today, as I type, my husband is leading a mens group bible study called Stepping Up along with many other men in our nation on this Super Saturday. Prayer is powerful and effective and if you trust in Jesus he can do so much more than you ask or imagine.

If pornography has been a stronghold in your marriage and you want some radical results when you pray, dare to pray this:

“Father you are holy and gracious. Will you give me the strength to see past my hurt and see my husband through your eyes. Help me to bring you glory as we go through this season for I am struggling to respect him at this particular moment. Enable us to communicate with one another without throwing daggers. Cause my breast to satisfy him all the days of my life, and for him to love me as You loved the church. In Jesus name, Amen” Prov. 6:19, Eph. 5:25.

Then listen.