Prayer is putting aside time each day to be with God and to be in His presence. Jesus says in Matt6v6 “when  you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Heavenly Father”.   In verse 7 we are told “when you pray, do not use vain repetitions”.   There seems to be a difference between vain repetitions and the widow of Luke18v3to5 and her  persistence.  We are encouraged to continue and to persist in prayer. 1Thess5v17  Prayer can be just talking to God as you would talk to a friend.  You can tell Him how you feel, tell Him your troubles and the things that are going on in your life.  He knows these things anyway,  just as he knows when we have done wrong but we still have to bring them to God in prayer even though He knows.  We need to keep short accounts with God.  This means that when we mess up and sin, which we inevitably will, we need to come before God in prayer.  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1 v 9).  

A feature of  being in a Church or Christian Fellowship is that of prayer groups or meetings.  These may consist of two or three individuals coming together, or a city wide gathering to pray for the needs of the particular town or city.  This is a time when Christians join together as one in unity to pray together.  This is not a contradiction of  Matt6v6, which is a time of personal prayer and is important for personal spiritual development.  We have examples of prayer meetings in the bible (7)For related scriptures.

There is power in agreement, if Christians can come together in unity to pray as in the three scriptures referenced above then God acts.  This unity has to be more than on the surface it needs to go deeper.  It is not possible to pray with someone in this way unless the unity has some depth.  This does not mean that there cannot be some minor differences, but they must not be allowed to become issues of contention so as to break the unity of the Church or fellowship or grieve the Holy Spirit.

You can just be in His presence, we call this practising His presence.  This is when God can recharge our batteries, the bible says of this “those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength” Isa40v31.  There is no limit to the relationship that is now open to us with God, it will be limited to the amount of time that we can set aside to spend in God's presence. Ps46v10

It is a mystery as to why God requires prayer so often before He acts, but prayer works and God does respond to the prayers of His people. Jesus prayed and Father God answered His prayers, so we pray and our Father God also answers our prayers when we pray in Jesus' name.  It is very encouraging when we have our prayers answered, our faith is encouraged, our faith grows and we continue to pray for other issues.  Sometimes the answers to our prayers are instant, whilst others are delayed.  This can be for a number of reasons.  For example the timing may not be right, or what is being prayed for is not for our best in the long term, in which case the answer is no.

Intercessory prayer is the process by which Christians bring issues of concern before God.  These can be for either others or ourselves.  If we use the 90% /10% rule we cannot go far wrong, that is 90% praying for others and 10% for ourselves.  We are told on a few occasions that we can and should pray for our needs and God does give us the desires of our heart.  Christians need to be praying into their relationship with God to be strengthened and into issues in their lives which are troublesome, for family and friends.  The Lord's prayer gives us a good daily prayer in Matt 6v9to13.

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors, And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.