Talking to God Like a Father

Many people who are new to the faith find prayer intimidating. They hear these beautifully crafted prayers from the pulpit and worry that they have to be perfectly eloquent in order for God to lend an ear to their prayer. 

The truth is that you don’t have to perfectly express yourself with God. You don’t need to worry about wording everything perfectly and making it sound beautiful. God knows your thoughts. He knows your intentions. It is impossible for Him to misunderstand your words. The truth is, prayer is simply talking to God. There is no fancy formula. Prayer can be spoken out loud, or only expressed in your thoughts. Prayer can last two seconds. Prayer can last two hours. 

Just as God doesn’t require perfectly crafted words, He also welcomes our true emotions — whether that’s praise, sorrow, or even anger. New believers may feel intimidated to express their true feelings towards God. Out of fear or respect (or both), many refrain from expressing anger or discontent towards God. While that is understandable, God actually wants us to express our real emotions to Him. He already knows how we feel. Trying to hide those feelings from Him is pointless.

There are countless biblical examples of the wide spectrum of prayer. Job yelled at God for pages. There are prayers in Psalms giving praise to God. There are other prayers in Psalms expressing anger and sadness. Some Psalms are only a few verses long. Others are pages. God wants to hear our genuine expression. 

We should come to God in the same way that we come to a dad. We are His adopted children. He wants to hear from us. He wants to teach us things. He wants us to run to His arms when we need it. We do not need to approach Him with perfection. All we need to do is come as we are. A child doesn’t worry about how their words sound when they talk to their dad. They just speak freely, knowing that their dad will listen and tell them what they need to hear. Similarly, God will listen and tell us what we need to hear. 

Prayer does not have to be a formal, perfectly worded speech. It does not need an introduction and a conclusion. There is nothing wrong with formality in prayer. If you like to be formal in your prayers as an expression of reverence, that is great. However, do not feel pressure to conform to that type of prayer. Approach God like you would a good father, because that is who He is.