I once had a very wise spiritual director who said to me about himself, “The most necessary thing in my life is sleep; the most important thing in my life is prayer.” I am sure many of us would agree with his first statement about sleep. It would be good if we also agreed with his second about prayer. Prayer was the most important thing in his life because the most important relationship in his life was his relationship with God.
Prayer is an expression of our relationship with God; prayer helps us to grow in our relationship with God. But who is the God whose friendship and help we experience in prayer? Jesus calls him Father; in fact he calls him Abba which means daddy! To call God Abba Father means that God is not someone who is remote and distant from us, someone who is uninvolved and uninterested in our lives. On the contrary, the God of Jesus is a God who knows each of us personally, who loves us unconditionally and who cares for us faithfully. The Abba of Jesus is a Father who wants what is best for us as parents want what is best for their children.
So how should we pray to this God who loves us to bits? Jesus is clear that we should use simple, honest words when we talk to God. There is no need to babble, to use many complicated words. The best words are those that come from our hearts. The best words are those that are an honest expression of what is in our hearts. What Jesus is asking us to do is talk to God as if we were talking to our best friend.
Jesus is also clear that we should ask God for what it is we need and to keep on asking. Jesus insists that we persevere in prayer. Our prayer must be persistent. Jesus assures us that God does answer our prayers of petition, but we must remember that when God answers our prayers he does so in a way that is best for us. God sees the overall picture of our lives whereas usually we only see the immediate, present really. When God answers our prayers God has our true good, our lasting good at heart.
It is important that we do not get discouraged if we do not get from God what we ask for. What we ask for may not be what we truly need at the time. Our prayers are never wasted on God. After all, God is our Father.