When I heard that we had to write this blog, I was a little worried because 1) I had never writen a blog before and 2) I had no idea what to write about. Then on Sunday at church during sharing and prayer time, a lady stood up and talked about the importance of prayer. Then Monday night at youth group, my youth leader spoke about prayer and showed us a video by Rob Bell (I love him by the way!) So I think that the importance of prayer is something that God has been laying on my heart recently and now I'm going to share it with you all. Here are some things I've learned or been reminded of this past week:

1) Prayer is a constant conversation with God. Rob Bell was saying on the video that prayer is a constant thing, just talking to God endlessly. And prayer can also be approaching life in a way that says, "God, where are you moving right now and how can I be a part of it?" This is something that I think is especially important and something that is pretty new to me. God wants to be involved in every part of your life which is really exciting! And better yet, He wants you to be a vessel through which he can do His work. All you have to do is ask Him through prayer to show you opportunities where He can work through you!

2)Prayer is done in the secret, quiet place. Praying out loud has always been a hard thing for me to do because it doesn't feel like I'm talking to God, it just feels like I'm performing for other people. I get nervous and never know what to say. But when I'm by myself in my room or on a walk, I really can talk to God. Don't get me wrong, it says in the Bible that when two or more of us agree on Earth it will be bound in heaven and where two or three are gathered in His name, He will be in our midst. But sometimes it's good to just get away and spend time talking; just you and God.

3)God can handle your irritations. I used to think that when I was talking to God, I should never express frustrations with Him. I thought that it was bad to yell when praying or be angry with the situations I was in. I thought that I could hide my true feelings from God; that I was angry with Him. But about a year ago, I learned that praying is just talking to God, in good and bad circumstances. That it's okay to tell God that you're angry with Him because He already knows. He wants us to talk to Him about EVERYTHING we're feeling, including the bad stuff. And He wants you to just lay every frustration and burden down before Him through prayer.  

4) Prayer can be simple; without big word or phrases. This also kind of goes back to praying out loud. When I'm praying in front of people, I feel like I need to use big words or seem more "spiritual" then I really am. But prayer is just a simple conversation with you and God and He doesn't require big words. What He wants is for us to be real with Him and to lay down everything we're feeling at the foot of the cross and to worship Him with everything we have in us!

5) God doesn't always answer our prayers as we want them to be answered but He always has what's best for us in mind. This is something that I've especially struggled with as far as prayer goes. When prayers arn't answered the way I want them to be I can get frustrated and angry. But I recently discoved a quote that says, "God's answers to prayers: Yes... or... I have something better in mind. God can see everything in our lives, including what's to come in our lives so of course, he know what's best for us in the long run.

A closing remark: Isn't it soooo cool that the God of the entire universe wants to talk to us and be involved in our lives so badly? :)