Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:19

Conversation is what you make it! It can be as dull as a stockholder’s annual report, or it can be as exciting as the news your husband discovered a lost gold mine! A lot of our conversation is trivial, and rather meaningless. It consists of polite phrases that reek with insincerity, such as, “How are you?” when the person who asked was not any more interested in how you are than in getting a report on the number of Eskimos in the Mongolian desert.

Conversations can be casual, or they can be vital and meaningful. A conversation can be irrelevant, or it can be as crucial as a midnight phone call to the doctor. It can be necessary and business‑like, or it can lead to a deep relationship, as in friendship or marriage. Of one thing you can be sure: Regardless of the kind of conversation you may have, the fact that there is conversation between two or more persons implies a relationship.

Question: What kind of conversations do you have with God? Perhaps you have not thought about prayer as conversation, but in reality that is what it is. Prayer is simply a conversation between you and God, two persons who have a definite relationship to each other. Perhaps you have only thought of God as an impersonal “It” or a “power.” This may also explain why you have never prayed much.

The Bible tells us that God is a person, not an “it” or a neutral-gender-sort-of-reality. It is true that He is a personality of a different kind from what we are; nevertheless as a person you can communicate with Him. What kind of conversations do you have with God? Can you identify with requests like, “God, I want you to do this and that, and do it real fast because I am in a hurry”? Is that the only conversation you have with God?

How long would you give a marriage when the only thing a husband ever told his wife was, “Get my shirts laundered, have supper ready when I get home, and do not be late.” Naturally, no marriage would survive long. Actually, that is not conversation at all. Have you noticed that when conversation ceases, a marriage disintegrates? It is true of your relationship with God as well. When you cease communicating with Him, your relationship begins to disintegrate.

About what should you pray? In one word, the answer is EVERYTHING. It is not my answer‑‑it is the answer Paul gave when he wrote, “…in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6. KJV). There is absolutely nothing in life you cannot share with God. Gordon Cooper, one of the first men in space, tells how he prayed in outer space, thanking God for the glorious privilege that was his, and for the greatness of our world. You can do the same on earth. Ralph Byron, a cancer surgeon, tells how he prays throughout the entire day. He says, “While I ride to work at the hospital, I breathe a few short prayers; ‘Lord, help me to do a bang‑up job at the hospital. Help me to be a good witness for you.’ During the day I whisper many short prayers, ‘Guide me in what I am to say. Watch over me in this operation. Give me wisdom in this problem situation. Thanks for taking care of me.'”

Prayer is conversation, not just asking, not just demanding something from God. It indicates a relationship! One last thought: Your relationship to God may be pretty remote. Possibly one may not even exist. But it can. The relationship with God can be established in a moment, as you are willing to look up and open your heart to God. Christ came to unite us with a loving Father. Trust Him as a friend and companion. Then learn to communicate through prayer.

Resource reading: John 13.