John Piper on Prayer

God has designed and ordained and planned and promised that he will act for us when we pray. God has promised to do for us things we cannot do our ourselves when we pray—that is, when we get on our faces before God and confess our sins, and give thanks for his grace, and lift up the cup of salvation, and plead for him to fill it with supernatural blessings for the needs in our lives and families and church and business and city and nation and world.

Is it not breathtaking to hear Jesus say, “ Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Isn't it breathtaking to hear his brother James say, “ You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2)! Or to put it positively, “If you had asked, God would have acted to meet your need.” This is astonishing: God acts in response to prayer. The all-knowing, all-foreseeing, all-planning, all-governing God wills for your Christ-exalting prayers to be the occasion of his action.

John Piper, "Let Your Requests Be Made Known to God"

One of the [many] things that I am trying to learn about and put into practice is prayer. Despite having grown up in the church and having prayed many a prayer over the years, I know that this is an area of my life where there is much room for improvement. A big part of the problem is my lack of discipline in prioritizing prayer; also significant, I'm sure, is that my understanding of prayer and its purpose is very inadequate. I know that prayer is important, and I'veseen God answer prayers more times than I can count, but from the little time and emphasis I actually give to praying, it's pretty clear that I don't quite "get" it. I want to, though, because I know that it's such a huge part of seeking and knowing and loving and following God; I want my relationship with Him to be deeper than it is right now. So, with two dear friends promising to help keep me accountable in this, I am focusing both on learning more about prayer and on being more purposeful in praying. So, pray for me, if you will; I'm excited to see where God takes me with this :)