Today, we're pleased to share with you an audio essay written and read by Don Whitney,

entitled Ten Things You Should Know About Prayer.

Don Whitney is the author of the best-selling book, Praying the Bible from Crossway.

Ten Things You Should Know About prayer, written and read by Don Whitney.

Number one, prayer is talking with God.

It's easy to complicate prayer.

There's a place for detailed, theologically precise definitions of prayer, I could write a paragraph-length

one that included most of the points found in this article. And while it might be a thorough

and helpful explanation, more than a definition of prayer, it wouldn't be memorable. So while there

is a lot of important biblical information to understand about

prayer, at its essence, prayer is simply talking with God. Number two, prayer is acceptable to God

only in Jesus' name. All access to God, including prayer, is possible only through the merits of who Jesus is and what

he has done. Jesus made this plain in John 14, 6. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the

father except through me. But to pray in Jesus name is

not accomplished simply by adding often mindlessly those words at the end of a

prayer rather it is to pray with reliance on what Jesus has done for us and not

the worthiness of who we are or what we have done see also

the emphasis made by Jesus on praying in his name in John 1413 and John 16 23 and 24 number three

prayer apart from a relationship to God through Jesus, is heard, but not with a view to answering.

God hears everything. He hears the sound of every electron going around every atom in the universe. He even hears our thoughts, Psalm 139 too.

So in one sense, God hears every prayer uttered by every person.

But he does not hear with a view to answering unless we are in a relationship with him

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