I remember when I was working full time in the performing arts, I got the name and cell phone number of a pretty famous person. I thought it was awesome just to have it in my phone. We were working on a project together, we became friends and, as friends do, we exchanged numbers. After the project finished, we stayed in touch briefly and about a year later we ran into one another on the street. We exchanged pleasantries and said we should grab dinner sometime. We pulled out our phones and realized we both already had each other’s number. My famous friend said, “Why don’t you use it?!” He was half-joking, of course, but it got me thinking. Prayer is like having God’s personal cell phone number. It’s a direct line to THE most famous person who ever lived, Jesus. And just like my friend who elbowed me into using his number, God is doing the same thing to us. He WANTS us to communicate with Him.

“But I don’t like talking on the phone.”

That’s okay. You can text God, too. I love writing out my prayers to Him. I keep a journal on my desk at the office and one on my nightstand. Sometimes I’d rather write out my thoughts and prayers to Him than speak them outloud anyway. It gives me a history of my messages to Him. I can go back and see how God used a situation or see how He answered a previous prayer.

“I don’t know what to say.”

When we look into the scriptures, we can see examples of how others prayed. Peter, who was a fisherman when He first met Jesus, tells us, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” See what Peter did there? He spoke the way he would know how to talk. He was a fisherman, so he says to “cast” all your anxiety on God. Peter is encouraging us to talk to God the way we talk to our friends and family, and to use language we already know. Love baseball like me? “Pitch” all your worries to God. Are you into lifting weights? “Heave” all your cares onto Him. Good at playing darts? “Throw” all your fears in God’s direction. You don’t need to worry about how you say it, the important thing is that you say it.

“Does God hear me, though?”

Absolutely. We’re taught in the Psalms that when we call to God (see, there’s that calling thing again), He hears your voice (Psalm 55:16-17). “Know that He is listening.” He has promised that we will never get a busy signal and that our prayers never go straight to voicemail. He hears them the moment we dial him. He doesn’t swipe to ignore. He doesn’t pick up His phone, see who it is and then pretend He didn’t. God always picks up.

“How can I start?”

Right now. There’s no better way than to take a few moments at your desk, on the train, in your car and talk to the Creator of the Universe. You don’t need to be in a particular building to do so. You don’t even need to be in a particular body position. You simply have to start talking, or, if you don’t want to say it outloud, start thinking! God hears your thoughts, too. The Apostle Paul encourages us that even when we don’t know the words to say, God knows what we need (Romans 8:26). So just bring it to Him.

“What if I’d like someone to be praying for me?”

You can email the prayer team at prayer@hobokengrace.com or, each Sunday, we ask people to fill out their Connection Card, so we can be praying for our church family. The reason we ask you to fill one out is because it’s impossible to know and to remember everyone who comes in our doors on a Sunday morning. It’s impossible to know who’s watching on Livestream from afar. However, we recognize that all of us are in this together, and one of the things we are called to do is pray for one another.