prayer.

I think I finally understand it a little more.

In the past few weeks in growing in my prayer life, the more I grew the more I realized I had no idea what prayer was. I knew what it meant to be "prayerful" about things but was thinking for the longest time about prayer and what it actually is aside from just communication with God. I had always wondered why in Philippians 4:6 "prayer" and "petition" are listed as separate things, because I had always thought that petition, or saying our prayer requests to God about our lives and about the live of the people in our lives that we care about and about the lives of the people of this world. But not so... or at least not exactly. In studying the Lord's Prayer in Matthew for the past two weeks or so, it finally dawned on me last night--Jesus taught us what prayer is! He gave us the words and the pattern. In the Lord's Prayer it isn't like Jesus says, "Hey, now's the time for you to put all your requests before God of all the things you want Him to do." Instead, Jesus says, "your Father knows what you need before you ask him." And so, I think prayer is supposed to be more of... us inviting God into us and asking Him to have His way in us. That would involve listening, wrestling, and finally surrendering. And perhaps petition comes after prayer and stems from prayer, after having been changed by God and being in His presence, knowing a bit more of what's in His will (and therefore knowing a little more of how to pray for what's in His will) and what He is actually putting on your heart to petition for.