Prayer has always been my go-to in every situation. When life feels uncertain and I don’t know what decision to make, I pray. When someone comes to me for advice and I feel completely ill-equipped to offer guidance, I pray. When I am confused, overwhelmed, grateful, hopeful, or simply searching for direction, I pray. Prayer has been a constant companion throughout my life.

Yet, despite praying for most of my life, I realised that I had never really stopped to ask myself what I was actually doing when I prayed. What was happening in that moment? What was God doing while I was praying? Why does prayer matter?

For most of my life, I viewed prayer as a space where I brought my long list of requests to God. Deep down, I think I believed that the better behaved I was, the more likely God would be to answer my prayers. Looking back now, I realise that my relationship with God was often transactional. Not intentionally. It’s simply how I understood it. It reminds me of the relationship many of us have with our parents as children. When you’ve been obedient, done your chores, worked hard at school, and generally been on your best behaviour, asking for something feels easier. You feel like you’ve earned the right to ask.

In many ways, that’s how I approached God.
But something began to shift in me in 2023.

I found myself longing for a relationship with God that wasn’t based on requests and outcomes. I wanted something deeper. I wanted to know Him beyond what He could do for me.

Now, in 2026, after being called to start the Answered Prayers Ministry, I find myself asking questions I probably should have asked years ago.

What is prayer really for?
Why do we pray?
What should we be praying for?
What actually happens when we pray?
And I know I’m not alone in asking these questions because even the disciples, who walked with Jesus daily, asked Him to teach them how to pray.

‘’And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.’’ ~ Matthew 6: 5-8

What really stopped me in my tracks was verse 8.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Wait a minute.

If God already knows what I need before I ask, then what exactly is prayer for? For the longest time, I approached prayer as though I was bringing new information to God. As though I was presenting requests He was unaware of. But that’s clearly not the case.

Of course God already knows. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows every detail of my life. He knows what I need before I realise I need it myself.

So when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, I’ve started wondering whether they weren’t simply asking how to pray, but perhaps what to pray for. Because if God already knows our needs and promises to provide for them, as Philippians 4:19 declares:

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”

Then perhaps prayer is about something much bigger.

I’ve begun to wonder whether prayer is more of an exchange than I ever realised. Perhaps prayer is the place where we make ourselves available to God. The place where His will begins to shape ours. The place where we become willing vessels for His purposes on earth.

As I write this, I keep coming back to the story of the widow’s oil in 2 Kings 4.

Most people read this story as a lesson about God’s provision, and rightly so. But I also see something else. I see vessels. The miracle only continued as long as there were empty jars available to receive the oil. The oil kept flowing until there were no more vessels. And I can’t help but wonder whether sometimes we are those vessels.

Could it be that prayer is the process of positioning ourselves before God and saying, “Lord, here I am. Pour into me. Fill me. Use me.”

Could it be that prayer is how we make room for God’s provision, wisdom, strength, peace, direction, and purpose to flow in and through our lives?

The more I reflect on this, the more I believe that prayer is less about convincing God to move and more about positioning ourselves to receive what He is already wanting to do.

So how do we do that?
Jesus gives us the answer in what we now call the Lord’s Prayer.

For many years, this was simply a prayer I memorised and recited. But this year, I slowed down enough to really sit with the words. And for the first time, I began to understand the weight of what Jesus was teaching.

“Our Father in heaven”

This changed everything for me.

The prayer doesn’t begin with requests. It begins with identity.
Before asking for anything, Jesus reminds us who God is and who we are.
God is our Father.

And we are His children.
I wasn’t simply praying to an all-powerful God somewhere far away.
I was speaking to my Father.

A Father who loves, provides, protects, guides, corrects, and delights in His children.
When I began viewing prayer through that lens, scriptures like Ephesians 3:20 started landing differently.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…”

That’s not just the promise of a powerful God. It’s the promise of a loving Father.

And Romans 8:17 reminds us that as His children, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
Suddenly prayer becomes less about pleading and more about relationship.

“Hallowed be Your name”

If God is our Father, then honour naturally follows. This part of the prayer reminds me to approach God with reverence, gratitude, and respect. Not because He demands it, but because He is worthy of it.

Before focusing on what I need, I remember who He is.

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”

As God’s children, we belong to His Kingdom. Yet we live in a world where many other kingdoms, values, and influences compete for our identity. In this part of the prayer, we intentionally align ourselves with God’s Kingdom and declare that we belong to Him above all else.

God is the Creator of heaven and earth, and His desire is for His Kingdom to be revealed here on earth through us as believers in Jesus Christ. He has a purpose and a plan for each of our lives, and that purpose has already been established in heaven. We discover His will through His Word, and when we pray, we invite that will to be made manifest in our lives.

For me, this part of the prayer is a reminder that prayer is not about persuading God to agree with my plans. It is about bringing my heart, my thoughts, and my desires into agreement with His. When we pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done,” we are asking that God’s purposes for our lives become our reality on earth, just as He has always intended.

“Give us today our daily bread”

I love that Jesus taught us to ask for daily bread. Not yearly bread. Not lifetime bread.
Daily bread.

God invites us to depend on Him one day at a time. Each day He provides what we need.
• Strength for today.
• Wisdom for today.
• Peace for today.
• Direction for today.
• Grace for today.

Everyday becomes an opportunity to walk closely with Him.

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”

God knows that we are not perfect, and because of our imperfections, we will sometimes sin and transgress against others. He gives us the opportunity to repent and ask for His forgiveness. But there’s also a responsibility on our part. We are called to extend that same forgiveness to those who have transgressed against us. I’ve also come to wonder whether this addresses one of the very things that may stand in the way of our prayers being answered.

This part of the prayer feels to me like a heart detox process. The Word says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23).

How can we truly guard our hearts if we are holding onto unforgiveness, hurt, and pain caused by others? Forgiveness does not mean that what happened was acceptable, nor does it mean the pain was not real. Rather, it is a process of releasing what weighs down our hearts and surrendering it to God.

In doing so, we create room for His goodness, peace, love, joy, kindness, hope, and faith to flow from within us. Perhaps forgiveness is not only a gift we extend to others, but also a gift we give ourselves, freeing our hearts to receive all that God desires for us.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”

This part of the prayer took me to James 4:7: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
What stands out for me in this scripture is the acknowledgement that we will always face temptations. There will always be things that seek to distract us from our walk with God and pull us away from His purpose for our lives. But when we submit ourselves to God, we are empowered to resist the devil. God delivers us from evil, and the enemy has no choice but to flee.
We are not alone in this battle. God fights for us. Our role is to remain submitted to Him, trusting in His strength rather than our own.

It may sound simple, but this is exactly what Jesus taught His disciples. The truth is, some of the most powerful lessons in the Kingdom are often the simplest.

So Why Do We Pray?

As I sit with this question today, my answer is very different from what it would have been a few years ago.

Prayer is no longer simply a place where I take my requests to God. Prayer is where I come back into alignment with Him.

• It is where I remember my true Identity; who I am and whose I am.
• It is where my will is surrendered and His will becomes clearer.
• It is where I receive my daily bread.
• It is where my heart is softened, healed, and strengthened.
• It is where relationship happens.

Most of all, prayer is where I make myself available to God, to his purpose, for his Kingdom and for his glory to be revealed through my life.

The next time you pray, whether it’s the Lord’s Prayer or a prayer spoken from the depths of your heart, don’t pray as though you are trying to convince God to help you. Pray from a place of identity, a place of relationship and from a place of agreement.
Because perhaps prayer has never been about informing God of our needs. Perhaps it has always been an invitation to come into agreement with Him.

And maybe that’s where the real power of prayer begins.