I know what many who read this will think: duh! We’re told repeatedly in the Bible to pray to God. The model prayer given to us by Jesus begins with “Our Father Who art in heaven”. Jesus prayed to His Father a lot, and as “little christs”, we should be mimicking that example.

The real question for many Christians, though, is why don’t we take advantage of this tool more often? Why do we neglect opportunities to talk to God?

Initial responses might be, “I’m busy”, “it’s too petty to worry about”, or the famous “I forgot”. While these are typical, they are all wrong. Going back to Jesus’ example, He would often spend entire nights in prayer – talking directly with the Father. I find it hard to believe we can’t find even 5 minutes where we can spend time talking to God.

In the Bible we are also given the example of Nehemiah, cup-bearer to the king, who uttered a prayer to God while talking to the king to make a request [Neh 2:4].

There really is no excuse to not talk to God. In any relationship, communication is really the vital link between the parties. Whether it’s a marriage, a business, a family, or the Christian’s walk with God, all the parties of the relationship have to talk. God talks to us through His word, and we talk to Him via prayer.

From personal experience, I can say that the worst times in my walk have been when I wasn’t listening to God, or talking to Him. And the opposite has been true, too. When I’ve spent more time reading God’s word and listening to it, and then talking to Him, I’ve grown.