What does prayer mean to God?

"How do you learn to pray? Well, how do you learn to swim? Do you sit in a chair with your feet up, drinking coke, learning to swim? 
You get down and you struggle. 
That's how you learn to pray."

~ Leonard Ravenhill ~ 

I have been learning to pray by praying according to what I've discovered in Scripture about God, and about prayer. I can honestly tell you that I have seen prayers so incredibly and noticeably answered since that time, that when I thought of it, I lamented all the time I'd wasted on 'hit or miss' prayers, and wished I would have taken everything to God in this way. Above and beyond answered prayer though, learning to pray introduced me to the wonder of knowing God in an intimate way. I have had my character increasingly refined because of these times with God more than in any other way. In much the same way that Moses' face shone with the glory of God after he had spent forty days on the mountain communing with the Most High, one simply cannot habitually spend quality time with God without a noticeable transformation taking place in oneself.

This is the first of a series of posts on the subject of prayer. They will be interspersed among other blog topics so, for the easy identification of related posts, I will use the additional label 'praying effectively - series,' which can be found in the sidebar. I hope to share keys to praying effectively in bite-size blog posts which you can incorporate into your own prayer habits right away. 

Many of my notes were primarily prepared after thorough Scripture search and note-taking for my own personal purposes several years ago. Later, they were expanded by in-depth Bible study to teach to adults at a local church I attended. Today, learning to meet with God to pray and intercede effectively is an ongoing journey for me, but by the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit, I have been taught some things which I will be privileged to share with you.


Our prayers do not go to a jumbled mail room in heaven. Our prayers go to the throne room of God where He is enthroned in majesty and worshiped incessantly. His presence is brilliant, and 'veiled' only by light in that place! The magnificent atmosphere into which God welcomes prayer shows what honor and importance He places on our prayers to Him. Our knowledge of this should stir us to place more value on prayer also. We must come to see it as more than a duty and even more than a 'good Christian thing' to do.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Revelation 5:8

The reference to incense when speaking of prayer is found again in the book of Psalms.

Let my prayer be set before You as incense,

The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Psalms 141:2

Incense gets its particular fragrance from the ingredients which make up its composition. In the same way, our prayers must have particular ingredients to make it fitting to enter the throne room of God as a sweet-smelling incense. In upcoming posts we will prepare to delve into the ingredients of effective prayer. Begin today by just realizing that your sincere prayers are honored by the Most High God.