Introduction  ‘The LORD made the earth by His power and preserves it by His  wisdom. With His own understanding, He stretched out the heavens.  When He speaks in the thunder, the heavens are filled with water. He  causes the clouds to rise over the earth, sends the lightning with the rain,  and releases the wind from His storehouse’ (Jeremiah 51:15-16).  God is our heavenly Father and Creator. Prayer is  humanity’s way of speaking with God, the Creator of Heaven  and Earth. He is our Father if we have repented of our sins  and been forgiven. His purpose for creating us was to love  and care for a family here on earth. Therefore, it is important  to have a good understanding of prayer as our means of  communicating intimately with Him. Every person needs to  pray and seek help as we live in a fallen world with many  challenges that the best of human knowledge and ingenuity  cannot solve or put right. We face endless battles from the  kingdom of Darkness that opposes God. Jesus said in John  10:10, ‘The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose  is to give them a rich and satisfying life.’  However, many place prayer in an unreachable box and  feel frightened when it is time to pray, forgetting they are  communicating with their Creator, who made them out of  love in His own image and desires to give them abundant life.  This fear comes from the rebellion of Adam and Eve, which is why the Bible says that perfect love casts out fear.  By His great mercy, we were not completely forsaken. He  made a way through Christ for us to be reconciled to Him by  having our sins forgiven. The price was the death of Jesus on  the Cross for the sins of the world. His blood washed away  the stains of sin, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of  God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. Through Him, we  are forgiven and reconciled if we believe. Adam’s rebellion  opened humanity to pain and suffering that God never  intended, as our world became a battleground of evil and  wickedness. Every generation since Adam has faced trials,  temptations, and suffering. The only way to deal with the  troubles we face is by taking them to God in prayer. Such  examples are recorded in the Psalms, showing that God  wants us to honestly express our concerns by pouring out  our hearts to Him, as recorded in Psalm 88.  His will and plan for the world were good, where  everything was provided. We had nothing lacking or any  reason to fear. When building a house, the builder ensures it  has a strong foundation that will keep it standing, whatever  the weather. God gave us Jesus to be the foundation that  keeps us steady, whatever life throws at us. The Bible says  He was sacrificed from the foundation of the world. We are  not left to face life alone. We must trust that He is present  with us and, instead of struggling hopelessly, we must ask for  help. Therefore, prayer helps us speak to our Father who  loves us and wants the best for His children (Jeremiah 29:11 14).  Without God as our Help and Protector (who is always  near when we call) life would be impossible, plagued with  unbearable pain and affliction. But we have a God in whom  all things are possible. Jesus carries our burdens as our  LORD and Saviour. He longs to hear us turn to Him and not  to fear or doubt His love. He is our Brother and Friend who  bore our sins and was stricken for our rebellion. He took the  punishment that should have been ours (Isaiah 53:4-6). The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray after  observing His life whilst with them. He said, ‘Your Father  knows exactly what you need even before you ask Him! Pray like this:  Our Father in heaven’ (Matthew 6:7-13).  The Lord’s Prayer:  ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your  Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have  forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation,  but rescue us from the evil one.’  Whatever trouble you encounter in life, be persistent in  prayer. Never think the door has been shut against you. God  knows the timeline for providing you with the answer.  There’s a blessing in the waiting. It is the time God uses to  teach us patience by His Holy Spirit. It might seem dry and  hopeless, but there’s always a wellspring of water for the  thirsty soul if we just look up. Often, the answer has been  given the moment we began to pray, as was the case with  Daniel in chapter 9:20-23.  There is something symbolic about the cleansing of the  Temple which happened before Jesus went to the Cross.  Because we are the temple of God, His action seemed to  indicate that while He, the Temple, would be destroyed and  rebuilt in three days, our body, the temple, needed to be  cleansed and made ready to receive new life. As temples,  what God wants is for us to be a praying people because God  does not dwell in manmade temples (Acts 7:48).  The Bible says knowledge of God is wisdom. When we  know the God we turn to in prayer, we should be able to  trust and obey Him because we are not praying to one who  has nothing that can meet our needs. Jesus said that we are  to ask God for what we need by asking in His name. That is  because Jesus is the Word of God that became flesh (Genesis  1:1-2, John 1:1-4, 1 John 1:1-4). Moreover, Jesus said in John  6:63 that the words He speaks are Spirit and Life: the same  Word that created everything we see. That is the power of  the One we turn to in prayer. That should boost our  confidence and fill us with expectant hope, a hope that  nothing can destroy.  Paul told his listeners that Jesus was the God who made  the world and everything in it (Acts 17:24-31). And because  God had already prepared everything through Jesus, we are  called into fellowship with Him. For God does not place a  heavy yoke on us, and His burden is light as He requires that  we come as we are in faith (Acts 15:8-11, Matthew 6:31-34,  Matthew 11:28-30).