Prayer is just talking to Jesus
(J.R. Miller, "The Practical Value of a Promise")
"The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him;
He hears their cry and saves them.
The LORD watches over all who love Him." Psalm 145:18-20
The firm believing of this promise will give new meaning and reality to prayer. Many people are perplexed at times, as they think about prayer. Is there really an ear to hear the words we speak when we bow in prayer? How can God hear us so far away? Then suppose ten thousand of God's children, in different parts of the world, are praying at the same moment - how can He hear them all, and disentangle the confusion of the words as they come up to Him, and distinguish the supplications of each?
Who has not at times been puzzled and even perplexed by such questions? But the promise of Christ's abiding presence makes it all plain. He is not way off in any imagined central Heaven, up to which all prayers of earth must fly through the air before they can be heard or answered. He is close beside each one of us!
We remember how it was when Jesus was on the earth in human form.
The people came to Him with their needs and sorrows.
Those who sinned came with their confessions, bathing His feet with their penitential tears.
Those who were in trouble came with their burdens.
That is what prayer is now, only now Christ can be with millions at the same moment of time, as He could not be when in the flesh.
Prayer is just talking to Jesus . . .
weeping at His dear feet, if we have sinned;
leaning upon His bosom, if we are weary or in sorrow;
breathing our heart's longings into His ear;
telling Him our needs, whatever they may be.
Does not the realization of this truth of the Lord's presence with us, take from prayer all its mystery?
"Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age!" Matthew 28:20