When I was 7 years old I prayed that God would help me find money on the street so I could buy baseball cards. When I was 12 years old I prayed that God would give me a friend. When I was 16 years old I prayed that I could get a scholarship to play college soccer in California. And, when I was 19 I asked God to show me whom to marry.

Everyone prays. So, what is prayer? What makes prayer something worth doing? I have spent more hours in my life praying then I have spent playing video games.( I hope to keep that stat going.) It's crazy to think that in all those years of prayer God has been listening. God listens to his children when they talk to him. He didn't always answer them the way I wanted though. I didn't find any money on the street, but my neighbor gave me a whole box of baseball cards. At age 12 I got my best friend, a dog. When I was 16 God said no to my soccer career by putting me through dream crushing knee surgery. And, after a year of prayer at 19 God lead me to marry Kimberly.

To most people prayer is an anomaly, or a dichotomy. How does it work, and what does it actually do? I believe so intensely in prayer, through the example of Christ himself, that I think it is worth studying and learning more about. To get our feet wet I have gathered some fantastic quotes from a few grey-haired scholars. May these challenge and encourage your prayer life this week.

"Prayer leads to action. We cannot expect God to pour out his blessing unless we are willing to become involved in some kind of redemptive service. Yielding our lives to the Spirits control means that we must make ourselves available for God to use in answering our prayers." - Robert Coleman

"The primary reason prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is their insistence on trying to take a wartime walkie-talkie and turn it into a domestic intercom." - John Piper

"Prayer is love at war." - David Bryant

"You can do more then pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed." - Dr. A. J. Gordon

-Josh