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How to Talk with God About Everything 12
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Joyce Meyer 20
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new york    boston   nashville 30 N

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 1
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4 © 2007 by Joyce Meyer
5 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and
6 retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except
7 by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from
8 The Amplified® Bible (amp). Copyright © 1954, 1962, 1965, 1987 by
9 The ­Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

10 Scriptures marked nkjv are taken from the New King James Version.
­Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
11
Scriptures marked kjv are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
12 Hachette Book Group, USA
13 237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10169
14
Visit our web site at www.faithwords.com
15 The FaithWords name and logo are registered trademarks of the
16 Hachette Book Group, USA.

17 Printed in the United States of America

First Warner Books printing: April 2007
18
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
20 Meyer, Joyce, 1943–
21 The power of simple prayer: how to talk with God about everything/
Joyce Meyer. — 1st ed.
22 p. cm.
23 ISBN-13: 978-0-446-53196-2 (regular edition)
ISBN-10: 0-446-53196-0 (regular edition)
24 ISBN-13: 978-0-446-57878-3 (large print ed.)
25 ISBN-10:0-446-57878-9 (large print ed.)
1. Prayer—Christianity. I. Title.
26 BV210.3.M495 2007
248.3'2—dc22 2006027201
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 0 Contents

Introduction vii
1 Lord, Teach Me 1
2 The Simple Privilege 23
3 Just Like Breathing 44
4 The Power of Prayer 64
5 Praise, Worship, and Thanksgiving 82
6 Consecration and Commitment 105
7 Petition and Perseverance 125
8 Intercession and Agreement 146
9 The Word and the Spirit 166
10 Keys to Powerful Prayer 188
11 Above All 214
12 Fourteen Hindrances to Answered Prayer 235
13 Sure Victory in Prayer 258
14 Staying Strong through Prayer 277
In Closing . . . 297
Notes 298

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 1
2
3
Introduction 4
5
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7

0
8
If someone asked me, “Joyce, if you could make only 9
one comment about prayer, what would it be?” I would have to 10
respond by talking about its simplicity. I have been praying for 11
many, many years and I can say a great deal about prayer, but if 12
I could only emphasize one thing, I would tell people that it is so 13
much easier than we think. 14
As God began to teach me to pray, I was surprised to learn that 15
He has not made prayer complicated, but that it really is simple. 16
Sometimes people make prayer dry and difficult; sometimes our 17
religious mind-sets and “systems” present prayer in such a way 18
that it seems out of reach for many of us. I tell you the truth when 19
I say that God desires our prayer lives to be natural and enjoyable. 20
He wants our prayers to be honest and heartfelt, and He wants our 21
communication with Him unencumbered by rules, regulations, 22
legalism, and obligation. He intends for prayer to be an integral 23
part of our everyday lives—the easiest thing we do each day. 24
I suspect many people pray much more than they know and that 25
they have more effective and successful prayer lives than they real- 26
ize. They do not always recognize when they are praying because 27
they have been taught that prayer requires a certain environment, a 28
certain posture, a certain form, or that it must strictly adhere to cer- 29
tain principles. Prayer is simply talking to God. The truth is that we 30

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 viii the power of simple prayer

1 can pray anytime, anywhere—even just directing a thought toward

2 God qualifies as silent prayer.
3 Whether you have been praying for years, are just learning to
4 pray, have hit a “slump” in your spiritual life, or simply want your
5 prayer life to improve, know this: God wants you to learn to pray
6 more effectively and He wants your prayer life to be more fulfill-
7 ing. Because you have opened this book, I am sure that something
8 inside you wants to increase your intimacy with God through
9 prayer. I believe you know that prayer is powerful, and that you
10 long to see its tremendous power released in your life, the lives of
11 those you love, and the situations that concern you.
12 Short, simple prayers can be mighty beyond description, but that
13 does not take away from the fact that prayer is also a grand mystery.
14 Watchman Nee, a Chinese Christian who wrote many profound
15 books while imprisoned for his faith, writes, “Prayer is the most
16 wonderful act in the spiritual realm, as well as a most mysterious
17 affair.”1 I believe the greatest mystery of prayer is that it joins the
18 hearts of people on earth with the heart of God in heaven. Prayer
19 is spiritual and it goes into the unseen realm; it brings things out
20 of that unseen realm into the realm we can see and into the world
21 around us, right where we live. It ushers spiritual blessings into our
22 natural, everyday lives and brings spiritual power to bear on our
23 earthly circumstances. We human beings are the only creatures in
24 our known universe who can stand in the natural realm and touch
25 the spiritual realm. When we pray, we connect with that spiritual
26 realm, which is where God is, and which affects our daily lives
27 more than we often realize.
28 The fact that we want to pray—and that we believe that our
S29 prayer lives can be better—is evidence that we know the spiritual
N30 realm exists and that we believe what happens there affects what

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 introduction ix

happens on earth. It proves that we know deep in our hearts that 1

there is more to life than meets the eye and we value the things that 2
are invisible more than the things we can see, just as Paul writes 3
in 2 Corinthians 4:18: “We consider and look not to the things 4
that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that 5
are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that 6
are invisible are deathless and everlasting.” When we understand 7
that there are invisible, everlasting spiritual realities that affect our 8
earthly lives, we long to comprehend those things. We begin to 9
perceive that God is inviting us to interact with Him, to perceive 10
things spiritually and to partner with Him to accomplish them on 11
earth—and that only happens through prayer. 12
I like to say that prayer opens the door for God to work. As we 13
partner with God in the spiritual realm through prayer, we bring 14
things out of that realm into our lives, into our world, into our 15
society, and into the lives of other people. These things that come 16
from heaven, these gifts of God, are already stored up for us, but 17
we will never have them unless we pray and ask God for them. He 18
has put together so much for us in the unseen realm; He is doing 19
such wonderful things for us, things we cannot see with our natu- 20
ral eyes or perceive with our natural minds—and we receive and 21
enjoy those things through the power and the privilege of prayer. 22
The Bible says that “eye has not seen and ear has not heard and 23
has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared 24
(made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him 25
in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully 26
recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]” (1 Corinthians 2:9). 27
Prayer is part of an obedient lifestyle. The Bible says that 28
we do not have certain things because we do not ask God for 29S
29
them (see James 4:2), and part of the great mystery of prayer is that 30 N

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  the power of simple prayer

1 He ­requires us to ask for what He already has in store for us. God—
2 who is sovereign and can do anything He wants to do, anywhere,
3 anytime, any way He wants to do it, and does not need anyone’s
4 permission—wants us to ask Him. He has set in motion a spiritual
5 law, which He Himself abides by, that says He will not do anything
6 on earth unless someone prays and asks.
7 God has always said to His people and is still saying to us: “You
8 and I are partners. You are My body in the earth today.” What
9 does that mean? We are His body; we call ourselves “the body of
10 Christ.” Jesus Christ does not have an earthly body anymore. We
11 are the representation of Who He is and what He does on earth.
12 We are His mouth, His hands, His feet, His face. We are the ones
13 who express His heart, demonstrate His love, and reveal His power
14 to those around us. And so, we need to pray. We need to access the
15 wisdom and the resources of heaven for ourselves and for others.
16 We need to partner with God so that His purposes will come to
17 pass in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
18 I believe you will find within these pages some extremely help-
19 ful encouragement for your prayer life. Everything in this book is
20 related to prayer; not everything is necessarily specifically about
21 prayer, but it pertains to developing and maintaining an easy, ful-
22 filling, effective, never-ceasing lifestyle of communion with God.
23 I encourage you to begin this book by asking God to teach you
24 to pray more effectively, and I pray that He will use these pages to
25 help answer that request. As you go along, you will find out how to
26 pray as an individual before God, free to express yourself to Him in
27 ways that are natural and that suit the unique person He has called
28 and created you to be. You will realize that prayer is not only an
S29 enormous privilege, but that it is indeed much simpler than many
N30 people think. You will discover how to uncomplicate your prayer

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 introduction xi

life and understand how to be set free from any ­ preconceived 1

notions that prayer has to subscribe to any “rules” or that it must 2
sound a certain way. In addition, I hope simple prayer will become 3
so much a part of your daily life that you will be liberated from ever 4
again feeling that praying is something you have to do, but some- 5
thing you can look forward to and enjoy. 6
I will also share with you that prayer is as easy as breathing and 7
help you learn how to develop a lifestyle of prayer—praying all 8
the time, everywhere you go, in the midst of your daily routine. As 9
you read this book, you will be reminded of the awesome power 10
of prayer, which is unlike anything else known to man, and you 11
will be encouraged to experience its power in your everyday life, in 12
your ordinary circumstances. As you read about the many aspects 13
of prayer, you will learn that different seasons and situations of life 14
call for different kinds of prayer—and you will learn about those 15
various types of prayer so that your effectiveness in prayer will 16
increase. 17
As a quick preview, here’s an example: you will discover that sim- 18
ply saying “Thank You, God” is a type of prayer when you realize you 19
could have been in a car accident, had you reached an intersection 20
one minute sooner. Other types of prayer about which I will share 21
include: consecrating your life to God, committing your problems 22
to His care, asking God for what you need and want, persisting in 23
prayer until an answer comes, interceding for others, agreeing with 24
others in prayer, praying the Word of God and praying in the Holy 25
Spirit. In addition, you will discover and begin to understand the 26
keys to effective prayer—some of the heart attitudes that pave the 27
way for your prayers to be answered. Finally, I will address four- 28
teen hindrances to answered prayer so that you will know what to 29S
avoid if you want your prayers to be ­ successful. All in all, I have 30 N

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 xii the power of simple prayer

1 e­ ndeavored to present you with not only a ­thorough look at prayer,

2 but also with teaching that will really help you as you pray.
3 I believe you are reading this book because you really want to
4 know your prayers make a difference, you want to see God’s power
5 at work in your life and the lives of those around you, you want to
6 enjoy your communication with God and grow in your relation-
7 ship with Him. I assure you, that’s exactly what He wants too and
8 He is eager to help you. Be blessed as you embark on this journey
9 toward more intimate, more exciting, more effective prayer!
10
11 —Joyce Meyer
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 1
Lord, Teach Me

0 I want to ask you a question: do you believe your

prayers are really making a difference? Think about it: deep in your
heart, do you ever wonder if God is hearing you when you pray?
When you finish praying, are you convinced that your prayers have
accomplished something? Are you satisfied with your prayer life?
Do you really know how to pray? Are you longing for a deeper,
richer, more dynamic relationship with God through prayer?
If you are like thousands of others I have encountered in more
than thirty years of ministry, you are saying, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” As I
have traveled and interacted with people, I have discovered that
people really want to pray; they want to know that God hears their
prayers and that their prayers are being effective. People want to
grow in their prayer lives and to see their prayers become more
powerful as they pray for others and for themselves. In fact, a 2005
survey of more than eight hundred pastors in the United States
revealed that only 16 percent say they are “very satisfied” with their
prayer lives. That leaves an overwhelming 84 percent who feel
their prayer lives could definitely be better. Like the pastors in the
survey, there are countless others who are not satisfied with their

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  the power of simple prayer

1 prayer lives.1 They are not sure God is really listening when they
2 talk to Him; they do not understand why some prayers seem to
3 go unanswered; they wonder if they are praying “right” or praying
4 enough. They are generally frustrated in their prayer lives, eager
5 to know what to do to feel more connected with God and to gain
6 confidence that their prayers really do make a difference. If minis-
7 ters feel this way, what must their congregations say?
8 One of the most important, most life-changing prayers a person
9 can ever utter is: “Lord, teach me to pray.” It is not just, “Lord, teach
10 me to pray,” but, “Lord, teach me to pray.” You see, knowing about
11 prayer is really not enough; we have to know how to pray as indi-
12 viduals who are in an intimate, dynamic personal relationship with
13 the God to whom we pray. Although there are principles of prayer
14 that apply to everyone, we are individuals and God will lead each
15 of us individually. I attended many “prayer seminars,” and then
16 attempted to duplicate in my prayer experience what I heard others
17 say about their own prayers. Eventually, though, I realized God had
18 a personalized plan for me—a way for me to communicate most
19 effectively with Him—and I needed to say, “Lord teach me to pray.”
20 I believe many people today are asking the same questions Jesus’
21 disciples asked almost 2000 years ago: “Lord, teach us to pray”
22 (Luke 11:1). Even though they spent a great deal of up-close and
23 personal time with Him, listening to Him, learning from Him,
24 and watching Him work miracles, they still felt the need for His
25 instruction on prayer. The disciples went to Jesus as a group ask-
26 ing Him to teach them to pray, but as I made that same request as
27 an individual, God answered me in a powerful way and brought
28 ­wonderful improvements to my prayer life.
S29 For example:
N30

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 lord, teach me 

• I have moved from praying panic-based, carnal, soulish prayers 1

(prayers that come from a person’s mind, will, or emotions) 2
to praying Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, faith-based prayers. 3
• I no longer focus primarily on prayers for my “outer life” (my 4
circumstances, the activities I am involved in, the things that 5
happen around me). I now pray for my inner life (the condi- 6
tion of my heart, my spiritual growth, my attitudes, and my 7
motives). As God has taught me to pray, I have learned that 8
my job is to pray to be strengthened internally and to ask Him 9
to help me live out of a pure heart from the right motives; and 10
His job is to take care of the externals. 11
• I have gone from laboring and striving to pray for five minutes 12
every few days to enjoying—and actually personally needing 13
and wanting—beginning my day with prayer, then to praying 14
throughout the day as things come to my heart, and finally 15
ending my day communicating with the Lord as I fall asleep. 16
• I have moved from a sporadic, irregular prayer life to regular 17
times of prayer that are disciplined without being legalistic. 18
• Where I once thought I was fulfilling an obligation to God 19
by praying, I now realize that I absolutely cannot survive a 20
day and be satisfied and content if I do not pray. I realize that 21
prayer is a great privilege, not a duty. 22
• I no longer approach God in fear, wondering if He will really 23
hear me and send an answer to my prayers. I now approach 24
Him boldly, as His Word teaches me to do, and with great 25
expectation. 26
27
I believe if you will ask God to teach you to pray too, that you 28
will also experience great changes in the way you pray, increased 29S
30 N

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  the power of simple prayer

1 effectiveness in your prayers, tremendous satisfaction in your rela-

2 tionship with God, and a refreshing freedom and enjoyment in
3 prayer.
4 In this book, I will pro-
5 vide you with a substan- God is the only one who can
6 tial amount of teaching on take this information and cause
7 prayer. I hope you will learn it to spring to life so that prayer
8 from these insights, but I becomes exhilarating, exciting,
9 know that God is the only and effective for you.
10 one who can take this infor- 0 - <
11 mation and cause it to spring
12 to life so that prayer becomes
13 exhilarating, exciting, and effective for you. I am praying and believ-
14 ing that He will do that for you in an incredible, life-changing way.
15 God will take the biblical information I will be sharing and help
16 you apply it in ways that will be just right for you, your personal-
17 ity, and the particular season you are in at this time in your life.
18 For example, a mother with four very young children may not be
19 able to spend the first hour of each day praying. She has many
20 duties to attend to and some of them won’t wait. She is in a sea-
21 son of her life that won’t last forever and God will lead her to pray
22 in ways that work for her during that time. She can begin her day
23 with prayer and pray throughout the day, but not necessarily in the
24 same manner as a woman who no longer has children at home
25 and can make her own time schedule.
26 I remember attending a prayer seminar and listening to an
27 elderly woman speak about how she prayed every morning from
28 five to nine. She had been doing that for many years and had
S29 the grace from God to do so. I did not yet understand the special
N30

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 lord, teach me 

abilities that God gives each of us, so I went home determined to 1

do the same thing she did. All I did was get bored and sleepy after 2
about the first fifteen minutes! Through that experience and others 3
like it, I learned that we cannot compare our prayer lives with 4
those of other people. We are all unique and God has a unique 5
plan for each of us. The Bible teaches us that He gives each of us 6
grace to do something and we should do whatever that is with our 7
whole heart. The woman at the prayer conference had the grace 8
from God to pray for hours each day. Similarly, I have grace to 9
study for a very long time because I am called as a teacher in God’s 10
kingdom. I encourage you to be all you can be, but don’t try to 11
be what only someone else can be. God will never help you be 12
anyone but you! 13
14
15
It’s Personal 16
17
Everything about our spiritual lives depends on our personal faith 18
in God and our personal relationship with Him. We can enjoy that 19
relationship because Jesus’ death on the cross gives us free, unhin- 20
dered access to our heavenly Father and our faith makes it possible 21
for us to have an intimate, dynamic relationship with Him. 22
I recently read Ephesians 3:12, which says: “In Whom, because 23
of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and 24
confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with 25
freedom and without fear).” As I meditated upon this Scripture, 26
I became quite excited to realize that as ordinary human beings we 27
have free access to God at any time through prayer. We can approach 28
Him boldly without reserve, without fear, and with complete 29S
30 N

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  the power of simple prayer

1 f­ reedom. How awesome is that! Personal faith in God opens the

2 door to unlimited help from Him.
3 Early in my prayer journey, I came across a wonderful little book
4 that has helped millions of believers over the years learn how to
5 pray. In this classic volume, titled With Christ in the School of Prayer,
6 Andrew Murray addresses this matter of asking God to teach us
7 to pray, and writes: “None can teach like Jesus, none but Jesus;
8 therefore we call on Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ A pupil needs
9 a teacher, who knows his work, who has the gift of teaching, who
10 in patience and love will descend to the pupil’s needs. Blessed be
11 God! Jesus is all this and much more. . . . Jesus loves to teach us
12 how to pray.”2 Don’t just try to pray, ask Jesus to teach you!
13 Jesus not only loves to teach us—corporately—how to pray, He
14 also loves to work with us as individuals. He wants to take us just
15 the way we are and help each of us discover our own rhythm of
16 prayer and develop a style of prayer that maximizes our personal
17 relationship with Him. He wants prayer to be an easy, natural, life-
18 giving way of communicating with Him as we share our hearts
19 with Him and allow Him to share His heart with us. Prayer is so
20 simple; it is nothing more than talking to God. It also includes
21 listening to what He has to say. God speaks to us in many ways. If
22 you desire to learn more about how He speaks, I encourage you to
23 read my book entitled How to Hear from God.
24 God is far too creative to teach every person on earth to interact
25 with Him through prayer in exactly the same way. He is the one
26 who designed us all differently and delights in our distinctiveness.
27 As I stated previously, there are “prayer principles” that apply to all
28 believers, but God leads each of us as individuals. We are all in dif-
S29 ferent places in our walk with Him, we are all at different levels of
N30 spiritual maturity, and we all have had different types of experiences

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 lord, teach me 

in prayer. When we learn principles of prayer, we need to move 1

beyond intellectual knowledge about how to pray and take those 2
principles to the Lord and say, “Teach me to apply this in my life, 3
in my situation, to my heart. Show me how this idea is supposed to 4
work for me. God, I’m depending on You to teach me how to pray, 5
to make me effective in prayer, to make my relationship with You 6
through prayer the richest, most rewarding aspect of my life.” 7
8
9
Embrace Your Uniqueness 10
11
Because we relate to God as individuals—and that’s the way He 12
wants it—we pray as individuals. Even when we pray corporately 13
with others, we are all still individuals; we simply join our hearts 14
with others as one voice. During these corporate prayer times, 15
I ­believe that God wants our hearts to be in unity much more than 16
He wants our methods to be the same. When we say, “Lord, teach 17
me to pray,” we are asking Him to teach us to pray in a distinctly per- 18
sonal way and to enable our prayers to be easy, natural expressions 19
of who we are. We are not supposed to check our individuality at 20
the door of the prayer closet. 21
We need to go before God 22
just the way we are and give Because God has fashioned 23
Him the pleasure of enjoy- our hearts individually, our 24
ing the company of the prayers need to flow 25
“original” He has made each naturally out of our hearts 26
one of us to be. We need and be consistent with the way 27
to approach God with our He has designed us. 28
own strengths, weaknesses, 0<- 29S
uniqueness, and everything 30 N

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  the power of simple prayer

1 else that so wonderfully distinguishes us from everyone else in the

2 world. God enjoys meeting us where we are, developing a personal
3 relationship with us and helping us grow to become everything He
4 wants us to be.
5 Psalm 33:15 says, “He fashions their hearts individually; He
6 considers all their works”(nkjv). Because God has fashioned our
7 hearts individually, our prayers need to flow naturally out of our
8 hearts and be consistent with the way He has designed us. As we
9 develop our individual styles of communication with God, we can
10 learn from people who may be more experienced than we are, but
11 we need to be careful not to make them our standard. I hope to be
12 an example to many, but I want Jesus to be their standard. There is
13 nothing at all wrong with incorporating something someone else
14 is doing into your own prayer life if you truly feel led by God’s
15 Spirit to do so. But, it is wrong to force yourself to do what others
16 do if you are not comfortable with that in your spirit. Do not try
17 to keep up with others or copy their prayer styles—and do not feel
18 compelled to work every prayer principle you have ever learned
19 every time you pray.
20 Most people are afraid not to be like everyone else. Many people
21 are more comfortable following specified rules than daring to fol-
22 low the leading of God’s Spirit. When we follow man-made rules,
23 we please people, but when we step out in faith and follow God’s
24 Spirit, we please Him. We do not need to feel pressured to pray a
25 certain way or for a certain length of time or to focus on specific
26 things because other people are doing so. Instead, we need to be
27 free to express our uniqueness as we pray the way God is teaching
28 us as individuals.
S29 Somehow we feel safe when we are doing what everyone else
N30 is doing, but the sad thing is that we will feel unfulfilled until we

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 lord, teach me 

learn to “untie the boat from the dock,” so to speak, and let the 1
ocean of God’s Spirit take us wherever He wills. When we are in 2
control, we know what will happen next, but when we let God’s 3
Spirit take the lead, we are in for a lot of surprises in life. We need 4
to be determined to be ourselves and refuse to spend our lives feel- 5
ing guilty because we are not like someone else. 6
My husband, Dave, has a passion to pray for the United States 7
of America and he does so on a regular basis. I have a passion to 8
see God’s children mature. I also have a great passion for the poor 9
and oppressed, so I spend much of my prayer time praying about 10
these situations. I know some people who focus intensely on the 11
abortion issue when they pray and others who focus on missions 12
with the same type of fervor. My point is that God places different 13
things on each of our hearts and, in that way, everything is covered. 14
No one can pray about everything that needs to be prayed about 15
every day, but God’s Spirit leads each of us if we allow Him. 16
I suffered for a long time before I learned what I am sharing with 17
you and I don’t want you to suffer as I did. Let my pain be your 18
gain! Start right now asking Jesus to teach you as an individual 19
how to apply to your life all of the principles of prayer you have 20
ever been taught in His own unique way for you. I believe variety is 21
the key to enjoying everything, including prayer, so let God’s Spirit 22
lead you to use various principles as they are needed in your per- 23
sonal situations. 24
25
26
The Key to Prayer 27
28
If I had to identify the most important key to effective prayer, 29S
I would say that it is approaching God as His friend. When we go 30 N

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 10 the power of si mple prayer

1 to God believing that He sees us as His friends, new wonders are

2 opened to us. We experience freedom and boldness, which are
3 both necessary to effective prayer.
4 If we do not know God as a friend, and if we are not confident
5 that He thinks of us as His friends, we will be reluctant to tell Him
6 what we need or to ask Him for anything. If we have stiff, distant
7 relationships with God, our prayers can be legalistic. But if we go
8 to Him as our friend, without losing our awe of Him, our prayers
9 will stay fresh, exciting, and intimate.
10 A natural friendship involves loving and being loved. It means
11 knowing that someone is on your side, wanting to help you, cheer-
12 ing you on, and always keeping your best interest in mind. A friend
13 is someone you value, a comrade, a partner, someone who is dear
14 to you, someone you want to spend time with, and someone you
15 enjoy. You become someone’s friend by investing time in them
16 and with them, and by sharing your life with that person.
17 Developing your friendship with God is similar to developing a
18 friendship with someone on earth. It takes time. The truth is that
19 you can be as close to God as you want to be; it all depends on the
20 time you are willing to invest in the relationship. I encourage you
21 to get to know Him by spending time in prayer and in the Word.
22 Your friendship with God will also deepen and grow as you walk
23 with Him over time on a reg-
24 ular basis and as you experi-
25 ence His faithfulness. The You can be as close to God as
26 difference between develop- you want to be; it all depends
27 ing a relationship with God on the time you are willing to
28 as a friend and building rela- invest in the relationship.
S29 tionships with people is that 0<-
N30 with God, you end up with

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 lord, teach me 11

a friend who is perfect! One who will never leave you nor forsake 1
you. One who is faithful, dependable, loving, and forgiving. 2
Make a priority of developing a great friendship with God and 3
inviting Him to be a vital part of everything you do, every day. That 4
starts with simple prayer—just talking to Him and sharing your 5
life with Him as you go about the things you have to do. Include 6
Him in your thoughts, in your conversation, and in all your every- 7
day activities. Don’t just run to Him when you are desperate; talk 8
to Him in the grocery store, while you are driving your car, comb- 9
ing your hair, walking the dog, or cooking dinner. Approach Him 10
as your partner and your friend and simply refuse to do anything 11
without Him. He really wants to be involved in your life! Let God 12
out of the Sunday-morning box that many people keep Him in 13
and let Him invade your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 14
Friday, Saturday, and all day Sunday as well. Don’t try to keep Him 15
in a religious compartment, because He wants to have free access 16
to every area of your life. He wants to be your friend. 17
18
19
Abraham
20
Perhaps no one mentioned in the Bible is more often referred to as 21
“God’s friend” than Abraham. In Isaiah 41:8, God calls Abraham 22
“My friend,” and James 2:23 says, “. . . he was called God’s friend.” In 23
the Old Testament, King Jehoshaphat, while he was talking to God 24
one day, said that Abraham is “Your friend” (2 Chronicles 20:7). 25
While the Bible refers to David as “a man after God’s own heart” and 26
to John as “the disciple Jesus loved,” Abraham has the distinct honor 27
of being called the friend of God in more than one place in Scripture. 28
When God decided to execute judgment on the wickedness 29S
of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, He told Abraham what 30 N

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 12 the power of simple prayer

1 He planned to do. We read about this in Genesis 18:17, which

2 says: “Shall I hide from Abraham [My friend and servant] what
3 I am going to do?” Why? Because they were friends.
4 In a friendship, people talk to each other about what they are
5 going to do. How many times has a friend said to you, “What are
6 you doing today?” and you reply with something like, “I’m going
7 to the grocery store this morning and to a ball game tonight.” Or
8 how often have you asked someone, “What’s your schedule next
9 week?” and he or she responds, “I have a doctor’s appointment on
10 Tuesday and a meeting on Thursday. But would you like to have
11 lunch on Wednesday?”
12 Because God considered Abraham His friend, He told him what
13 He was going to do—just like you would tell your friend. The Bible
14 tells us in Proverbs 3:6 to acknowledge God in all of our ways and
15 that He will direct our steps. To acknowledge means to care about
16 what someone thinks. We should care about what God thinks of
17 our plans, just as we would care about what a close friend thinks.
18 We should discuss everything with Him in a conversational man-
19 ner, just as we would with a spouse or close friend.
20 When Abraham heard about the devastation God planned to release
21 against Sodom and Gomorrah, he “came near and said, ‘Would You
22 also destroy the righteous with the wicked?’” (Genesis 18:23, nkjv).
23 Just as God had shared His intentions with Abraham because they
24 were friends, Abraham “came near” to God and questioned His
25 ­intentions—because they were friends. They had a relationship in
26 which they could communicate freely; they could talk openly. Abra-
27 ham was so confident in God’s friendship with him that he questioned
28 God Almighty! That’s intimacy; that’s security in a relationship.
S29 The story is recorded in Genesis 18:17–33, but you may already
N30 know how it ends: Abraham and God continued their dialog.

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 lord, teach me 13

Abraham prayed and interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah, asking 1

God to withhold judgment against the sinful cities so the righteous 2
people who lived there would not suffer the punishment due the 3
wicked. He started by asking God not to destroy the cities if He 4
could find fifty righteous people in them, but then Abraham real- 5
ized that might not be possible. After quite a bit of going back and 6
forth, Abraham finally asked God to spare them for the sake of only 7
ten righteous people—and God agreed. Why was Abraham able to 8
intercede with such boldness? Because he knew God was his friend 9
and he appealed to Him on the basis of that relationship. 10
11
12
You
13
Just as God shared His plans with Abraham, He will share things 14
with you—His heart, His desires, His purposes and intentions— 15
when you are His friend. He will give you understanding and 16
insight into what is happening in your life and tell you what to 17
do about it. He will lead you and help you be prepared for the 18
future. If you are God’s friend, you do not have to be caught off 19
guard or ambushed by your circumstances. You can be informed 20
and ready—because you are a friend of God. He may not reveal 21
everything you would like to know exactly when you would like to 22
know it, but He will give you understanding as you patiently trust 23
Him. 24
You may be asking, “How One of the best ways to ensure 25
do I get to be God’s friend?” a deepening friendship with 26
According to John 15:15, you God is to have a heart that 27
already are. In this verse, Jesus wants to obey Him. 28
said to His disciples, “I have 0<- 29S
called you My friends. . . .” 30 N

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 14 the power of simple prayer

1 If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a modern-day disciple and

2 you are His friend. As is the case with any friendship, you can be a
3 casual friend or you can be a close, intimate personal friend. Your
4 friendship with God grows and develops just as your friendships
5 with other people grow and develop. Just as a natural friendship
6 requires time and energy to develop, so does your relationship
7 with God.
8 One of the best ways to ensure a deepening friendship with God
9 is to have a heart that wants to obey Him. When our hearts are
10 pure, tender toward His leading and eager to respond obediently,
11 we are in a terrific position to experience God’s friendship. I do
12 not mean that we must be doing everything right or that we try to
13 be perfect all the time; I simply mean that we are not purposefully
14 disobedient, rebellious, hard-hearted, or always trying to see what
15 God will let us get away with. I mean that we willingly put His
16 desires before our own desires because we love Him and we trust
17 Him as our friend—and we know that what He wants is always
18 best for us anyway.
19 As you grow in your friendship with God, never forget that your
20 relationship is based on who He is and not on what He can do for
21 you. Keep seeking His presence, not His presents; keep seeking His
22 face, and not His hand. You must know that one of the hindrances
23 to a vibrant, maturing friendship with God is allowing ourselves
24 to focus on the benefits of friendship with God instead of focus-
25 ing on Him as our friend. As human beings, we do not appreciate
26 ­finding out that certain people want to be our friends because we
27 have an ability to get them something they want; we feel valued
28 when we know people want to be friends with us simply because
S29 of who we are and just because they actually like us—the same
N30 principle applies with God.

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 lord, teach me 15

Friendship Breeds Boldness 1

2
When we begin to understand our friendship with God and see
3
ourselves as His friends, our prayers become more Spirit-led, more
4
faith-filled, and much bolder. Jesus told a story in Luke 11, imme-
5
diately after He taught His disciples to pray using what we call the
6
Lord’s Prayer. We can surmise that He was using the story to illus-
7
trate His lesson on prayer. He said: “Which of you who has a friend
8
will go to him at midnight and will say to him, Friend, lend me
9
three loaves [of bread], for a friend of mine who is on a journey
10
has just come, and I have nothing to put before him; and he from
11
within will answer, Do not disturb me; the door is now closed, and
12
my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and supply you
13
[with anything]? I tell you, although he will not get up and supply
14
him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless
15
persistence and insistence he will get up and give him as much as
16
he needs” (Luke 11:5–8).
17
Notice that the man who needs bread only gets it “because of
18
his shameless persistence and insistence.” We will only “shame-
19
lessly persist” with our friends—because friendship makes us bold,
20
and the more we grow and progress in our friendships, the bolder
21
we can be. Through the writer to the Hebrews, God invites us to
22
“come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
23
find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, nkjv).
24
We are not bold with people we barely know. For example, let’s
25
say that Dave and I go to a restaurant for dinner and have a server
26
named John. When John approaches our table for the first time,
27
he introduces himself to us. Dave does not say, “Nice to meet you,
28
John. This is my wife, Joyce, and she needs a ride to work next
29S
Thursday morning. Would you mind taking her?” We are friendly
30 N

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 16 the power of simple prayer

1 to our server, but we are not in the kind of friendship with him that
2 would give us the boldness to ask him for a favor of that nature.
3 Because John’s job is to wait on us, I would not hesitate to ask
4 him for extra lemon or salad dressing on the side. But because
5 we are not friends, I would never dream of asking him to give me
6 a ride to work next Thursday while my car is being serviced. On
7 the other hand, I would ask a true friend to take me to work. Even
8 if I had to be there at five o’clock in the morning, I know I have
9 certain friends who would be glad to take me simply because they
10 are my friends—and I would be bold enough to ask them because
11 of our relationship.
12 Similarly, friendship with God brings boldness in prayer. Writ-
13 ing about this matter, Charles Spurgeon notes that “love knocks at
14 [God’s] door until He opens.”3 We will press on and be persistent
15 when we know that God has what we need and wants to share
16 with us because we are His friends. On the other hand, if we are
17 not secure in our relationship with Him, we may be hesitant or
18 tentative when we approach Him.
19 I believe God is looking for men and women who will pray
20 bold prayers. One of the prayers I hear people pray often, and have
21 prayed many times myself, is what I call a “just” prayer. We do it so
22 many times and are usually unaware of it. A “just” prayer sounds
23 something like this: “Now, Lord, we just thank You for this food”;
24 “God, we just ask You to protect us”; “Father, we just come to You
25 tonight . . .”; “Oh, God, if You would just help us in this situation,
26 we would be so thankful. . . .” Do you see what I mean? We sound
27 as if we are afraid to ask God for very much. That’s not the way we
28 talk to good friends!
S29 The word “just” can mean righteous or fair, but it can also mean
N30 barely enough to get by or by a narrow margin. God wants to give us

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 lord, teach me 17

exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all that we can dare to 1

hope, ask, or think (see Ephesians 3:20). Why should we approach 2
Him asking for barely enough to get by on? Why should we approach 3
God, our friend, as if we are afraid to ask for too much? When 4
we approach Him that way, it seems as if we do not believe He is 5
­generous and good. We must 6
­realize that He is not a God 7
who gives “just” enough to He wants to hear bold, 8
barely get by, but He desires ­confident, faith-filled prayers 9
to bless us abundantly, to prayed by truly just and 10
open the windows of heaven ­righteous people who are 11
and pour out blessings so secure in their friendship 12
great that we cannot contain with Him. 13
them (see Malachi 3:10). 0 - < 14
Sometimes punctuating 15
our prayers with “justs” is 16
simply a habit, and if so, we need to break it. God does not want to 17
hear sheepish, insecure “just” prayers. He wants to hear bold, con- 18
fident, faith-filled prayers prayed by truly just and righteous people 19
who are secure in their friendship with Him. Always be respectful 20
toward God as you approach Him, but do not be afraid! The Bible 21
instructs us to have reverential fear and awe, but it never tells us to 22
draw back in fear. As a matter of fact, Hebrews 10:38 tells us that if 23
we draw back in fear, God’s soul has no delight or pleasure in us. 24
25
26
Friendship Benefits Others
27
When we are friends with God, that friendship not only benefits 28
us, it also benefits those around us. When people come to us with 29S
needs or concerns, we may be able to offer some help, but we may 30 N

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 18 the power of simple prayer

1 not be able to meet their needs at all. Even if we do not have what
2 people really need, God does. When we are friends with God, we
3 can say to people, “I don’t have what you need, but I know Some-
4 one who does. I’ll ask my friend! I will intercede before God for
5 you.” When we are friends of God, we know that He has the power
6 to intervene in people’s circumstances, to help their children stop
7 using drugs, to bring financial breakthroughs, to work medical
8 miracles, or to reconcile marriages. The more intimately we know
9 God, the more confident we are in His willingness and ability to
10 help people. When they come to us, we can go to Him and know
11 He will come through for them. We can actually ask God to do us
12 a favor and help someone we love even when we know that they
13 don’t deserve it. We can pray with compassion out of a heart of
14 love—and God hears and answers.
15 I can remember being very sad about my father’s spiritual condi-
16 tion. He abused me when I was a child and for many years I truly
17 hated and resented him for it. Praying for him was the last thing
18 I would have done or wanted to do. However, as I grew closer to
19 God and learned His ways, I realized I not only needed to com-
20 pletely forgive my father, but that I also needed to pray for his sal-
21 vation. God gave me the grace to forgive my dad and a heart of
22 compassion toward him.
23 For many years, I prayed at various times for my father to come
24 to know Jesus, but I never saw even the slightest change in him. He
25 had always been a very hard-hearted man and I saw no signs that
26 his heart was softening at all. I was discouraged and thought it was
27 useless to keep praying.
28 Then God asked me to do one of the most difficult things He
S29 has ever asked of me. He asked me to move my parents close to
N30 where we lived, buy them a house, and take care of them until

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 lord, teach me 19

they died. At the time, they were in their early seventies. Since we 1
have longevity in our family bloodline, I knew that moving them 2
nearby might well mean years and years of taking care of someone 3
who had never done anything but hurt me. I was less than enthu- 4
siastic about the situation and God dealt with me for quite a while 5
until I finally knew I had to obey. 6
Three more years went by and I still did not see much change in 7
my dad. Sometimes I did not pray for him for several months, and 8
then God would put him on my heart again. I distinctly remember 9
driving to work one morning and saying something like this to 10
God, “Father, I think it would be a shame if You used me to lead 11
people all over the world into a personal relationship with You 12
through faith in Jesus and for my own father to die and go to hell. 13
I have done what you have asked me to do and now I am asking 14
You as a personal favor to me: save my father. Forgive his sins and 15
draw him into a relationship with You.” I prayed similar prayers in 16
the past, but not with the intensity I felt that day. 17
A few weeks later, my mother called and said that my dad had 18
been crying for three days and wanted to see me. Dave and I went 19
to their house, and my dad apologized for abusing me when I was 20
a child. He kept crying and saying how sorry he was. I asked him if 21
he was ready to make Jesus the Lord of his life and he said yes. We 22
led him in prayer that day and baptized him two weeks later. My 23
dad recently passed away, and we rejoice in knowing that he will 24
live for eternity with Jesus. Don’t ever doubt that prayer is power- 25
ful. Your friendship with God can make an eternal difference in 26
the life of someone you love. 27
We cannot control other people with our prayers, but I do 28
believe that approaching God boldly on behalf of others opens the 29S
door for God to work in their lives in strong and powerful ways. 30 N

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 20 the power of simple prayer

1 My father still had to make a

2 choice, but I know that God Through Jesus Christ, we have
3 dealt with him aggressively a right to be comfortable with
4 because I prayed boldly and God and to go boldly to the
5 persevered in prayer. throne of grace.
6 Truly, our friendships with 0 - <
7 God benefit other people.
8 Of course, they benefit us
9 greatly as well. I cannot think of anything more awesome than being
10 a friend of God. There is nothing I would rather hear God say than,
11 “That Joyce Meyer, she’s My friend.” I do not want Him to say, “You
12 know, Joyce Meyer—she knows all the prayer principles, she uses
13 perfect prayer posture, she has the right tone of voice; she sounds
14 very eloquent when she prays and she even has all her thee’s, thy’s,
15 and thou’s all straightened out!” No! I want to know that God thinks
16 of me as His friend, and I believe you long for Him to think of you
17 that way, too. Through Jesus Christ, we have a right to be comfort-
18 able with God and to go boldly to the throne of grace to get the help
19 we need in plenty of time to meet our needs and the needs of others
20 (see Hebrews 4:16).
21 One of the best things you can ever do is develop your friend-
22 ship with God. Jesus has made you righteous through the blood
23 He shed on the cross, so there is no reason you cannot approach
24 God as boldly and as naturally as you would your best friend on
25 earth. Remember, friendship with God takes an investment of time
26 and energy to develop. But also remember that as your friendship
27 deepens, your prayer life progresses. A growing, vibrant, increas-
28 ingly intimate friendship with God will naturally lead to a ­growing,
S29 vibrant, increasingly effective prayer life.
N30

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 lord, teach me 21

Summary 1
2
When our hearts cry out, “Lord, teach me to pray,” God answers. 3
We do not learn how to pray simply by becoming a Christian or 4
by going to church—even if we have been attending for years and 5
years. We learn to pray more and more effectively over time as we 6
develop a personal relationship with God. He has made each of 7
us uniquely and He teaches us to pray in ways that celebrate and 8
express who He has created us to be. He wants us as individuals to 9
relate to Him through prayer in uniquely personal ways. 10
Our personal faith in God and our personal relationship with 11
Him directly affect the quality and the effectiveness of our prayers. 12
In fact, being God’s friend is the most important key to a vibrant, 13
dynamic prayer life. He wants us to draw near to Him, to trust 14
Him, to love Him, to share our hearts with Him, and to listen as 15
He shares His heart with us. In the context of friendship with God, 16
we will continue to learn how to pray. 17
18
19
Prayer Points 20
21
0 If you are frustrated in your prayer life and wondering 22
whether your prayers are really effective, then cry out from 23
your heart, “Lord, teach me to pray!” 24

0 The depth and strength of our prayer lives relate directly to the 25
26
depth and strength of our personal relationship with God.
27
0 Prayer is simple. It is nothing more than talking and listening 28
to God. 29S
30 N

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 22 the power of simple prayer

1
2
0 In teaching us to pray, God deals with us as individuals with
unique personalities, diverse temperaments, and different
3
ways of communicating. We need to be careful not to com-
4
pare ourselves with others and to just be ourselves and let
5
Him teach us to pray.
6
7 0 Being a friend of God—and all that entails—is the key to
8 effective prayer.
9
10
0 Developing a great friendship with God takes time and
energy, but it is the best investment of time and energy we
11
can possibly make.
12
13 0 Approaching God on the basis of friendship enables us to
14 pray bold prayers. As the friendship becomes more intimate,
15 our boldness increases.
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
S29
N30

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