Prayer is something that seems very personal and many people hesitate to pray in public. Talking to an all-powerful God might seem a little scary, and if we're aware we aren't perfect and that our words aren't perfect, it may seem to us like it's not good enough.
But it is good enough. It's like a child talking to a parent. A good parent knows a child isn't perfect, and has years before understanding certain things, but the parent loves to interact and hear the child's heartfelt questions. And God is our Father.
My favorite Bible verse on prayer is Romans 8:26: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." Our prayers in a sense are imperfect, like we are imperfect people. But God knows that already. And the Holy Spirit helps us. And God knows what we need already. But he loves to see and hear us try to tell him.
When writing about the importance of honesty in prayer, Danny writes, "We act at times like God cannot handle our emotion or anger at things. As if we can hide our true feelings and heart and if we don’t express the feelings in prayer he will not know the feelings exist. You see he already knows how we feel but it is of great help to express the feelings. In the psalms often the prayers are far more 'woolly and rugged' than we see in the church. The reason is the prayers are truthful."
If we ever feel frustrated with how our words in prayer seem too informal, emotional, or we know we might forget to mention important things in prayer at times, knowing the verse and these facts about God and Scripture helps.
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