Like any good relationship, if we want to grow to know someone better, we spend time with them. It’s true for our sports—time at training camp teambuilding to get to know our teammates better or setting up one-on-one sessions as a coach to learn our players. The more we understand our team’s mission, the greater unity we achieve to become one unit.

It is the same with faith. If we want to know God and who He is, we need to spend time up close with Him. This includes reading His Truth, the Bible, and connecting with Him through conversation. That is what prayer is: a dialogue between us and God.

God is our Creator. He made us, and He made us with the desire to be in deep relationship with Him. He wants us to know Him personally, and He wants to hear what’s on our hearts and minds.

“If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me.”  (Jeremiah 29:13)

God doesn’t make it hard to be found. He doesn’t make us weave through a labyrinth and answer riddles before we can access Him. He gives us Himself through the Bible, and as we pray, we call on His Word to strengthen our faith in His trustworthiness, faithfulness and justice.

It may not be hard to have access to God, but what if we don’t know where to begin in prayer?

Think of prayer as a talk between you and God. You don’t need to be fancy about it. He doesn’t want big words and long sentences; He just wants to hear your heart.

“But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”  (Exodus 4:10)

If you feel like Moses did talking with God, take some time to quiet those doubts and let God speak to your heart. Maybe even utter these verses or something similar:

“Lord, my heart is not proud;
    my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
    or too awesome for me to grasp.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
    like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
    Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”   (Psalm 131:1-2)

The more honest we get with God, the more He transforms our hearts to hear and respond to Him.

But what if we’ve been hurt or disappointed and can’t seem to muster up the right words to express our fears of trying again?

God doesn’t make it hard to be found. 
Tell God. Tell Him you are hurt and afraid to open up. It’s again about honesty. King David, who wrote most of the book of Psalms, expressed his range of emotions, from joy and praise to fear and weariness, and even anger. God made us and knows our every thought and action. We can lay it all out before Him.

“I am exhausted and completely crushed.
    My groans come from an anguished heart.

You know what I long for, Lord;
    You hear my every sigh.”   (Psalm 38:8-9)

Whatever you’re feeling and wherever you are right now, God just wants to hear from you. By digging into prayer and God’s Word, His truth grows within us and we connect to not just God’s heart and ours, but the hearts of others as we reach out into the world.

One way to get in God’s Word is to have it delivered straight to your inbox with FCA’s Daily Impact Play, a lineup of devotionals by coaches, athletes, staff and volunteers that share how to live out God’s word in our lives.

Want to learn more about reading the Bible and getting into God’s Word? Head to FCA in Action and read our February anchor article, Connected: Pray the Truth.

-FCA-