This is a guest post by an old friend of mine from my days working at Zondervan.  Al Kerkstra has been there many years and offers regular emails to all that work at Z, and several that just like his perspective.

From Al on 11/30/11:

What is the state or position in which you approach God?  According to Ephesians chapter 3 it is in our relationship with Christ and our faith in Christ that we approach God with freedom and confidence.

^{Eph 3:12} In him and through faith in him we may approach God ^v  with freedom and confidence.

Jesus is the phone line to God and our faith is the current that carries our prayers to His ears.

I don’t give much thought to prayer.  I have been praying to God since I was just a little boy.  As a young child I was taught to pray over my food, before I went to sleep for the night, and when I was troubled by something.  My dad would tell me that when you pray always end the prayer with the statement in Jesus name.  I see in Ephesians why he taught me in that way.

Prayer is our connection to the Father through the son for each day.  It is the act of praying that connects our hearts to the heart of the Father in heaven and it is through prayer that our relationship with God the Father continues to grow and thrive.  Yet I take the opportunity to pray for granted.  Notice what the verse says: “we may approach God ^v  with freedom and confidence.”  We may but we don’t have to pray, we get to pray but we are not required to pray.

Prayer is so important to our daily walk with God that the enemy has attacked it in our schools and all kinds of public life.  The enemy knows that the action of prayer is the beginning of relationship and our vision of what God is doing in the world and our lives today.  It does not take me very long to be able to name the prayers that my God has answered.  If you pray daily I suspect you would say the same.  Our God is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God.

As you begin this day I encourage you to take a step back and open your relationship with God and your world with a conversation with the Creator.

My prayer for today;  God I come to you in the name of Jesus and through my faith in him as the savior of my life.  I thank you for the opportunity to pray and be in daily relationship with you.  I thank you that you hear me when I pray and that you answer all my prayers.  Give me discernment to understand and accept the answers I get to my prayers.  In Jesus’ mighty name amen.