Learning to Speak with God
Isaiah 55:10-11; Matthew 6:7-15
Rain falls.
Snow melts.
The earth drinks.
Seeds break open.
Isaiah says: God’s word is like that.
It does not fall for nothing. It does not return empty.
It does what it is sent to do.
In the New Testament, that Word has a face.
The eternal Word became flesh. Jesus walked our roads. He healed. He forgave. He carried a cross. He rose.
The Word did not return empty.
It returned to the Father — after bringing life.
Today, Jesus teaches us about prayer.
He does not begin with techniques.
He begins with a name:
Father.
Not distant power. Not cosmic energy.
Father.
And then he says something puzzling:
Your Father knows what you need before you ask.
So why ask?
Why pray if God already knows?
The Bible does not solve the paradox.
Jesus does not say, “Then don’t pray.”
He says, “Pray like this.”
Not many empty words. Not performance. Not magic formulas.
Relationship.
Some people pray only in crisis.
Some treat prayer like a shopping list.
But look at Jesus.
He often left the crowds. He went to quiet places. He stayed there.
Not because he lacked information.
But because he loved the Father.
Prayer was not emergency use only.
It was home.
Thousands of books try to define prayer.
But one insight stays with me.
Pope Benedict XVI once said that learning to pray is like learning a language.
You learned your first language from those close to you.
You listened. You repeated. You grew into it.
Prayer is the same.
We learn God’s language from God.
From Scripture. From the Psalms. From the words Jesus gives us:
“Our Father…”
We do not invent prayer.
We receive it.
And slowly — it reshapes us.
Across Isaiah, the Psalm, and the Gospel one thread runs through:
Prayer is relationship.
Not information transfer. Not persuasion. Not pressure.
Conversation.
And in that conversation something happens.
We begin to trust. We begin to forgive. We begin to soften.
The One who listens also forms us.
The Word that does not return empty does not return from us empty either.
When we pray, we are not changing God’s mind.
We are letting God change our heart.
And little by little, we begin to speak like children who know they are heard.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).