Prayer isn’t just for religious folks. Anyone and everyone can pray. And we can pray about anything and everything!

We can pray about anything – whether big or small. Whether important or insignificant. Whether you’re religious or not – prayer is a gift that God makes available to everyone for any reason.

Prayer isn’t just for religious people because prayer is not primarily a religious exercise. The point of prayer is not to fulfill some religious duty. The God who made you and loves you simply wants a relationship with you.

And how do we cultivate a relationship with anyone else in our lives? Through conversation (talking/listening) and by spending time together. That’s what prayer is with God: conversation and quality time which deepens our relationship with Him.

Strict adherence to a checklist of religious duties is not God’s priority for us anyway. All throughout the Bible, what God most clearly and consistently desires with us is a relationship. And the best way to strengthen that relationship, like with anyone else, is through quality time spent in talking and listening.

Atlanta-area pastor Louie Giglio, in one of his sermons on prayer, said, “What prayers have we said this week that made God say, ‘Wow – you must really believe I am who I say I am!’ “

The way God most commonly identified Himself with humanity, all throughout the Bible, is as “Father.” Think of it: God could have chosen any way He wanted to relate to humankind, and He chose to have the relationship of a gracious Father with us as His dearly-beloved children.

Above all else, God wants a relationship with you and me. Not a spiritual to-do list, not a checklist of religious duties. What matters most to Him is YOU, your heart.

So pray about anything and everything, big and small. God welcomes communication with you, whether you consider yourself to be religious person or not.