What is Prayer?

At its most basic level, prayer is something that I do.  It is a bursting forth or a calling out to Someone who is greater than I am; someone who can see better than I can.  Prayer is like the cry of the infant to its mother - a wordless need put forth in the form of a cry and a tear, that stirs the Compassion of its parent.  Prayer is the cry of the hungry upwards to the giver of food.  It is cry of someone who is in need of goods or mercy and kindness directed to One who can fill this need.  I call to the Creator of wisdom, and the Giver of purpose.  It is to the One who knows all mysteries and their outcomes.  It is to One who sees not just with eyes, but is moved by perfect understanding.

It is not just a desire that is flung into space in hopes that a response will come.  It has everything to do with who it is sent out to.  

I pray to the One God:  the God of the Bible.  

Now that I have answered "what" and "to whom", I will also say it does not matter how eloquent I am or even what words I choose....  It doesn't have to be a required length....  It is only an expression of some part of me that is reaching out to touch the hem of my God's robe so that I may be whole.
My prayer can be motivated by heartbreak or sadness; happiness or joy.  

When I am so full of God's broken heart - when I am brimming full of gratitude to Him - when my need is desperate enough - when I have the tiniest sense of His infinite grace - then I pray.  It is what wells up in my heart and overflows like the Shepherd's cup.  It overshadows every other thing and it must be released to rush back to its source - El Elyon (the most high God), the great I AM.

Sometimes it is like the waters that rush from the mountains to the sea... carving new paths, changing shorelines, or slowing to pool here and there - sustaining life or speeding up to dash the enemy to pieces.... always moving back to the heart from which it was broken.

Eventually, I am still before Him.  He shares His heart.  I embrace all that He is, and I trust Him in high waters and low.  I pray His heart.

Like the spray from the waterfall that joyously flings itself over the edge - so should our prayers be - finding their way back to His heart