Prayer. A simple word with tremendous power! The book of Job instructs us to pray to God our Father and He will hear our cries. Your prayers don't have to be fancy and you even don't have to close your eyes; some of the best conversations with God happen when you least expect them.

If you do not believe in the power of prayer, then, man, you are missing out! Not only is prayer powerful and life changing, but Jesus, the son of God, took time out of his busy schedule to pray, don't you think we should do the same?

Through prayer we are able to talk to the Father and tell Him what is on our hearts.

Prayer is not to be taken lightly, it is life changing! The Lord will answer every single one of our prayers. It might not be the response you wanted or even when you wanted it, but in time He will. He will give you one of three answers... yes, not yet, or I have something better planned.

I have always believed in the importance of prayer but this past week God reminded that he is listening to the cry of my heart.

At the beginning of each year I start a new journal and I always begin it with a prayer. My prayers at the beginning of this year were heavy and I had asked the Lord to work in numerous ways in me and guess what? He did! I did not realize it until the other night as I was getting in bed. I decided to look back at the entry from January 1, and, to my surprise every single request was filled. He didn't send a smoke sign each time He responded to my pleas, but through little things He checked each one off my list.

Some prayer requests were little, while others were me asking Him to remove bitterness from my heart.

It was in that moment that God reminded me; He is listening, He hears my cries and He has a plan for me, just like He does for you. It is easy to get discouraged because we can not audibly hear God, but He is all around us working everything for our good.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 instructs us to "pray without ceasing." I promise you, if you do as instructed and diligently pray to the Father, you will not be disappointed.

I encourage you to cast all your cares upon the Lord, talk to Him daily because He is a good Father that cares about you.