Prayer Works For All

Does God intervene in our lives today?
He sure does; miracles, and judgments, too;
Maybe less often than we faithful say,
Far more frequent than doubters believe true.
Troubles come to the just and the unjust;
Blessings fall on the sheep and wolf alike.
We're not blessed just because in Him we trust,
Or punished for refusing His invite.
God hears the prayers from all sorts of men,
And voids the laws of nature as He wills;
To one He still needs, years He may extend,
Than he who wasted his God-given skills!
The righteous can ask for great or small;
The unrighteous only for mercy call!

Prayer to God need not only be in formal words, memorized, with a special template, at a special time or place, or used only by ministers or church officials, but it must be sincere. Anyone can pray, and God is always on duty and promises to listen. If you have not been active in Christian circles, He will listen especially to you; He hopes you have even a slight interest in learning about Him and how to be His child. A beginner, though, has a more narrow scope of things he is free to ask for; he can ask for forgiveness, express sorrow for past sin, and ask God to help him to become Christian. More active Christians may ask Him for healing, success in work, assistance in fighting habitual bad habits; there is no limit to the kinds of things such persons can pray for; and they know that their prayers are heard by God, and that Jesus Christ is endorsing their request and adding His request to theirs. They can reasonably expect an affirmative answer, but they know that His answer will be according to His will; they will rejoice as much with a 'no' for answer as for a 'yes', and they know to wait as long as He needs---sometimes never---to get an answer.

"For the eyes of God are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer..."
(1 Peter 3:12)

You can pray silently, not even forming the words, but focusing your whole being on an intense desire that the need you have is lifted in an attitude that can last for hours, your whole consciousness concentrating on the one thing that you want God to do. The Holy Spirit will add to your intensive forcefulness any necessary words, that your earnest petition to God is presented to Him in a way that He will know just what you need. When you pray like this, you will get an answer from God, and your faith will grow.

By the way, 'righteousness' means 'obedience to God's commands'. What are His commands? The Bible is full of them, but boiled down to the fewest words, they are to love Jesus Christ with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love others, friends and enemies, as He loved you. He died for you; that is how He loved you.