Everyone prays! An RAF chaplain once asked a pilot he was walking across the runway with ?Do you pray?'

?Yes, of course.' he replied

?Well I've never seen you at my chapel services.'

?No, Padre. I only pray when I'm flying - when I am on theground I can cope.'

This whole concept, that prayer is for us only when we have reached the end of our human resources, can become absorbed as part of the Christian lifestyle too. How many times when confronted with a problem do we get busy rather than get praying?

Typically, someone who isn't a Christian uses prayer to get what they want. Something that will make theirs or others lives easier; happier. God is a genie in the lamp. So when the genie doesn't deliver, god gets jettisoned.

Some people argue that prayer is a formula, if you get the ingredients right then answers will abound.

The problem with all these approaches is that they put us at the centre. Prayer only works if you put God at the centre - and that's something that fallen humans don't want to do...

We don't just need God-centred prayer - we need God-centred trust.

Michael handles practical questions about prayer as well as inviting us to change our broad -brush concepts.