Sometimes when I am praying, I find myself in a place where asking is not my primary mode of conversation. Sometimes I like telling God all the things I love about Him. In a way I am declaring my confidence and my trust in Him.

David does this too, although we do not see it that often. In times of trouble this is how he starts one of his journals. It is full of faith and trust, absent of fear, despair and petition.

I wait patiently for God to save me;
I depend on him alone.
He alone protects and saves me;
he is my defender,
and I shall never be defeated. – Psalm 62:1-2 GNT

“There is in it throughout not one single word (and this is a rare occurrence), in which the prophet expresses fear or dejection; and there is also no prayer in it, although, on other occasions, when in danger, he never omits to pray.” – Amyraut, cited in Spurgeon

But even here he is sure to remind us all to pray.

Trust in God at all times, my people.
    Tell him all your troubles,
    for he is our refuge. – Psalm 62:8 GNT

Isaiah gives us a description of what Jesus will look like and I think that helps when we have prayer times like this.

The spirit of the Lord will give him wisdom
    and the knowledge and skill to rule his people.
He will know the Lord‘s will and honor him,
    and find pleasure in obeying him. – Isaiah 11:2 GNT

Wisdom and knowledge speak of authority. It is the ability to give good and right advice and skill to the ability to carry them out.

He will not judge by appearance or hearsay;
    he will judge the poor fairly
    and defend the rights of the helpless. – Isaiah 11:3 GNT

I see Jesus life as one who wants to walk with me, just like He did with Nicodemus. He speaks into the ABC’s of spiritual life, truth that could never come from human wisdom. He describes how angels live, what happens after death, how prayer works, and even how the devil works. He examplied what and who I want to be and live. What does a prayer of faith look like?

James talks about that and he does so in the arena of healing and in the encouragement to pray in all circumstances.

Are any among you in trouble? They should pray. Are any among you happy? They should sing praises. Are any among you sick? They should send for the church elders, who will pray for them and rub olive oil on them in the name of the Lord. This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven. So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect. Elijah was the same kind of person as we are. He prayed earnestly that there would be no rain, and no rain fell on the land for three and a half years. Once again he prayed, and the sky poured out its rain and the earth produced its crops. – James 5:13-18 GNT

This is a place where I take all that trust I mentioned before and exercise it. I might see a physical healing, but I also might see an emotional or spiritual healing too. I look to Jesus, with His wisdom and understanding, and I know that with Him as my source of healing, He will know best how these healing should look like.

I like how James ends a session on discipleship with this call to pray with faith.

Prayer, true prayer, does not allow us to deceive ourselves. It relaxes the tension of our self-inflation. It produces a clearness of spiritual vision. Searching with a judgment that begins at the house of God, it ceases not to explore with His light our own soul. If the Lord is our health He may need to act on many men, or many moods, as a lowering medicine. At His coming our self-confidence is shaken. Our robust confidence, even in grace, is destroyed. The pillars of our house tremble, as if they were ivy-covered in a searching wind. Our lusty faith is refined, by what may be a painful process, into a subtler and more penetrating kind; and its outward effect is for the time impaired, though in the end it is increased. The effect of the prayer which admits God into the recesses of the soul is to destroy that spiritual density, not to say stupidity, which made our religion cheery or vigorous because it knew no better, and which was the condition of getting many obvious things done, and producing palpable effect on the order of the day. There are fervent prayers which, by making people feel good, may do no more than foster the delusion that natural vigour or robust religion, when flushed enough, can do the work of the kingdom of God. There is a certain egoist self-confidence which is increased by the more elementary forms of religion, which upholds us in much of our contact with men, and which even secures us an influence with them. But the influence is one of impression rather than permeation, it overbears rather than converts, and it inflames rather than inspires. This is a force which true and close prayer is very apt to undermine, because it saps our self-deception and its Pharisaism. The confidence was due to a lack of spiritual insight which serious prayer plentifully repairs. So by prayer we acquire our true selves. – P. T. Forsyth, Soul of Prayer