Why Pray?
If God’s plans can’t be thwarted, if He is omniscient, if He is omnipotent, then why pray?
What difference does it really make?
Logically it doesn’t make sense. And yet:
God tells us to pray…
Ephesians 6:18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
Jesus prayed…
Luke 5:17 “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
So what does praying do? Why pray?
In this short blog post I can’t even begin to scratch the surface of prayer, but there are some simple things that God has been speaking to my heart about prayer…
1. True prayer changes the pray-er. Suddenly the person praying is no longer looking at his or her circumstances, he is no longer figuring out what he can do to fix things. Instead the he is humbling coming to the Father, the Almighty King, and laying his concerns at the feet of God. In order to pray the pray-er must admit things are beyond him and that things are not beyond God. So God is on the throne and the pray-er is on his knees. Check out 2 Chronicles 7:14
2. True prayer brings God near. Deuteronomy 4:7 says, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” So God is near us when we pray. Oh when He is near us we feel comfort, experience His peace, and can rest in His perfect weaving together of events (our sin, our obedience, others’ sins, others’ obedience, natural events) into His tapestry of grace and love. Working out good for those who love Him. Yes, when we pray we can see Him in our everything working out His perfect plan even when it doesn’t match our longings.
3. True prayer that changes hearts and brings God near brings peace that guards our hearts and minds. Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Because God is near, because we are humbled, then we can experience peace that guards our hearts and minds in Jesus! Oh that our hearts and minds would be guarded in Christ Jesus so we would obey Him, bring joy to Him, follow Him all the days of our lives! Amazing that God would bring that about when we pray!
Why do you pray? What have you learned about prayer? Share with me…
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John 15:7 says:
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Notice that Jesus tells us that we remain in Him, while his words must remain in Him. I puzzled at the asymmetry of this verse until I realized that God always remains in us.
When we pray, we often pray that which our mind reflects. In other words, praying brings back what we’ve done that day, so it’s important to remain in His word and do our daily Bible readings and quiet times. Yes, reading and quiet time, because the former is to assimilate the Word, and the latter is to meditate and expand on it.
Then, when we ask, we will ask that which reflects God’s holiness. See, I’ve seen some people take this verse out of context and claim that you could pray for a million bucks, and if God doesn’t give it to you then it’s not worth following Him. But what the verse says is that we have to remain in Him and the Word must remain in us for our supplication to be granted.
Indeed, Miss Angela, one can only scratch the surface of prayer on a blog.
Daniel you are right. Because when we remain in God and His word remains in us our hearts are changed. Our wishes are changed to His will. Our prayers become effective because our hearts are more like Him. Sometimes the longing of our hearts still hunger wand wonder, but if we remain in Him and His word in us, our longing for something He isn’t or hasn’t or won’t give changes into something different. It is a peace that is won after war to rest in His plan whether He fills the longing of our hearts or not.
Does that make sense? Blessings.
It makes plenty of sense. It reminds me of Proverbs 17:3, which says “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the hearts.”
Great reminder Daniel. Thanks!