Why do we Pray? - March 7, 2009

Why do we Pray?

We tend to think of prayer as a formula for contacting God; a ritual that will put us in contact with our heavenly Father. Some might point to the Lord’s Prayer or the many other written prayers as proof of what we should say to contact God. However, we should define prayer as simply talking to God. In this Jesus gave us a format to use in the Lord’s Prayer, and not a form to follow religiously each time we pray. Prayer is much more than a list of needs. If all we do is present a list of our needs to God each time we pray then I can see why someone might ask why we need to do this at all since God knows our every need before we ask it. There is nothing wrong with bringing your needs to God, but there is so much more to prayer!

The words that come to mind when I think of our prayer life are: praise, empathy, exercise, power, predicament, peace, enchanted, and enemy.

Praise: We sing songs of praise, but those songs began with psalms written back in the days of David and Solomon. Psalms and prayers share much in common and one of those traits is praise. We might want to begin every prayer by praising God for His providence. To start in praise is to get into the attitude of acknowledging all that God has done for us. Praising God makes us feel better; starting off with a long list of needs can make us feel kind of helpless and hopeless in this big world. Praising God is a choice to thank Him for the good things in life.


Empathy: We can bring the needs of others to God, letting Him know that we care about others and love to bring them to God in prayer. Prayer is about more than just our own needs. More important is the learning to love others and placing their needs ahead of our own. Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This has two meanings that I see: first we love others as we want them to love us. And second, we love others at the same time as we love ourselves. Putting others ahead of yourself does not mean that you hate your self, only that we are to love others and love our own self as both are creations of almighty God. Empathy is learning to feel sorrow when a friend is sorrowful. We pray for those who are hurting and we pray for those in need. Empathy also leads us to remember others when our needs often seem overwhelming in this life. If my problems seem huge today, praying for someone else brings the problems down to their proper size. I don’t wish tragedy upon anyone, but often my problems seem almost laughable when I think of the problems many people face around the world.

Exercise: How do you build up muscle or get better at some skill in the physical world? Right, each of us must exercise to keep our bodies healthy or practice our skills to become proficient. Prayer is the same. A Christian might start out with very simple prayers, perhaps simply repeating the Lord’s Prayer just as Jesus gave it. As we grow through practice, our prayers become conversations with God. I know you want to ask if God answers each and every statement or question of mine right on the spot. I find in my own prayer life that I do most of the talking. Why is that? For one thing, I tend to repeat requests in different ways. Not only is God much more efficient in his answers, but I don’t think that He is given to repeating himself when there is no need to do so. Many of my requests are already answered and I simply don’t want to wait. Another thing is that much of my prayer is simply pouring out my heart to God and I believe that He wants to listen more than He wants to speak. We already have His Word to read; many of the answers we seek in prayer are right there for our reading.

Example: Jesus provided an example for prayer life not only in the Lord’s Prayer, but in his devotion to getting alone with God. He told us to go into our closet and shut the door when we pray not necessarily as a literal command to get into your broom closet to pray, but to get alone, away from distractions such as the temptation to perform publicly. How many of us pray the same in private as we do when others are listening? Probably none of us do. Jesus spent a lot of time going away from the crowds and even his disciples to go one to one with God. Yes, he could pray in his mind as he walked along the roads of Judea, but he also separated himself physically to pray. When Jesus told the Pharisees “I and the Father are one.” I believe that he not only meant that he was part of the triune God, but also that he and God were in constant communication. We should emulate his example and pray to God throughout the day.

Power – Where do we get the spiritual energy to do this thing we do? Do you think that you can evangelize without help from God? One of the things in us is a fear of rejection. No one likes to be rejected by an organization and we especially don’t like to be rejected by a friend. To spread the Good News about Jesus we need encouragement to defeat the fear of rejection; we need the power to overcome our doubts and shame. Asking for help to be bold in our witness and to have courage where fear tries to choke us is a great reason to pray!

Predicament – Yes, many will find it much easier to not only believe in God, but to pray to Him when there is an emergency or a problem. A person who has spent their life ignoring God might suddenly find a need to call out to Him when faced with the imminent and immediate possibility of injury or death. One of the most common prayers involves the fervent call, “save me, Lord!” A person in dire need might find it within themselves to surrender their life and will to God with the condition of saving his or her human life first. You might have done that at some point.
A problem also causes us to look to a higher power. While those who chose not to believe might look to a government or a human leader, in Christ we look to God. Many of the problems we face these days are quite beyond our reach. You and I cannot solve our current economic problems on our own, but we can bring the problem to God in prayer!

Peace – We often find ways to escape from the cares of this world through artificial means like computer games or movies. However, a better way to escape your cares and worries is to give them to Jesus. In prayer we bring our concerns to the Lord. I find it much easier to enjoy a good movie or game when I am not using it to “get away” from my worries. When the movie or game ends, the worry is still there, lurking about like a tick on top of a weed lining the path to the outhouse. You might have ignored it for a while, but the little parasite is still waiting to sink its little teeth into you when must go where you must go. Sorry, a little old-fashioned barnyard humor there. Yes, we have indoor plumbing out here too.
Have you ever felt fear grip your body and mind? All of us have at one time or another. Concentrating on Jesus in prayer brings relief from the thoughts of fear and panic that threaten to overwhelm us. Jesus promised his peace, but sometimes we need to activate that promise in prayer.

Enchanted – This is not the magic trick kind of enchantment we read in Harry Potter, but the definition that reads: to delight or to charm. God is enchanted with us! Yes, the creator of all things wants to hear how your day went, all of it. If there is any reason I believe that God does not speak more in your prayers it is probably because He very much wants to hear what you have to say! A friend in Christ passed on a way of envisioning God in our prayers that I liked a lot. He said to imagine God as sitting right in front of you and eagerly awaiting everything you have to tell him. Did you have a bad day? Tell God all about it. Did you have a great day? Tell God everything that made the day wonderful. Yes, God does know all that happened, even before it occurred, but get this point… He wants to hear your thoughts and feelings! Think of God as the perfect friend; always there for you, wanting to hear everything you have to say, sorrowing when you feel sorrow, glad when you feel joy, and ready to bring a peace beyond understanding to your thoughts.

Enemy – as in we have one and a very active one at that. We pray to defeat the power of Satan. None of us alone, and all of us together could not defeat one who was one of God’s great angels back in the day. However, the power of Jesus has defeated the powers of this world and those of death and the grave. We recall that famous verse: greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. We bring the lies of the devil to the altar of God in prayer. Otherwise we will fall for the lies we read and hear.
I once had the pleasure to hear one of my coworkers claim that he could always get a good deal out of car dealers through his talents at wheeling and dealing. Perhaps he was right, but I couldn’t help but think: we set out to buy a new or used car once every three or four years, some of us may do it more often, but for most that will be the norm. The dealers on the other hand, especially used car dealers; negotiate deals on cars every day of their working lives. Is it more likely that one of us will be the better negotiator or someone who practices the craft every working day?
Lucifer has been working lies ever since he rebelled against God, and we do not know in years how long that might have been, but we do know that he was there with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Therefore: is it very likely that we who have lived only a few short years on this earth will be able to detect all of the lies we have heard since birth? Without the Holy Spirit and the power of constant communication with God in prayer, we stand little chance of surviving the gauntlet of lies we see in the world each day. Peter reminds us that the Devil, like a roaring lion, seeks to devour whomever he may. We pray because we are under constant attack.
Why do we pray? We pray because we enjoy God and we believe in His Son. We pray for peace to conquer fear; for power to overcome the enemy, and for faith in times of darkness. We also pray to just talk to God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the friend of friends.