Why We Pray

Hi, this is Cynthia Dowling, and have you ever wondered why has God commanded us to pray? Scripture is clear that God wants us to pray, and we read that He commands us to pray all the time in the short verse, “Pray without ceasing.” But, if God has infinite knowledge of everything, and infinite power to do anything, and infinite wisdom to do the very best thing in every circumstance always, why pray? Won't God just do what He's going to do, which is the best thing to do? Obviously, prayer is especially important to God, or Jesus Himself would not have prayed or commanded us to pray. So, maybe you, like me, have been puzzled about the role of prayer in your life and, like me, you may have been asking the wrong question.

As a child, I remember praying before I went to bed, and listening to other people pray, and not really understanding what prayer was all about. But what I did know is that God's ear is always open to the most the most important prayer anyone can pray. My prayer confessing my personal sin to God and asking Him to cleanse me with the blood of His perfect Son, Jesus, who died in my place, so that God could see me as righteous in Christ, keeping me from having to die for my own sins and giving me eternity with God instead. When I understood God's great gift to me and after I prayed for forgiveness and cleansing and right standing with God, I wanted to know how to pray the kind of prayers that I learned about in the Bible when God did amazing, supernatural things. But what I saw in practice was quite different. As I prayed for what I wanted, I got some things, but I didn't get some other things. Looking around, I noticed that many people prayed for the sick, and so I prayed right along with them. Some were healed and some weren't. As you can see, I was a little confused about prayer, but I did learn that a prayer was not a magic lamp and God was not a magic genie, existing to give me what I wanted when I prayed. Now that I had begun to get clarity, I was excited, but not quite prepared for the truth I would learn next. This truth came as I started to memorize Matthew 6:7-8, the preface to the Lord’s Prayer. In verse 7, Jesus says, “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Yikes, I thought, that's all I do is pray for things repetitively. And then in verse 8 Jesus says, “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

OK, now I learned two more things: God was not tallying my repetitive prayers to give me what I wanted when I reached “x” number, but that He already knew what things I needed and even wanted. With that understanding, my questions changed. Instead, I began to wonder, “How did God want me to pray and what prayers would He answer?” Then, I started listening to hear truth about prayer as I read Scripture and heard Scripture taught, while asking God to show me how to pray more effectively. I knew if the Lord would show me how to pray effective prayers, I would have more power in prayer, be less confused, and less likely to have my expectations dashed. As I kept my ears attuned, God answered by bringing a phrase to my ears several times and in different ways, “pray Scripture back to God.” Hmm, I thought, that sounds promising. Just think, if I pray Scripture, which is God's own word, back to Him, that's His will, and He will hear me. Excitedly, I started looking up Bible prayers, especially in the epistles, to pray for my loved ones, my friends, and myself. What a relief! Now I didn’t have to worry that I was praying for something outside His will. I would leave outcomes with God. Then I found, as I prayed these Scriptures back to God, that God was changing me and helping me to see that His way was best, as I watched Him work through His Word. Much later, I realized that God already has examples of praying God’s word back to Him in Scripture. Let’s find an example in the book of James!

Although this man is primarily known in the Old Testament, he's also mentioned in the book of James chapter 5. In the sentence before we know his name, God makes this statement: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Yes, that's what we're after, prayer that makes a difference with God. This prayer is effectual and fervent, and it's coming from a righteous man. Who is this righteous man? Let's read the following verse and see what God says about him. “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”

Now we know who this righteous man is that prays effectual, fervent prayers, it's Elijah! And what prayers he prayed! God heard, God answered, and God did stupendous miracles after Elijah prayed like sending fire down from heaven at Mt. Carmal. Although we learn in James 5 that Elijah prayed earnestly that it might not rain, the first mention of Elijah in 1 Kings 17 opens with Elijah as he confronts King Ahab face to face.

“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”

How could Elijah be so bold? How could he know that God would answer his prayer? Did you know that when the children of Israel were getting ready to enter Canaan, the promised land, God told them to set up two large stones; one a stone of written blessings and the other a stone of written curses. In Deuteronomy 11, God states a summation of those blessings and curses. Listen to these verses:

“And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.”

God then repeats this dire warning to Solomon after he dedicated the temple in 2 Chronicles 7:13. So, if the people worshipped God and obeyed His commandments, He promised them rain; but if they started worshipping other gods, He was going to act by sending drought induced famine. But our good and merciful God also makes a way for the people to return to Him. Listen to the very next verse, verse 14:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Oh, that’s it! Elijah’s desire is to see Israel turn back to God by worshipping Him with their whole hearts. But how could the people see clearly just how angry God was with their sin? Elijah, knowing the curses written on the stone along with God's warnings to Solomon, prayed this scriptural truth back to God, pleading with Him to show the people a tangible sign of His great displeasure. So, without regard to the way this prayer might affect him personally, Elijah “prayed earnestly that it might not rain . . .,” with the hope that the people in turn would humble themselves and pray and seek God's face and turn from their wicked ways, so that God would hear their prayer and forgive their sin and heal their land.

How did Elijah have such power in prayer with God? Let's turn back to the book of James. First, we see that God declares that Elijah was a man of our same nature, our same weaknesses, our same feelings, and our same affections. He wasn't an angel, superhuman, or have some special “in” with God. His nature was just like ours. OK, so his power in prayer did not come from his nature, so where did it come from? Second, God says that Elijah was a righteous man. Although his nature was the same as ours, he was righteous before God. In fact, this word “righteous” means he was approved by God and was in conformity to God's own being. How can we be righteous? God declares us righteous when we repent toward God and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then daily we choose to love what God loves and hate what God hates. So, Elijah had power in prayer by believing God's word and acting on it.

Then, what kind of prayer did this righteous man pray? The words “effectual” and “fervent” mean energized and engaged, urgently entreating God out of a deep personal need. So, not only is there power in praying Scripture back to God, but power also comes from a man who is just in God eyes, praying heartfelt prayers in line with God's will. Interestingly, in the Lord's prayer, Jesus states: “. . . thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Elijah wanted God's will to be done on earth, which was seeing the people's hearts turn back to God. Elijah’s will was one with God's will. Hmmm . . . so in prayer that has power with God, we align our will with God's will, instead of trying to twist God's will into our will. We also bring our lives into harmony with God’s word, letting Him change us instead of trying to change Him. And then we use God's own words with a sense of urgency and desire as we pray. In this way, what we think, how we act, and what we want work together to give us power with God in prayer as we saw in the life of Elijah.

Let's ask the Lord to show us how to align our will with God's will by thinking His thoughts about our circumstances, and ask Him to use His Word to teach us how to walk in His ways, and let Him unfold to us how to pray His words back to Him effectively, so that His will “will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”