Why do people pray?
Have you ever stopped to think about when you pray and why you are doing it? I find myself praying almost mindlessly sometimes, then at other times fully aware of why I’m praying and what I need. Some of us grew up with the tradition of prayer. You pray before you eat dinner, or you pray before you go to bed at night. You pray when an ambulance drives by with its lights and sirens on. Some of us recite the same prayer that our parents or grandparents prayed, not really even fully understanding the words we are uttering (but it sounds fancy right?). Most often I find myself saying the “thank you God for this, this, and this, and please do this, that, and the other, Amen.” But when life gets rough, we tend to have a different approach. “Lord I’m hurting, and I don’t want to hurt.” “God I’m angry, but I’m too tired to keep being angry.” “Heavenly Father I’m sick and I don’t know what to do.” “Heal me, help me, get me out of this.” Then there’s the times that we find ourselves negotiating with God. I don’t know about you, but I’ve done some dumb stuff in my life. It’s in these moments God hears prayers like “I promise I won’t ever do this again if you’ll just…” or “God if you get me out of this, I promise I’ll clean my life up.” Simply put prayer is the way we, mankind, connect to a higher power—God.
Why should we pray?
Have you ever asked yourself “What is the purpose of prayer?” I know for a long time I didn’t. It was just something you were supposed to do. Then I realized as I got older, and created bigger messes for myself, there was something within me that said, “You need God for this one.” Let’s look at what the Bible has to say about prayer.
- We develop our relationship with God when we share our joys, struggles, questions, ask for help, and seek to listen for a response. Philippians 4:6-7 says “Do not worry. Learn to pray about everything. Give thanks to God as you ask Him for what you need. The peace of God is much greater than the human mind can understand. This peace will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
- God wants to bless us and for us to experience his power and goodness. He does this by responding to our faith. When we have faith, we experience beyond what we could ever ask for or even dream of. Mark 11:24 says “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”
- We weren’t meant to figure life out alone. God wants to do life with us. The thing is, we have free will. We can choose to do things on our own, or we can choose to allow God to guide us, comfort us, and bless us. Matthew 7:7-8 says “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
Does prayer change God’s mind?
If we were able to fully understand God, then we wouldn’t be praying to a very big God. I have come to find comfort in the fact that God is so big, so wise, so powerful that I don’t always fully understand how or when God is going to move. God is not limited by time and is aware of all possible outcomes. Do our prayers dictate God’s decisions? No. Does God hear our prayers, and promise that when our heart is aligned with His they will be answered with a yes? Absolutely. The thing I think we struggle with most is a yes doesn’t always happen when we want, how we want, and in the way we want. The awesome thing is God’s way and timing is always better than ours.
Conclusion
Through prayer, having a real authentic vulnerable conversation with our Heavenly Father, we can experience, healing, comfort, guidance, strength, acceptance, freedom, and forgiveness. The power of prayer is not found in the ability to change God’s mind, but instead in the way it transforms our hearts and minds. If you’ve never asked for prayer, I want to challenge you to take a step in faith and ask. Ephesians 6:18 says “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.” Then, I want you to think of one person you can pray for. You can pray for them privately, or you can be bold and ask them how you can pray for them. Intercede and lay your faith down on someone else’s behalf. There is nothing more beautiful than getting to encourage someone else and allow God to use you in their story.