Why Pray?

Prayer says something very important to us and to God. Prayer says, “God is in charge. God is in control. God holds the power. God has the plan.” Prayer also says, “I am not in charge. I am not in control. I do not have the right plan.” Could this be why prayer is often so difficult in our lives? We falsely believe our plan is best. We falsely believe we actually are in control. We falsely believe that being in control of our lives is a good thing and passing control on to God is not.

Kids are often taught that prayer is simply talking to God. There is no magic formula or incantation. You don’t have to change the tone of your voice. You don’t even have to close your eyes. Prayer is conversation. Prayer is a dialogue. We talk to God. He talks to us.

There is also the challenge of the “perfect devotional plan” which hinders our devotional life because we feel we are always failing to meet the perceived expectations of God. God wants time with you – time where your attention is focused upon him – time where you talk and listen to Him – and time where that listening includes allowing God to speak to you through His Word.

This “perfect devotional plan” says we have to arise before the sun, prayer for an hour, read an entire book of the Bible, memorize it, feed the hungry, and enact world peace, while sitting in an uncomfortable chair, and finally making breakfast for our family by 7:00am. Since we can’t conceive it possible to live up to this plan, we do nothing.

Prayer is for you not God. God works in us as we pray. God helps us keep it all in perspective as we acknowledge before him our sin, our needs, our struggles, our love for him, and our recognition that our plan doesn’t work well, so we need God’s plan. God wants us to pray. He answers our prayers (sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes not yet, sometimes we never clearly understand or see His answer), but He promises to hear.

If you are stuck saying the same thing every time you pray, it may be time to expand your prayer time. One of the best ways to do that is to listen to others pray – to pray with others.

The statement, “I don’t pray out loud,” sounds good and humble, but that means you don’t pray with your spouse, your children, your family, your small group, your neighbors, etc. and that is not good. You need to learn how to pray for and with others. You need to pray out loud at times so people can actually hear you pray for them. Yes, it is uncomfortable and hard. Yes, it may take some practice. But that pretty much sums up what it is to follow Jesus – give up the comfortable and easy. Depend on God. Pray.