Why Do We Pray, Anyway?

As a child, my prayers consisted of a grocery list of requests (including a few begrudging ones on behalf of people I didn’t like), a quick admission of sins, and the request of a package to be on my doorstep the next morning. It’s truly a miracle that God stuck with me through that era!

Despite treating God like Santa Claus, I often didn’t look forward to prayer time. I thought it was boring and repetitive, which it was. But only because I made it that way through my limited understanding of what prayer is supposed to be.

Even as teens and adults, we can struggle with valuing our time in prayer. We may feel extreme pressure to remember every single prayer request we’ve been given. We may feel discouraged when we ask God for something, and we don’t receive it. We may allow our busy lives and fatigue prevent us from really spending quality time with God.

I will admit, there are times in my life when I struggle with prayer. There are times when I feel so defeated, so discouraged, that I don’t even have words to say to God.

But guess that? That’s even more reason to go to Him.

By definition, prayer is acknowledging our need for God.

It’s not about convincing Him to give us what we want. It’s not informing God of things He doesn’t already know.

Prayer is direct communication with our loving Father, God Almighty, Creator of all things.

Just let that sink in for a moment. We get to talk to the most powerful being of all. The one who loves us more than anybody else can.

More importantly, we get to listen to Him.

Here are a few things about prayer that will hopefully relieve stress for you:

• God already knows all our needs (Matt. 6:8)
• Jesus encourages us not to pray lengthy prayers for the sake of their lengthiness (Matt. 6:7)
• God sees you, and that is enough. We do not need to use prayers as a way to be seen by others (Matt. 6:6)

So then, if God knows everything, why do we need to pray?

Prayer is an invitation from God to realign our hearts with His and surrender our will to Him. Consider the prayer that Jesus gave His disciples as an example of how to pray:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

~ Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)

Prayer is about recognizing who we get to be in relationship with: God our Father, ruler of heaven and earth! Once we remember who God is and why it’s best for Him to be in control, we can ask for help in surrendering to His will.

Then we may ask for our needs to be met, and the needs of others. Sometimes, this means naming specific things. Other times, maybe all we need is to ask for God’s will to be done in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

And then comes the trickiest part: forgiveness. After we ask for God to forgive our sins (I often find this a helpful time to confess sins as well), we must reflect on whether or not we have forgiven those in our lives. If we haven’t, we can call upon the Holy Spirit for help in doing so.

And finally, we request God’s help in moving forward in our lives by remembering again that we are to follow God’s leading rather than our own, partially due to the enemy’s traps that we cannot see that we need protection from.

If this is different from how you usually pray, and you feel stuck in your prayer life, I encourage you to read Matthew 6:5-14. Ask Jesus how He might want you to change the way you communicate with Him. Don’t allow pride or shame to keep you from being open to the ways Jesus wants you to grow. Everything Jesus does is out of His love and grace.

Remember that prayers do not have to be beautiful-sounding or perfectly worded. In fact, the most earnest ones often aren’t. Sometimes they sound like, “God, I need you” or “Holy Spirit, help me” or “Lord, I believe, but help me in my unbelief”.

I pray that you may be delivered from your fears and brought close to Jesus through your time with Him. Amen ❤

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

~ Acts 4:31 (NIV)