Why Pray?

Jesus said to the disciples in teaching them how to pray,  ^"When you pray, don't talk on and on as people do who don't know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers. Don't be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask" Matthew 6:7-8 CEV).

"O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.. . . I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence" (Psalm 139:1-5, 7 NLT)!

My first question in response to the above verses is: Why pray?  The Lord already knows everything I need before I ask Him. God is sovereign and He knows everything about me and everything that will happen to me from the beginning to the ending of my time here on earth.  

So then, why pray?


Pray because God loves us and desires to have a personal relationship with us.   "This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love" (1 John 4:7-12 MSG)! 

Pray because the Lord desires that we know and love Him more and more. Through prayer we can grow to love the Lord passionately with all our heart and with all our soul in the deepest part of our inner being and know Him with all our mind by spending time with Him (Matt. 22:37).  Two people who love each other desire to be together and to share one another’s life. Through prayer a precious relationship with the Lord grows. 

Ron and I have been married nearly fifty-three years. Our love for each other has grown over time, as we have supported each other through the various seasons of our lives—through hard winters that tested our faith and our marriage; springtimes of new beginnings that stretched us to grow; warm and restful summers that provided relief from trials; and the learning periods of autumn that challenged us to adapt and change. 

In the same way our love-relationship with the Lord grows and changes over time through prayer and our dependence upon Him. As the Lord sees us through the various seasons of our lives, we are drawn closer to Him and our love is deeper and richer. For the Lord’s love is an everlasting love; He draws us unto Himself with lovingkindness (Jer. 31:3). 

Pray because we need the Lord’s guidance and direction in everything we do as we don’t know the way ahead of us. He promises to lead us by ways we have not known, along the unfamiliar path we walk on each day. Surely, He will guide us and  turn the darkness into light before us and make the rough places smooth. He will not forsake us (Isa. 42:16).   

Pray because the Lord is our greatest source of help and strength in trying times. When we are struck by heartaches that overwhelm us and can do nothing about, we become more aware of our need to pray. We are faced with our total dependence upon Him when we have no one else to help us and nowhere else to go.

The more we share our sorrows with the Lord and seek the reassurance found in His Word, the more we are aware of His caring presence. The Holy Spirit is the source of all our comfort, the only One who is always beside us at all times in all our troubles, who is our constant support in suffering (2 Cor. 1:3-5).


Pray because that is the way we find out how the Lord will provide our needs and what He wants us to do in the process. 

Pray because we need to be changed by the Lord so we may glorify Him. Through prayer the Lord transforms us by helping us renew our minds and to no longer conform to worldly ways (Rom. 12:2). 

God’s purpose above all else is that we love Him, glorify and honor Him, and by our obedience He transforms us into His likeness. “And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more”  (2 Cor. 3:18 NLT).

Our purpose for praying needs to shift from being focused on the answers we want to God Himself.  If I don’t see my most important requests answered, but I grow in faith, see His transforming work in my life, and become more centered on Him and not on self then His will is being accomplished in my life. 

I am constantly looking for answers and waiting for results, but this defeats me every time. What are we looking for then? In prayer, we are seeking to the know the Lord more personally, to understand and do His will, and to bring Him glory. Then we are able to see His answers, for His ways and will are often far different than ours.

Pray for yourself and intercede for others because it is the way you see the Lord at work in your own and other people’s lives. When we pray for and with others, we are not only encouraged by what the Lord is doing in our lives, but we see His work in their lives, which also strengthens our faith. Moreover, those we pray for are lifted up and encouraged. One of the highest ways we express our love for others is to pray with and for them. 


Praise the Lord because His steadfast love is better than life (Psalm 63:3). "I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High" (Psalm 7:16 NLT). "I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High" (Psalm 9:2 NLT). "I will praise you with music on the harp,because you are faithful to your promises, O my God. I will sing praises to you with a lyre,O Holy One of Israel" (Psalm 71:22 NLT).


"Hallelujah! Thank God! And why? Because he's good, because his love lasts. But who on earth can do it— declaim God's mighty acts, broadcast all his praises? You're one happy man when you do what's right, one happy woman when you form the habit of justice" (Psalm 106:1 MSG).


Pray because our prayers are precious to the Lord. In Revelation we are shown just how important our prayers are as we are given a picture of a time to come when the living beings and twenty-four elders will fall down before Jesus the Lamb, holding golden “bowls filled with incense—the prayers of God’s people” (Rev. 5:8 NLT)!” 

At that time incense will be mixed with the prayers of God’s people and offered on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke from the incense together with the prayers of the saints, will go up before God (Rev. 8:3-4).