The 1st reason to pray is because it’s a straight command from God. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says that we are to “rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” The Bible says that this is literally God’s will for every single person that we should be continually praying to Him. To not pray or have a prayerful life would be a sinful behavior before God. This is not hard to understand. Praying is an act of trusting and depending on God for His provision. To not pray would be a demonstration of a lack of trust in God as well as reliance in self. Only proud people don’t pray and God is opposed to the proud.
The 2nd reason to pray is because our prayers are actually heard. 1 John 5:14-16 says “this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” Because we have been declared righteous in Christ, God actually listens to us and answers our prayers if we ask according to His will. Our prayers are not just shooting up into a vacuum somewhere, but our God is actually moved by our prayers!
The 3rd reason to pray is because we won’t get anything we want if we don’t pray. James 4:2-3 says that “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” We all have things that we need or want to have in our lives. And the Bible says that God actually knows our frame and is mindful of us. However scripture also says that we will not receive anything unless we ask God for it. And as we ask God for things, the Bible says that we need to regularly be taking internal inventory to make sure that we are not simply seeking our self-indulgence. This is how God designed it so that we would learn to place our trust in Him rather than ourselves.
The 4th reason to pray is because praying to God is simply what children of God do! Romans 8:15 says that “you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” What child doesn’t cry out to her parents? A child of God who doesn’t pray is like a fish that doesn’t swim or a bee that doesn’t buzz. It simply doesn’t work… Children of God will by their very (new) nature cry out to God who is their Father whom they now know, trust, and love.
Lastly, praying regularly to God protects us from anxiety. Philippians 4:6-7 says to “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Anxiety can be absolutely destructive to us because it robs us of peace. Actually it’s more like we ourselves forfeit the peace of God when we choose to take the reigns of our lives into our own hands and rely on our own strength. On the other hand, if we keep our trust firmly placed upon God, we give anxiety no foothold in our lives and enjoy continually the peace of God which surpasses all human comprehension.
Post by Alan Bui