As I said previously, I am fascinated by all things prayer. My last post was about the “how” of praying. This post focuses on the “why” of praying. I suspect the majority of people fall into two broad categories when it comes to why they pray: those who pray because that is what they are supposed to do and those who pray because they want to maneuver God into giving them something. Of these two groups, I am definitely more concerned about those who pray out of habit or out of a “have to” mindset. Because, there is nothing inherently wrong with praying to get some specific outcome from God. In fact, according to the verse I quoted last week, Philippians 4:6, making requests is indeed a way to pray authorized and encouraged by the Bible.
However, I believe that on the range of priorities given to ways of praying, making requests of God is the predominant way people pray when it should be the least. How many prayer chains and prayer meetings always seem made up of specific requests for this and that. In fact, we Christians have developed a short-hand for common prayer requests. Consider, for example, the request for “travel mercies”. Most everyone knows that is a request for prayer that one gets from point A to point B (and back) without mishap. But, it could mean just about anything: no leg cramps, no butt fatigue, no speeding tickets, no delays in the airport, no obnoxiously loud kids behind you on the bus, etc. Seriously? Why is that our prayer when a trip is coming up.
What if, instead, we pray for a wild adventure on the trip that takes us through snares and scares so that our faith is grown and we lean like never before on Jesus? Now that is a prayer! Oh, but the list of aches, pains, irritations, inconveniences, and bellyaching whining prayers are nearly as infinite as God Himself. I should know, I have prayed a fair portion of them myself. Let us end the yammering attempts to manipulate the Creator of the universe. Well, rather than end them, let us drop such grousing down to the bottom of the prayer list and focus on the prayers that are meant to be top priority.
I turn to the Bible to teach me the proper priority of prayer; of why we pray:
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 John 5:14
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:3
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9-10
We have here verses from three different authors: the Apostle John, the Apostle Matthew, and James the brother of Jesus. All three heard directly from Jesus about prayer. All three of these verses elucidate the key to why we pray. While most of our prayers attempt to move God, the preeminent reason why we pray is for God to move us. John tells us that our prayers should be in accord with the Father’s will. We learn His broad will from scripture and His specific will from prayer. James confronts the very thing I spent most of this post pointing out: that we pray for our inconveniences to go and good stuff to come – our pleasures.
Matthew, in sharing Jesus’ actual words, highlights that the very first priority in prayer is to come before God – to address Him with reverence so that our heart is in the right posture. The second priority in prayer is to seek God’s will. How often do we diligently seek God’s will first and foremost in our prayers? And, if we do, how often is it just bare lip-service; a rote formula we are used to spitting out. If we kept the priorities straight like Jesus shows us, I am confident we would have far fewer requests.
Why pray? We pray to apprehend the Father’s will. We pray to grow intimately acquainted with how the Father sees and feels about us. We pray to be moved – drawn away from the old desires of the world that lead to death into life (Romans 8:6). We pray to conform to the mind of Christ (see 1 Cor. 2:16).
When we pray with this desire to know the Father’s will, then the request part of our prayer will change dramatically. You see, part of the Father’s will for us is to go through “various trials” that our faith may be proven (1 Peter 1:6-7). Why then would we ask for those trials to simply disappear? Instead, we would ask for our faith to be emboldened and our eyes opened to how God is showing up.
This is not to say that we should never seek to move God with our prayers. I am certain that our Father often is waiting to move in a particular way until we join Him and care enough to cry out for that movement of God. And, there are many examples of the prayers of man changing the Father’s mind on a particular course of action: Abraham comes to mind pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah; Hezekiah’s boon of fifteen extra years of life also stands out; and if one reads the book of Amos, that prophet convinced God to twice change His mind. So, it is entirely legitimate and worthy to pray for God to move in a different way, but seek first His will. Seek first to understand His heart, and to some extent, His mind on things.
These three posts on prayer have merely been a prelude. I hope to have drawn you into deeper consideration of prayer and how you approach prayer. There is so much more I could say about it. For example, to be effective in prayer, one must have forgiven all those whom he or she has held a grudge against (Mark 11:25). Also, one must be seeking to live an increasingly holy life by confessing and turning from sin is also essential to effective prayer (James 5:16). However, I am compelled to next go deeper into this idea of intimacy with Jesus through prayer; coming to know His heart and share its beat. I believe that some are called to identify with and even embrace the sorrow of Christ for those far from Him through prayer. And, that is where I plan to go next. I hope some will join me.
Sans Tache 