One Step Closer

Why Do We Pray?

Why Pray?

We pray because...

We love God. We spend time with God in prayer and communion because we love him. Just as a man and woman in love desire to be together and communicate, so we - if we love God - will desire to be with Him and to fellowship with Him in proportion to our love for Him. If you were a parent, wouldn't you want your children to communicate with you, more than just when you need help? I would. God is our father and he always wants to hear what's on your heart.

We depend on God. God is our source. He is our life (Colossians 3:4). Through prayer we receive the comfort, the strength and all the other resources that we need in life - both naturally and spiritually. Prayer - relationship to God - is as necessary to the spiritual life as air to the natural life.

We need to resist temptation. "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation." (Mt. 26:41). Much sin is the result of the sin of prayerlessness. Through lack of prayer, we are weak, others are weaker and Satan gains the advantage in our lives.

It is necessary for men to invite God to act in salvation. God gave the earth to Adam and his descendants. We must invite God to work here. If no one invites God to work here, Satan (the god of this world through man's universal rebellion - 2 Corinthians 4:4) will dominate the affairs of men and eventually the judgment of God will come. By inviting God often and specifically, multitudes can be saved that would otherwise be lost.

God commands us to pray. "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving." (Colossians 4:2). "Then he [Jesus] spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not lose heart." (Luke 18:1). The need to pray is as great as the authority of God which commands us: "Pray without ceasing." (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer is so vital to all that God wants to do on the earth, and so essential to us, that God commands us to do it all the time. We should even deny ourselves sleep and food at times in order to pray more and with greater power. (...Matthew 6:16; Luke 6:12; Luke 21:36; Colossians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 11:27).

~From the National Day of Prayer website.