Bible study: The importance and purpose of prayer

Definition: The practice of communicating with a deity.

Prayer is direct conversation and communion with God, whether vocal or silent, planned or spontaneous, individual or corporate.

What is the importance of prayer?

Why it matters to believers

It directs our thought to the sovereign one and lines us to have the thouught of His will to be done- Psalm 5:1-3

Psalm 5:1–3 NASB95

1 Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my groaning. 2 Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. 3 In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.

The prayers of God’s people are but God’s promises breathed out of living hearts, and those promises are the decrees, only put into another form and fashion. Do not say, “How can my prayers affect the decrees?” They cannot, except in so much that your prayers are decrees, and that as they come out, every prayer that is inspired of the Holy Ghost unto your soul is as omnipotent and as eternal as that decree which said, “Let there be light, and there was light;” or as that decree which chose his people, and ordained their redemption by the precious blood of Christ.

C. H. Spurgeon, “True Prayer—True Power!,” in The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 6 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1860), 336.

Why it matters to God

God has created us to enjoy Him and to glorify Him. One of many ways that we do this is through pure pious prayer. A prayer that is focused upon God is one that glorifies Him more than the vain of the wanting Christian. The life of a Christian can not be divorce from such a prayerful life. One that seeks to not speak out of term, but to speak as a genuine adopted son and daughter of God.

How does it make you feel when your own sons and daughters run to the neighbor to get advise? Or they look up on youtube how to tie their shoes? or even go to their friends on how to engage in the world? does it not strike you in the very core of you fatherhood? Now consider what that does to the God who loves us vastly more in comparison. We are to GO to Him always in prayer. Hebrews 13:13-18

Hebrews 13:13–18 NASB95

13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. 15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. 16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. 18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

The importance that it is to pray to God is the matter of worship to Him. It is actually sin to not conduct ourselves in such a manner.

What is the purpose of prayer?

What it does for the believer

PARAGRAPH 2

Religious worship is to be given to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to him alone;4 not to angels, saints, or any other creatures;5 and since the fall, not without a mediator,6 nor in the mediation of any other but Christ alone.7 4 Matt. 4:9–10; John 6:23; Matt. 28:19 5 Rom. 1:25; Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10 6 John 14:6 7 1 Tim. 2:5 PARAGRAPH 3

Prayer, with thanksgiving, being one part of natural worship, is by God required of all men.8 But that it may be accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son,9 by the help of the Spirit,10 according to his will;11 with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance; and when with others, in a known tongue.12 8 Ps. 95:1–7, 65:2 9 John 14:13–14 10 Rom. 8:26 11 1 John 5:14 12 1 Cor. 14:16–17 PARAGRAPH 4

Prayer is to be made for things lawful, and for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter;13 but not for the dead,14 nor for those of whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin unto death.15 13 1 Tim. 2:1–2; 2 Sam. 7:29 14 2 Sam. 12:21–23 15 1 John 5:16

What is the chief end to prayer

Is to glorify God in the breathing it out, but is for us to lean and enjoy God on the taking it in.

Legacy Standard Bible CHAPTER 18

10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying these things to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’

14 “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”