Prayer: Why Should We Pray?

Prayer. Why Should We Pray?

Reformed theology has consistently insisted on the importance and effectiveness of prayer. God made us and redeemed us in order that we might have fellowship with him, and that is what prayer is. fellowship with God. God speaks to us through revelation, both the special revelation of Scripture and the general revelation of creation. He also speaks to us as the Holy Spirit enables us to understand this revelation, convicts us of our sin and works in us, empowering us to obey and to rejoice in the revelation we have received. In response, we engage in prayer to speak to God about himself, ourselves, our relationship with him and everything that exists and takes place in his creation.

There is no tension or inconsistency between the reality that God is sovereign over all things and the fact that prayer is effective. Just as God has ordained eating as a means by which hunger may be satisfied, so he has ordained prayer as a means by which events may come to pass. God has even ordained our prayers themselves, so they are fully in accord with his eternal council. Divine sovereignty does not contradict but affirms our responsibility to pray.

Although God has commanded us to pray, this is not the only reason we do so. We pray because we are entirely dependent upon God, needing him and his fellowship. We pray because God sovereignly controls all things and can therefore do whatever he pleases, and we pray so that he will choose to do good things for ourselves and others. Of all the human means that God uses to carry out his eternal plan, prayer is certainly one of the most powerful and effective because prayer calls on the all-powerful God to act on our behalf and on behalf of others for whom we intercede. As James expressed it, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” ( ).

Prayer takes different forms and emphases in different situations, and there are many legitimate ways to summarize the Bible's teaching on the subject. One helpful way to think of prayer is as a fourfold activity to be performed by God's people individually and collectively, both privately ( ) and with each other ( ; ). We are to. (1) express adoration and praise; (2) offer contrite confession of sin and seek forgiveness; (3) thank the Lord for benefits received; and (4) petition and supplicate on behalf of ourselves and others. The Lord's Prayer ( ; ) embodies adoration, petition and confession; the Psalter models all four elements of prayer.

Petition is our humble acknowledgment that we both need and trust God, that we depend on his sovereign wisdom and goodness. This is perhaps the most prominent dimension of prayer as expressed throughout the Bible (e.g., ; ; ; ; ,; ,; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). Petition, along with the other modes of prayer, should ordinarily be directed to the Father, as the Lord's Prayer demonstrates, but we may also direct our requests to Christ ( ), especially those for salvation and healing ( ; ; ). And we may petition the Holy Spirit for grace and peace ( ). It cannot be wrong to present petitions to God as triune or to request a spiritual blessing from any one of the three persons of the Trinity, but there is wisdom in following the New Testament pattern.

Jesus teaches that petition to the Father is to be made in Christ's name ( ; ; ). This means invoking Jesus' merit as the basis for our access to the Father and looking to Jesus, as our intercessor in the Father's presence, for support. We can only do so, however, when what we ask accords with God's revealed will ( ) and stems from proper motives ( ).

Jesus teaches that we may press God with fervent persistence when we bring needs to him ( ; ) and that he will answer such prayer in positive terms. But we must remember that God, who knows what is best in a way that we cannot, may deny our specific requests as to how these needs should be met. When God doesn't give us what we request, it is often because he has something better for us, as when the Lord declined to heal the “thorn” in Paul's flesh ( ).

Christians who pray to God sincerely, reverently, humbly and penitently, with a sense of privilege and with a purified heart, will find that the Holy Spirit prompts them to pray even more and to trust in their heavenly Father implicitly ( ; ). They will find themselves compelled to pray even though they may not know what thoughts or desires to express ( ). The mysterious reality of the Holy Spirit's help in prayer becomes known only to those who actively engage in this indispensable spiritual exercise.