What Profit in Prayer?

We’re going to look at Job to begin our lesson tonight.

Job had three friends who visited him who were trying to help him figure out why he was going through such agony.

Bildad - superficial, he believed people were either blameless or secretly wicked.

Zophar - believed if a man was wicked, there was no way for him to repent or turn back to God

Elphaz - believed you could be forgiven and return to God

The skeptical friend in Job asked this question:

Job 21:15 ESV

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

The tone of his question really meant he didn’t want an answer.

After he posed this question, he went on with his rant.

Job’s response to Zophar was anyone who was a materialist would not see the benefit in prayer.

A non-believer or a materialistic believer will see little value in prayer.

Pilate did the same thing. He turned away not waiting for an answer.

God has supplied us with the answer.

In Hebrews 11, we are given a list of things that those who believe and have faith benefit from:

justification, deliverance, fruitfulness, enurance, victory over enemies, courage, strength, and resurrection from death.

Everything in this list should also go to those who offer up “true prayers.”

Faith and “true prayer” are two sides of the same coin.

There are men who pray without faith. This isn’t “true prayer.”

The Bible talks about “the prayer of faith.”

Prayer and faith are bound together and can never be separated. You can’t have one without the other.

Tennyson wrote, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

He probably didn’t realize the depth of the truth what he was stating here.

While we can’t trace everything back to what God does for us to a prayer that was prayed. However, by reading scripture, you can see evidence of this there.

What does it profit us to pray?

Nothing is impossible for the man who prays in faith.

This is because he is praying to a God who can do all things.

When we offer prayers that focus on God and his will for us, there isn’t anything we cant do.

George Mueller said faith grows with use.

We need to exercise our faith by asking for things. We may start with small things and then grow to bigger things.

A man who has small faith may have it because he has never asked for anything.

The Bible tells us we have because we ask.

The man who prays for things with a receptive heart, a pure motive, and has faith in what he is asking for, will receive those things.

Exploring with Tozer

What is the profit in prayer?

The prayer of the upright is his delight

Proverbs 15:8 ESV

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.

Our prayers honor and please him.

There is gain for the believer.

As we offer prayers to God, our faith is increased.

Our relationship becomes stronger.

We want to tell others more about what God has done for us.

Hopefully, the question of the title has been answered in this study.

Let us not fail the world and disappoint God by failing to pray.