The Importance of Prayer
How Should I Pray?
Matthew 6:9-13 “9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread. 12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]” I know it’s not often that I start a blog post with scripture and no introduction, but with our topic being on prayer today, there is nothing more vital than hearing what our Lord had to say on the matter. As we conclude our series on anthropology and the study of mankind today, I mentioned earlier this week how I wanted to dissect how the human race can commune with God in this day and age. We discussed already how having a relationship with Him is void and empty without the saving work of Jesus Christ and today I want to build on that by talking about the importance of prayer. What role should prayer play in our lives? With prayer being the literal facet by which we communicate with God, this should be one of, if not the most primary way we commune with our God. As we look throughout God’s Word and see how much our Lord values prayer, we can hopefully apply this aspect to our lives and seek to value this communion as much as He does. Wayne Grudem lists out 3 reasons why God Himself wants us to pray, these reasons are to express trust, to express love, and to be involved in activities that are of eternal importance. We will be discussing each of these aspects through this post. In fact, each of these aspects can be seen in the Lord’s Prayer above.
Trust, Love, & Eternity
First off, let’s look at trust. When looking at why God allows us to pray, Dr. Grudem mentions “God wants us to pray because prayer expresses our trust in God and is a means whereby our trust in Him can increase.” Praying before our Lord doesn’t just glorify Him as God, but humbles us enough to trust Him as God. This is seen in perhaps no better light than the first line of the Lord’s Prayer when we say ‘Our Father in heaven’. Our utmost dependency is revealed as we acknowledge that the very God we serve is the only Father in heaven worthy of our prayers. More trust is poured out from our hearts when we pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread’. God is our first and foremost means of having all that we need to make it through each day. Our total reliance in this life should be on all that God has blessed us with and this is expelled beautifully in our lives as we pray to Him and humble our hearts. The trust and dependency that we show to our Lord should mirror that of a father and son. This is why Jesus Himself gives us this exact example in Luke 11:9-13 “11 Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12 Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
God does not just want us to pray out of obedience, but out of a trust and dependency that can only be in Him. Our second reason for prayer that we see Dr. Grudem list is to love and have fellowship with God. This is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of prayer to this day. How many of us can actually say we love praying because we love communing with God and having fellowship with Him? I’m calling myself out on this one. Way too often I find myself in prayer to check it off my to-do list and to be obedient and not so much because my soul desires to spend time with the Lord. Yet this is exactly what He wants! What’s shocking about this is how quickly our minds and feelings towards prayer would change if we could truly grasp this weight. ‘You’re telling me there is one God who created all things, from the furthest star to the smallest atom, and this God wants to have a personal relationship with me?!?!’. No one who could fathom the weight of this scenario wouldn’t want to immediately make prayer a permanent part of their lives. This is the love that God has for you and the love that we ought to have for Him as we pray and commune with Him. I love how the end of the Lord’s Prayer reminds us of this remarkable aspect of your life when you get to communicate with God. ‘For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever’. To no one else belongs all the kingdoms, power, and glory in this world but God and God alone.
Prayer In Practice
Lastly, we see that God wants us to pray because we can be involved in eternally important activities. This statement alone should already be enough to grasp the attention of our minds. ‘You mean even in situations around the world that I can’t physically help in, I can pray to God to intervene in those scenarios?!’. What an amazing opportunity our Lord has given us! There’s a reason why this prayer that Jesus tells us to pray doesn’t state, ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, in my life as it is in heaven.’ but rather, ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ God doesn’t just want us to pray for ourselves and our personal walks with Him, He wants us to be in prayer for the whole world. How many times do we see throughout scripture, men and women pleading with God to change His mind and He actually does? Prayer is a powerful tool!! Exodus 32 lists an amazing story where God’s people deserved to be punished and Moses pleads with God to not destroy them and to forgive them. What’s God’s response? Look at what verse 14 says, “14 So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.”
God wants us to be involved in matters that are way out of our control, because when we pray about these things that we personally have no influence on and God still moves, all the glory, honor, love, and trust can only go to Him. This week, as we close this series, I want you to look at the way Jesus told us we should be praying in Matthew 6 and line it up with your everyday prayer life. Do your prayers sound similar to this? I’m not suggesting that the only way to pray is to state every word in this passage and no more, but surely we should use what Jesus Himself said prayer should look like as a reference. I would encourage you along with your daily prayers, to incorporate the Lord’s Prayer into your quiet times. I believe that when you do, you won’t only remember how to pray as Jesus taught, but you will love God more, trust Him more, and impact eternal matters that are way out of our control.
Sources
[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.
[2] Grudem, W. (1994). Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA79455700
Comments