THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER

​Welcome back to this series on prayer. If you have missed any previous posts you can click here to catch up.
 
In this post we look at the question of the purpose of prayer. Often the point is made that, if we believe that God is sovereign and knows everything, including what we are thinking or what we need, what is the point of praying?

Maybe you have asked a similar question. I know I have occasionally wondered this.

1. Prayer is Obedience
   The first purpose of prayer is obedience. God commands all who are born again to pray. We talked about this in the Commands of Christ series. Click here to review that post. But in Matthew 6, Jesus makes it clear that Christ-followers or disciples will pray. He says, “And when you pray…”, making it plain that you are expected to pray.
   
   There are other scriptures that also make it clear that prayer is expected of us. Philippians 4:6, Luke 21:36, Colossians 4:2, and 1 Timothy 2:1-4 are just a few.
   
   
   
2. Prayer Establishes God as the Source
   A second purpose for prayer is that it establishes God as the source of all things. 1 Corinthians 8:6 tells us that God is the source of all things and that we exist for Him. When we pray to Him, we are acknowledging that He is the source of everything we need for this life and for the next. Prayer positions Him as the supplier.
   
   If you are at all like me, you will need to be reminded of this truth often. It is not difficult for me to begin to think that I can handle things, that I can figure this out, that I know what is best. Bad things usually follow this line of thinking. Best to keep it clear that God is the source and my role is to come to Him in prayer asking for that which I need.
   
   
3. Prayer Establishes my Dependance on God
   Connected to the last purpose, this looks at it from the other side of the equation. Not only does prayer reinforce God as the source, but it also reinforces me as the recipient of His grace. This can be seen in Jesus use of the ‘vine and branches’ in John 15:5. Here He says that the branch is utterly dependant on the vine for everything it needs. For nourishment and for water and for support, the vine is indispensable. But the vine is also required for growth and for fruitfulness. Without that connection to the vine, there can be neither growth nor fruitfulness.
   
   This is made crystal clear in verse 15. Jesus tells us that apart from Him, we can do nothing. If we can do nothing apart from Him, then our supplication in prayer is the acknowledgement that we depend on Him for everything. It is our confession to Him and our declaration to self. Being fully dependant, we come to Him for what we need.
   
   
4. Prayer Glorifies God
   I hope that you come to this blog post with the understanding that God’s ultimate purpose in everything He does is to display His glory. Isaiah 48:11 tells that God does what He does for His own sake, for the sake of His glory, which He will not share. Jeremiah 13:11 also makes it clear that God made Israel to cling to Him so that they might be for Him a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. And in Ephesians1:6-14, Paul also makes it clear that God has saved us to the praise of His glory of His grace (verses 5-6), to the praise of His glory (verse 12), and to the praise of His glory (verse 14).
   
   And if it is God’s ultimate purpose then it should be ours as well. Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 10:38 tell us that whatever we do should be done to the glory of God. And we do this in prayer in a couple of ways.
   
   First, as the source of everything we need, coming to Him with our requests honours Him as the source. It exalts His supply while acknowledging our need.
   
   Second, the glory of His self-sufficient power and wisdom shines most brightly not when He looks like He depends on the work of others, but when He makes plain that He Himself does the work. 2 Chronicles 16:9 makes this pretty clear. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him.” God is searching for needy people for whom and through whom He can show off His strength.  And He really does want to do this. This brings Him great pleasure.​​
   
5. Our Means of Communicating to God
   Finally, the obvious purpose for prayer is to communicate.
   
   Communication controls relationships. We withhold communication in order to control a relationship—to prevent others from seeing us in an unpleasant light—and we choose to share information about ourselves with others as a way of bonding with them. This exchange of information is a means of letting them see us—of opening ourselves up to them. And this makes us vulnerable to them.
   
   Prayer is absolutely critical to our relationship with God. We know that God has spoken to us in His Word but how do we speak to Him? Through prayer. There is no alternative. And a prayerless Christian is...well I don’t know what kind of Christian could be prayerless. Certainly not one with a growing relationship with his or her Creator. Not one who is an obedient disciple, or who sees God as the source of all things, or who acknowledges his or her neediness before the God who supplies all our needs, or who glorifies God as the source.
   
   Let’s commit to being people of prayer.

 
What is your prayer life like? Would you share what God has spoken to you about prayer? What steps can you take to be more prayerful? Leave us a comment and let us know.

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