You ask: “Why Pray?”
Why NOT? What can you do that is a better investment of your time? What can you do that can work in any kind of weather, in any season, under any circumstances, like prayer?
There are many other reasons one could add. For instance:
Because God delights to hear and answer prayer…
Because God commands us to pray …
Because prayer is God’s appointed way forChristians to get what they need and want ...
Unbelievers expect to get things by planning and working for the things they want, or by luck (as in a lottery or sheer accidental turn of events.
False believers believe in the power of false gods as Pharaoh did, and rebellious Israel did at the foot of Mount Sinai, and as the prophets of Baal did.
In modern days false believers believe in the power of Feng Shui, of incantations, of the gods of wicca, and in a number of new age therapies or “spirit guides” or “angels”.
But God’s appointed way for Christians to get things is prayer.The BIble specifically tells us that when we don’t get things it is because we don’t ask.
James 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
See the context:
James 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Fighting, competition, warring, intrigue, these are the ways of the world. The Christian just asks, but with a heart that’s right with God, seeking first the Kingdom, and not asking for things to consume upon their lusts. If these conditions are met, every thing we desire will be added to us.
God is addressing the James passage to the farmer. Most farmers think they will get by diligently ploughing the soil, sowing the seed, watering, weeding, but these guarantee nothing, a fungus, a boll weevil, too little rain or too much rain or unseasonal rain, or frost, or a number of other things outside human control, can destroy the best famer’s crops. To the farmer, God says, “You have not because you ask not.”
Yes, asking is God’s appointed way for His children to get things. The farmer’s answer is in the prayer “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3).
Because prayer is the only way we Christians can ge fullness of joy.
God has ordained that Christians will have fullnes of joy all the time by having their prayers answred. John 16:24.
God, not only wants to give us all that we ask for, so that our joy may be full, but if, by chance, we ask for something that will reduce our joy, He can and will teach us what we should be praying for instead of what we asked!
In this way, we can be continually joyful, and have fullness of joy continually!
Because prayer is the only way out of all trouble, and the cure for all worry and anxiety.
Prayer is not only the appointed way to get what we want, but also the appointed way to get rid of what we do not want.
Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
The Christian is to pray through everything, and day by day his worries wil be dissolved, and his heart will be left in perfect peace (v.7).
Peter tells us to cast all our cares on the Lord because He cares for us.
See also Psalm 55:22 and 34:6.
And Matthew 6L25, 31,33,34
Because prayer is God’s way for Chrisian’s to exercise Kingdom auhority …
The unanswerable way to answer skepticism and unbelief is to have such answers to prayer that th skeptic cannot but be convinced.
This was the route that Elijah took to convince Israel that the God of Israel, not Baal was the true God. No doubt was left in Israel’s minds after the stunning answer to Elijah’s prayer.
We need to trust the God who said that we must believe the God Who says that to please Him we must believe that He is and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)
Believing HIm, let us call upon God and expect Him to prove Himself.
Because prayer is God’s appointed way to soften the hearts of sinner, and to open his mind to the truths of eternal life.
Because prayer is the only way to have the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Messiah Himself says:
Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in the human body at salvation, making the body the temple of the Holy Spirit.
But here Jesus is referring to the Holy Spirit coming in soul-winning power.
To understand the difference, conider that when Jesus rose from the dead, He breathed on the disciple saying “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”, yet it was not till after His Ascension when He poured out the Holy Spirit on the 120 in the Upper Room that they were endued with power from on high.
To fully understand Luke 11:13, read the context:
Luke 11:5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
The context is that of a friend asking for bread, the bread of life, to offer to his friend, he gets it through importunity, asking, seeking, knocking, knocking, knocking.
The history of revival shows that revivals come in answer to prayer. This was promised by God in 2 Chronicles 7:14 to those who humbly pray.
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