WHY YOU NEED TO PRAY

In the Bible, God commands people, multiple times, to pray. But why do we need to pray?

This is a question many Christians, as well as people with other beliefs, have asked.

If God is in control of human history and also directs individual lives, what’s the point of praying? The answer lies in understanding what prayer is.

If you see prayer merely as a means of taking some level of control of your life and the world — as a means of leverage — then you will inevitably be troubled by what appears to be unanswered prayer. But if you see prayer primarily as an ongoing conversation with God, then you’ll realize there is really no such thing as an unanswered prayer.

God might not choose to do what you ask Him to do when you ask Him to do it. You might have seasons when you find it hard to hear what He’s saying for all sorts of reasons. It’s hard when someone says no, or even not yet, to what seems like a good and valid request.

But if prayer is first and foremost a conversation between you and God, then His promise to always listen may be the answer your heart needs most.

There is a famous verse in the Bible that is often misinterpreted, and it’s vital to the questions we’re thinking about here: “Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4, New International Version).

You can interpret this verse as saying if you focus on enjoying God, He will give whatever you want. Or you can understand it to mean that if you take delight in God, over and above anything else in your life, He will shape your heart so it wants the things He already wants to give you. His desires will become your desires.

It’s safe to say that the second interpretation is more consistent with the teaching of the rest of the Bible. Scripture does not guarantee God will provide you whatever you want right now.

With this in mind, let’s look at the reasons we choose to pray — and some reasons we often choose not to.