“Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may Your name be kept holy. May Your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:9-13 NLT)
Have you ever asked yourself: “Why should I pray, nothing ever happens. I can’t see any evidence that He even hears me.” There are prayers that I’ve lifted to the Father for more than thirty years that haven’t yet been answered. Do I get discouraged? Yes. Am I tempted to stop praying? Never! Why not, you may wonder.
Louie Giglio gives us insight into why we should never give up praying when he wrote: “If only we knew what was happening when we pray, we would never cease to pray.”
One of the reasons prayer frustrates us is because, too often, our attitude as we approach prayer is wrong. We see prayer like a teenager asking his/her dad to have the keys to the car to go cruising. No specific reason other than to drive around with friends and see what they can get into. Our requests are too vague.
It would be different if that same teen came to mom or dad and said: “May I please borrow the car for a few hours? I have to go to the library and study for an exam I have tomorrow.” Or, “The Prom is coming up and I’d like to ask someone, but I’d like to make sure it’s okay if I use the car on that night.” Specific requests with specific expectations.
That’s one kind of prayer, but that doesn’t encompass our whole reason for praying. Notice in the verses above Jesus “modeled’ how we should pray. The focus of all our prayers is to worship and honor our heavenly Father. Our desire through everything we do, say, or think, should be to exalt the Lord and submit to His authority in and over our lives.
There is a sense in which we come to God as a slave comes to their master. Yes, of course, God is our Father, but Jesus painted a clear picture, not only through His words, but His sinless life, that His whole purpose in being in a human body was to honor and exalt His Father in heaven. When we lose sight of to Whom we’re praying, it’s a very short step to lose sight of why we pray.
Answers are not the primary purpose of prayer! If all I needed from prayer were answers, why begin in worship? Why recognize God as our Provider? Why declare our allegiance to His holy Kingdom? Why seek Him for forgiveness and depend on Him for the resource of strength to help us forgive others? Why pledge our dependence upon Him to enable us to avoid temptation and not give in to the lies of the evil one?
Of course, He invites us to ask Him for anything, but it’s always in the context of His will and purpose, not only for His Kingdom, but for our individual lives. We shouldn’t always and only ask God for answers any more than answers would be the only thing for which we’d engage another person in conversation. What kind of relationship would we have with our spouse if the only conversations we had were making requests or demands?
No consideration or interest in who they are or what’s going on in their lives, just barging through the door and barking out: “Is dinner ready yet?” Or “Why isn’t the dryer fixed yet?” Our heavenly Father is far more than our spiritual “genie,” and to only go to Him with requests, even good, God-centered requests, is to ignore our need of Him as our Father and Friend.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 