Why Pray?

Luke 11:^9-10 “…keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Why do we pray? We pray because God commands us to pray. We pray because prayer empowers us to resist temptation. We pray because we depend on God. We pray because we love Him. We pray because God loves us. A lot of us have had similar experiences growing up where there is a need and your mum says to you, ‘go and meet your dad’. You go to him and when you say, ‘Daddy…’, what happens? He just stops everything and listens to what you have to say. Except for some very hard daddies, but generally, your dad just says, ‘Okay, what do you want?’ And it is because he recognizes that you are his offspring. Guess what? It is even better with God because God says in Matt.7:¹¹ “…if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”

An aspect of prayer that kind of baffles people is; if God has promised something if God has said He would do something, then why do I have to pray? Why pray when God has promised? John 12:²⁸ “Father, bring glory to your name.” Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.” This is a scripture we pray a lot during our God Will Do It Again season in God’s Favourite House. Yet, if God has promised – ‘God said it, I believe it, that settles it’ – why pray? If God has said it and He is not a man that He should lie, why pray? Why not just wait, why do I have to keep praying? Does that not show that I do not have faith? On the contrary, it shows that you have faith because God says, ‘Ask and keep on asking’.

Growing up, when you need something and you know that your parents are in the room, you go confidently to the door and knock. If the door is locked and they do not answer you, what do you do as a child? You keep on knocking and knocking. It is in their interest to answer you so that you can go away and leave them alone. Knowing that your parents are behind that door and they will eventually answer is the very reason why you keep on knocking. It shows faith. So, when you keep asking God, your Father, it does not mean you do not have faith. It actually means you have faith that He is there, and He will answer you.

So, why pray when God has promised? The first reason  why we need to keep praying, particularly because God has promised is that a pre-existing promise is actually an assurance of answered prayers. The more reason why we should pray. 1 John 5:^14-15 “And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.” (NRSV). God has promised; we are confident because He has promised, and He will make good His promise.

Prayer: Father, everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened, my case will not be different, in Jesus Name. Amen!