Prayer
is an invocation or act
that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate
communication.
Prayer is
a communication process that allows us to talk to God
by AMON MWANDOE
Why should we pray? God already knows our
hearts. He already knows our desires. So why pray? We could easily say it is
because the Bible commands it. Paul goes as far as to say, "Pray without
ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17)—that is reason enough. But let's explore a few
other reasons for why we should pray.
1. We pray because we
love:
A relationship of love is one of enjoying each
other. If I say "I love my wife" but never speak to her, it is likely
that I don't love her. If I love her, then I will want to talk with her, spend
time with her, and desire her. This is why we see Jesus in passages like Mark
1, "rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed
and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed." He loves the
Father. The Father loves Him, so He wanted to spend time talking with Him even
before the day started.
2. We pray out of
gratitude:
James says, "Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James
1:17). Paul says in Philippians that we are to "be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God"
(Philippians 4:6). Like the one leper who returned to Jesus, we are to return
to God time and again with thanksgiving. All that we have been given, all that
we have received, is a gift from His hands. Prayer demonstrates and provides a
vehicle for our offering gratitude.
3. We pray because we
want to know God more fully:
There is nothing more lovely, nothing greater
our hearts can seek, and nothing more fulfilling than God Himself. And as we
speak with Him, we get to know Him more. As the Psalmist says, "One thing
have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to
inquire in his temple" (Psalm 27:4). We want to know Him. We want to know
God in all His glory. If that is the case, then like a young woman dating and
trying to get to know a young man, we will want to talk with Him more.
4. We pray to know our
own hearts more fully:
I think of Habakkuk's words, "The Lord is
in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silent before him" (Habakkuk
2:20). There is a real benefit in coming before the Lord in silence. It is true
that we get to know Him more fully in prayer, but we also get to know ourselves
more fully. How often we pray and are convicted by some sin that we didn't know
was present before. We hear it uttered from our lips or find our minds
entangled by it as we approach Him in prayer. Like Peter on the rooftop, we are
made aware that what we have believed or practiced or dreamed or sought is
unholy. Prayer lays open our hearts not only before God, but before ourselves.
God already knows what is in them, we often do not.
5. We pray to be conformed
to His Image:
Some have said that prayer's purpose is not so
that we might change God, but so that God might change us. And there is much
truth in this. Calvin said, we pray in Jesus' name so "that there may
enter our hearts no desire and no wish at all of which we should be ashamed to
make him a witness, while we learn to set all our desires before his eyes, and
even to pour out our whole hearts." In prayer our hearts are shaped and
molded, our affections are stirred, and our minds are transformed. The prayer
closet is the academy of righteousness. One may enter as a truant and emerge a
cadet.
6. We pray to
acknowledge our dependence upon Him:
We are not independent beings. As Paul
preached at the Areopagus, "In him we live and move and have our being."
We are and can be nothing apart from Him. Prayer recognizes that. Ursinus once
commented that, "Prayer is as necessary for us as it is necessary for a
beggar to ask alms." A beggar is by definition one who asks for alms. We
are people, human beings, created in His image; by very definition we are
dependent and are to pray.
7. We pray to receive
from Him:
James says, "If any of you lacks wisdom,
let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be
given him" (James 1:5). We ask to receive. Jesus follows his teaching of
the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11 with the story of the man who is awoken from bed
by a friend who desires three loaves of bread. And Jesus says, "How much
more the Father? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask him!" This is all in the context of the Lord's Prayer, which is
filled with asking to receive. We do pray to receive. And we have a Heavenly
Father, who loves to give. He is the giver of all good gifts. If everything
good comes from Him, then in prayer we rightfully seek and ask of Him.
8. We pray because God
chooses to use means:
There are many who say, "Why pray if God
already predestines all things? Why pray for someone's conversion, why pray
that God would heal my body, why pray for anything?" Because God chooses
to use means. He uses rain to make the grass grow. He uses the sun to light the
world. He uses our prayers to accomplish His purposes. It is one of the most
amazing and humbling realities in the universe, but it is true. God chooses to
use us in accomplishing His purposes. Our prayers may be the very means He uses
to save our children, to provide health to the person on the prayer list, or maintain
unity in our local church. James says, "The prayer of a righteous person
has great power as it is working" (James 5:16). We have no clue this side
of heaven what our prayers are accomplishing for the sake of the Kingdom, our
church, our families, or our person. Frankly, we would be overwhelmed in the
9. We pray that God might receive glory:
When the lame man is healed in Acts 3 by the prayer of Peter, his response is to rise, leap in joy, and praise God. When God answers our prayers, we offer praise. God receives glory as men receive from Him and respond rightly.
Prayer is a gift from a heavenly Father, who loves to hear from His children. There are countless reasons to pray. Let's be a people of prayer. Never will one minute in prayer closets be a minute wasted or later regretted. present if we knew how purposeful, meaningful, and essential God has made our
prayers. It is humbling. And it is terribly exciting.
What does it mean to pray "in Jesus’ name"
by amon mwandoe
To pray in Jesus' name means to offer prayer to God the Father through the
ministry and work of Jesus.
It implies that the person who is praying in Jesus' name has received Christ as
Savior (John 1:12) and has been justified by faith (Romans 3:28, 5:1). This means he is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17), indwelt by God (John 14:23), who is born again. Therefore, he
has the right to pray to God through Jesus who lived a perfect life (1 Peter 2:22) and bore our sin in His body on
the cross (1 Peter 2:24). It is
also a designation of authority because Jesus has the authority to go to God
the Father, and we who are in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22) also have been given that
same authority. This is why people will often end their prayers by saying
"in Jesus' Name, amen." What they are intending to do is address God
the Father through Jesus by depending completely on His work and perfection
since He is, after all, God in flesh (John 1:1, 14, Colossians 2:9).
John 14:13–14, “Whatever
you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the
Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."
Furthermore, the phrase, "in Jesus' Name," designates authority.
In Acts 4:7, 10, we see religious leaders asking Peter by
what authority he healed a sick man.
Acts 4:7, 10, And when they had placed them in the center,
they began to inquire, “By what power, or in
what name, have you done this?" . . . 10 "let it be known to all
of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by
the name of Jesus Christ the
Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead--by this name this
man stands here before you in good health."
So, it should be obvious that "in Jesus' Name" is a phrase that
designates authority, and when we pray in His Name, we are praying in His
authority because we have trusted completely what Christ has done on the cross
to forgive us of our sins.
