Why Do We Have To Pray?

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Why do we have to pray? The answer to this question probably begins with our understanding of the nature of God. One of His characteristics is that He is all knowing. This means there is nothing God doesn’t know. This means, God not only know all facts that can ever be known, He also knows all events that have ever happened and ever will happen.

 

This attribute of God is hard to comprehend. We all have problems remembering things no matter what our age. When we are young we try to learn things so we can pass a class, get a job or just function in society. It seems as we get older and learn more and more facts, this information seems to fall out of our heads. It’s as if we had a leak in our brains and things we should be able to remember just aren’t there anymore. To think of God as remembering all things, events, details, and people intimately is almost impossible to fathom. He doesn’t possess any of our limitations. In our attempts to understand what God is like, many times we remove Him from heaven and put Him on our level. There is nothing wrong with attempting to know God better, but we must be careful that we don’t strip Him of the qualities that make Him God.

 

An equally hard thing to understand related to God’s Omniscience is that He knows events and decisions before they even happen. God is outside of time. He has always existed. He had no beginning and He will have no end. He knows our thoughts and actions before they occur. You now begin to see the storm cloud of confusion arising don’t you. If God knows what is going to happen before it does, why do we have to pray? If God knows what will happen anyway, why pray for change, for healing, for help, for God’s intervention? If God is in control and wants the best for His children, why doesn’t He just do it? Why does He have to wait for us to ask?

 

Well the best way to understand this is to stop putting ourselves in God’s seat and come down to earth where we live and breath. We are NOT omniscient. We do have a beginning and an end. We don’t know things before they happen, despite what you hear on the Psychic Network. We live out life in one dimension; God exists in all dimensions at the same time. We are faced with the task of determining our future. The fact that God knows our future, does not determine it. While He has foreknowledge of our life, He does not force us down a particular road. We choose the roads and paths we take. God simply knows ahead of time which one we will choose. Its as if we are living out a movie that God has already watched.

 

If I might stretch your thinking a little more, consider this. What if God knows not just what will happen in our lives, but all the infinite possible outcomes. What if God knows what will happen if we pray, if we don’t pray, or if someone else prays for us? What if, with every decision that is made, there are thousands and possibly millions of possible effects and outcomes. God can and does know all of these possibilities. This means that God knows the actual outcome in the end. Our prayers and actions will determine what path our lives take. God knows not only how our life will be and how it will end; He also knows what will happen no matter which choices we make. This means that prayer and communication with Him is vitally important. He wants to be active in our lives. He wants us to communicate with Him. He wants to answer our prayers. He wants a relationship with us. While God knows all things and is not bound by time – we are. We must live out our lives because we don’t know what tomorrow brings.

 

When we come to the issue of prayer, we must realize that God commands us to pray. In Philippians 4:6 it says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” He doesn’t view prayer as a useless practice that has no effect. It is vitally important to His plan for our lives. All through the Old Testament with prophets and kings, God acted in response to requests of prayer and worship. He often limited His involvement based on people’s actions.

 

Sometimes we think that it is no use to pray, because God does not answer quickly or in the way we would like. We must remember that prayer is not like a charge card. We can’t just go about life asking for anything we desire and expect to obtain it. I John 5:14-15 addresses the issue of praying for things, it says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us– whatever we ask– we know that we have what we asked of him.” God grants answers to our prayers if it is within His will.

 

I heard a story about a very devout man and wife who had conflicting prayers. The godly man was on a plane that was running late because of fog. He had to teach a class at a seminary and was late. He prayed hard and long that God would let the plane land. He was almost angry with God for not letting it happen. He had to teach those future pastors, he knew it must be God’s will. His wife on the other hand, a very godly woman, was on the ground at the airport. She knew how dangerous it was and was praying that God would not let the pilot land the plane because it was too dangerous. In the end God spared the life of the husband and prevented the plane from landing. Both of these Christians were in fellowship with their Father in heaven. Both had good reasons for their prayers. God only honored one. God honored the prayer that fulfilled His will at the time for both their lives.

 

Sometimes our prayers are not answered because we do not persist in them. I suggest you read the parable of the widow and the judge that Jesus uses to explain the necessity of persistent prayer in Luke 18. See if you can read between the lines and understand how often we give up in our prayers when God is requiring us to continue.

 

You have to admit it is a baffling question. Why would a God who knows every choice we make even bother with listening to us pray? Why bother with these meager, imperfect humans who continually sin and disobey? Why does He bother with unfaithful creatures that fail to ask and seek Him in more consistent ways? Why – because He loves us, and because this movie called “Life” is IMPORTANT! Our worry should not be, why pray if God knows the outcome? It should be, are we spending enough time in prayer! We should view life as fragile and dynamic, as malleable and changeable, as able to be molded and changed…How? Through our prayer God works in our lives.

 

In the garden before Jesus was crucified you see a similar struggle and an example. Jesus fore knew what was to happen to Him. He knew the pain to come, the emotional drain, and the physical torture. He knew it so well that He sweat blood as He prayed. BUT, He prayed. Why would Jesus pray if He knew He was to rise from the grave? This is the perfect example that God has given us. Even when Jesus knew the outcome, both the pain and the victory, He still felt it necessary to pray. Why, because He knew He should, because it comforted Him, because He wanted the Father to know His feelings, because God wanted Him to.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:17

“Pray continually.”