Why Pray?

Learning to rely less on our gifting and self-efforts and more on the power of God and grow in deeper trust in his love for us.

I just got returned from teaching a week in a Bible school that studies through the entire Bible in a span of 3 months. I had the privilege of teaching “Kings Week”, otherwise known as the period in ancient Israel’s history where they operated as a monarchy. It started off as one united kingdom for the first 120 years, but then due to the consequences of the third king not following the Lord with his whole heart for his whole life, his divided heart resulted in a divided kingdom.

The rebellion in the kingdom that ensued after King Solomon’s reign took effect because of the ignorance and stupidity of his son to follow the advice of his peers, rather than the elders who had been there during his father’s reign. However, ultimately his downfall came in not seeking the Lord on how to do his job as King.

Nonetheless, God’s hand was at work even in the division. Even in the failure. Even in the mess. He was, and still is, there to work His purposes through fractured human leadership and faulty followers of Him.

The division in Israel’s kingdom happened not long after they built the grandest, most gilded and glorious temple for the Lord in all of their history under the reign of King Solomon. When the temple was finished being built, King Solomon held a dedication ceremony before the entire nation. All of Israel gathered together and Solomon cried out to God in praise and thanksgiving, and also cried out prayers of intercession - otherwise known as “standing in the gap” or praying for others. He prayed not if, but WHEN the people sinned, that God would forgive when they turns their hearts towards the temple (1 Kings 8:22-61).

Under the new covenant of Jesus Christ, we, the church, are the temple. Our bodies are temples of the living God, not a temple of stone and gold and cedar wood from Lebanon like we find in the Old Testament (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God cannot be contained to a physical place, geographic region, even earth or the universe itself. Solomon even declared this during his temple dedication ceremony to remind his people that the temple is only a representation of a dwelling place for God among them.

“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive” - 1 Kings 8:27-30

Solomon prayed that the Lord would “see” and “hear” those whose hearts “turned their hearts” to pray towards this “place” - which just means towards HIM.

So even when the kingdom divided not many years after this… there is still always the chance for the people to turn their hearts to the Lord. Even when the temple itself gets destroyed at the termination of their history as a kingdom several hundred years later… they can still come the the Lord in prayer. Doesn’t matter the state of their kingdom or nation. They can always turn their hearts to the King of kings because his reign is eternal and beyond geographic lines. He doesn’t wait for us to get it right to come to Him. He waits for us to bring our brokenness to Him. He sees. He hears. He forgives. Even when the temple is not there, He is with them. He is with us. God with us. Emmanuel.

While teaching throughout the week, I had brought up several examples of prayer: from Solomon’s temple dedication, to Hannah’s prayer dedicating her son Samuel to the Lord, to various kings who earnestly prayed to the Lord to deliver them in battle or to heal them. And we saw time and time again, God answered those who earnestly sought him in prayer, even the “bad guys”.

So, why pray?

This was brought up to me after class by one of the students.

That’s a question I’ve taken years to figure out myself, as well.

I was brought up in a culture and time and place where “DOING” is all that really matters. What you do is what people see, and is “proof” of your efforts. So when that is transferred into a relationship with Christ, of course a way to show that you truly do love and serve Him is by DOING good things!

This is not to negate that we are in fact, God’s hand-crafted pieces of art, created in Christ Jesus to do GOOD WORKS. Prepared before we were even born (Ephesian 2:10).

But what about prayer?

Prayer can seem like the opposite of “doing”. In reality, it is the unseen part of faith. The parts behind closed doors, the part you can’t “prove” to the outside world that you are working or serving or using your gifts even for the Lord himself. But the Bible says that He sees what we pray behind closed doors, and even rewards us for it. (Matt 6:6)

So why pray?

Does prayer even work?

At times it seems like God doesn’t hear our prayers, and other times He may answer right away. There’s no real “formula” to it.

But something that stood out to me from a recent prayer conference I attended at Church of the City New York was this: the disciples didn’t ask Jesus, “teach us how to heal”, or “teach us how to preach”, they said “teach us how to pray”. Jesus’ ministry on this earth was fueled by prayer from the very beginning. He would often retreat into the wilderness to pray. It gave him close connection to the Father, and also discernment about his purpose and calling. It was all birthed in the place of prayer.

Another key take away from this prayer conference was the big-picture perspective that we have “come to the end” of relying solely on our works, gifts and talents as a church body, especially in the western world. The African church, for example, has a strong emphasis on prayer and really relies upon and prioritizes it. While theology and Biblical literacy are just as important, if we only study and know ABOUT Jesus, rather than spend the time to get to know HIM, we are missing the point.

All that to say, in all humility I think as a church in the western world we need to ask God to teach us how to pray. Show us the way.

Because in our weakness is His strength. When our gifts and talents only get us so far, while the next generation is still riddled with anxiety and depression; when our intellectual knowledge and understanding of Christian theology isn’t enough to “argue” our position to those who don’t believe; when the church is divided just like the kingdom of Israel was split in two….God wants us to turn to HIM. To seek HIM for guidance. To surrender our presumptions and presuppositions and plans to HIM and receive his game plans and strategies for our individual lives, families, churches, cities and nation as a whole.

Are we placing our trust in “chariots” aka the strength of our armies? In our economy that clearly can rise and fall at the swing of a baseball bat? In our peers or even in the GOOD people around us, or even our circumstances. If and when any of those things fall away….we will come to learn where our trust really is lying. Even in our SELF. Are we relying on ourself more than the Lord?!

As King Solomon famously wrote himself in Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight

The reality is that we see King Solomon later in his life stops trusting the Lord. He starts off strong! But because of his 700 wives, they led his heart away from the Lord. I know and can admit I have fallen short at trusting the Lord with my WHOLE heart many times, and have placed my trust in all of the above different things at different periods of time. The good news is that there is always a way back to the Lord. He is merciful and compassionate and willing to forgive and work with us. But we have to turn our hearts back to Him. And in order to turn our hearts towards Him, we pray!

Are we willing to lay our to do lists down at the feet of Jesus and pray over them before we start our day/ week? Our travel plans for the summer? Our business plans, or even timing for marriage and family? Are we willing to lay down control over details of our lives that truly we do not have control over anyway, we simply try to as a source of security for ourselves?

It all starts in prayer. It all starts simply with spending time with the Father of all creation. Bringing our cares and concerns to him. Learning to trust that he cares for us. That we can “cast all our anxieties on him for he cares for us” (1 Peter 5:7).

Now again, this is not to negate people who truly are struggling with anxiety and need professional help. I have needed it in times of my life. But I think a lot of our “general” anxieties / worries have the ability to be quieted simply through learning to place them in the hands of the One who loves us and cares for us even more than we do. Worrying signifies a lack of trust. The only way to learn to trust, is by spending time with Him. In prayer.

So why pray?

It’s something I’m continuing to discover and learn more and more about, and there are different reasons and types of prayers. Some are requests and petitions. Some are confessions, Some are intercessions for other people. Some are for healing. Some are to “word dump”. But all of it is ultimately for fellowship. For fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Because that is the beautiful relationship that Jesus died to welcome us into. And I think so many of us (myself included) can separate ourselves even from this glorious gift of fellowship, simply because we’re too busy “doing things” whether for ourselves, our families, our church, our job, or even for the Lord himself. When what He may be asking is for you to simply join him in fellowship. And to partner with him in prayer.

I will end this here, as I think I could probably keep rambling on, but I also leave you with this: an invitation to partner with the Lord through prayer for something or someone else.

Today is the beginning of Ramadan, a 40 day season of prayer and fasting in the Muslim world. Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent, a 40 day prayer, fasting and repentance period in preparation for Easter. Would you join me in prayer this season? Prayer for a specific cause - or prayer simply to connect with God on a deeper level - whatever it may be. It doesn’t have to be perfect. But a reminder and act of humility and combatting the spirit of self-sufficiency and striving that runs rampant in the church nowadays. Just an invitation. And I believe it can and will stir up a greater sense of awe and wonder of the God of the universe when we do so.

“We went out sailing yesterday, and I prayed that we would see turtles, whales, dolphins and stars…. and we saw ALL of them! Not just one, but thirty dolphins! God REALLY loves us! I think I should pray more….”

Two days after our conversation about prayer, this student excitedly shared this story of God answering her prayers. Maybe that’s all it is. Prayer is simply learning how much God REALLY loves us. And when we learn this love we cant help but also pray for others to know this love as well.