- Have you ever asked yourself “Why do we need prayer?” Seriously!!! Should we stop?
- More importantly, Have you ever stopped and wondered what spurred you to ask: “Why do we need prayer?”
- Maybe even more shocking, have you ever considered that the answer is “you don’t need prayer”?
I know it sounds blasphemous doesn’t it?
After all, the Bible tells Christians to pray without ceasing and yet I am saying you may not need it. Why would I suggest such a ridiculous notion? I am making such a ridiculous assertion because I am afraid sometimes we ask why pray because we live in a halfhearted faith that sees no need for prayer. When you cannot see a real need for Jesus to intervene in your life, you have no real need to pray. If you live the kind of faith in Christ that costs you nothing and requires little trust in God, you have no need for prayer.
However, when you read the Bible and you see the kind of life Jesus calls from His followers, you will find a tremendous need for prayer. Jesus’s call on us is to depend on him in everything. Jesus calls us to lay down our lives. Jesus calls us to risk reputation, relationships, time, health, and even our finances for the sake of Christ. Jesus calls on us to have a big faith that trusts in Him. If you are serious about the type of faith Jesus has called you to live, you will pray and depend on him. No way Daniel, Moses, Abraham, David, or Paul would have dreamed of doing the things God asked of them without taking time to pray.
If you knew that in the next 5 minutes you would be sharing your faith with someone, making a sacrifice for Christ, or even risking your life to follow Christ, you would not even consider the silly question “Why pray?”. Instead, you will thank God for an opportunity to pray in a time when you need Him.
I think in America we probably ask the question “Why Pray” more than any other country. It is hard to see a need for prayer when we are numbing our minds on TV, Internet, or sitting on the couch doing nothing. However, if you were to go to the prison camps of China, or live under the persecution of the Middle East you would have a completely different perspective on prayer. You would spend far less time asking why we need to pray, and far more time saying thank you God for the opportunity to pray.
If you find yourself asking why do I need to pray, I think the answer may likely be… YOU DON’T!!! Why? Because a faith that does nothing for Jesus sees no need for prayer. You have no real need to trust in God through adversity because your faith isn’t living the kind of life that requires you to trust in God. So rather than waste time asking God “Why Pray” how about we all challenge ourselves to live out a faith that requires us to depend on Him alone. This is the kind of faith that motivates us to pray to God alone who provides.
So to answer the question… Why should you pray? The answer is “you shouldn’t”! You shouldn’t pray in a faith that sees no need for prayer. You should pray with the type of faith that sees a real need to pray. A faith that is depending upon a God who moves mountains, a faith that gets off the couch turns off the TV and looks for ways for God to use them in this world.
My hope is that you will be challenged to pray like life depended upon it.
Remember… “Pray as if everything depends on you, and trust in God as if everything depends on Him.”