Why Pray?

Acts 2:37-42,
The first snapshot we have of the early church is Acts chapter 2, and clearly it is a praying church. And that word pray, prayed, and praying are used up to 30 times in the book of Acts alone, underscoring the church was a praying church. Prayer was a big part of their lives as they lived together. And the Bible at the same time is very realistic when it comes to prayer. It rarely comes easy for any of us. Paul knew personally the struggle in terms of his whole life, in terms of fighting with sin. That's why he says what he says in Romans 7:19, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” So there was this ongoing battle with the flesh. And we also have to recognize that we battle with the devil; he's always active, he's always resisting. And the world, be not conformed to the world. The world is always trying to put pressure upon us to mold us, to shape us in one way or another, to pull us away from our prayer closet or corporate prayer meetings.

Plus, as Christians, we do grow weary in well-doing. But like everything else, we can major on the negatives, the struggles, the difficulties, and we lose sight of the blessings and the privileges, the encouragements and the promises when it comes to prayer. So I am going to use the word love. And let me give you several reasons why we should love to pray and get excited about praying.

It is not without significance that Jesus begins the Lord's Prayer with those words, “Hallowed be your name.” That's what we want, that's what we should want more than anything else, more than anything in terms of our own lives, but we want God's name to be hallowed in our lives, in the church and in the world at large. And prayer and answers to prayer glorify God. His all sufficiency, His generosity, His mercy, His grace, His power are manifested when He shows how He hears and answers the prayers of His people.

So the Lord's Prayer gives us three major perspectives in terms of what we can pray for, but it's always going to go back to God in terms of what He does for us. We need provision, He gives daily bread. We need pardon, He forgives our sins and we need protection, He delivers us from the evil one. And when God asks or when we ask God for bread or for deliverance, for forgiveness, and He gives us what we ask, He's glorified, He's magnified as the giver of givers.

Prayer gives us opportunity to exercise our graces. Why can a Christian pray and only a Christian pray? Well, when God saves us, He regenerates us. He implants His grace in our hearts and those graces are to be used to live the Christian life, but also to be used when we pray. The grace of faith, the grace of hope, the grace of perseverance, the grace of patience, the grace of repentance, the grace of humility; all of those graces are active, maybe not always at the same time, but they're active when we pray. And the more we pray, the more we utilize those graces, the stronger they get. Just like physical muscles, the more you use your muscles, you utilize them, the stronger they get.

Another reason why we should love to pray is to obey Jesus and show that we love Him. Jesus said, “If you love me, you keep my commandments.” And prayer is commanded. Men are to "always pray", Luke chapter 18. Colossians 4, “Continue steadfastly in prayer.” Ephesians 6, “Praying at all times.” When we pray, we are obeying God, we are obeying our Lord Jesus. So prayer gives us the opportunity to give witness to our love and devotion to our Lord and Savior.

Prayer brings us into fellowship with the three person God. We can come to the throne of grace and acknowledge God as our Father, Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our helper. And because of justification by faith and because of adoption, we come as those who have been declared righteous in the sight of God, no condemnation, and we also come as the children of His family. We can cry, “Abba Father.”

One more reason why we should love to pray is because of change. There are some wonderful changes that take place when we pray. We won't even realize how many changes took place until we're in heaven in terms of the changes. We won't know exactly how God specifically answered certain prayers and how they were answered in different ways, ways that we never thought they were going to be answered, but there are some wonderful changes that take place.

1. Conversion: Number one, there's a change of conversion, right? When you pray for unconverted people, maybe your children, maybe your friends, maybe your neighbors, and God answers those prayers, there's a change, a wonderful change that has transpired and it's because God has to save them, I realize that, but we pray. God answers our prayers.
2. Sanctification: But there's also the change of sanctification. As we pray for ourselves, pray for others, we pray for growth in grace, inward change, and we grow as a result of prayer.
3. Circumstances: And wonderful changes can also take place. This is what we often focus on, perhaps more than others just in terms of circumstances: health issues, job situations, trials, afflictions, just like Peter. Remember Peter in Acts chapter 12, his circumstances changed. He was in jail one day and the next day he was free because the church had prayed.

So there are many reasons, many more why we should love to pray or be encouraged to pray, and we have the privilege to pray. Do you think that Jesus loved to pray? Sure He did. He loved to go to the Father and we should love to go to our Father.