Why Do You Pray?
by Lillian Penner
**Here is an Online Bible Study to help you to discover God: http://thelife.com/study/discovergod.html
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5 and 6).
Have you ever wondered why you need to pray when God knows your thoughts?
Prayer is deliberate communication with God. He knows our thoughts but He likes for us to communicate with Him frequently. Isn’t it wonderful that we can communicate with Him as we do with our friends? He speaks to us through His Word, which prompts us to interact with Him. When we have the Holy Spirit living within us, we have the ability to recognize His voice.
Satan tells us our prayers don’t matter because God is limited to what we think or God knows our thoughts, so we don’t need to pray. When we don’t know what to do or in situations that are too big for us to solve, God wants us to give Him an opportunity to display His power in our lives.
Letting go of sin: Exhale sin, inhale the Holy Spirit
Needing a timeout with God?: Take our Life Lesson
I have found that when I give my preconceived ideas and notions to God, His answers are far better than my preconceived ideas. If we ask God to get involved in our daily lives, follow His directions, we will see amazing results. When we pray we give God the opportunity to display His power in our lives. The same God who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites is at work today. God answers our prayers because of His great mercy and His love for us, not our good works.
When we pray we don’t have to listen to electronic messages before we get to talk to God. He doesn’t have voice mail. His line is never busy. We are not put on hold or hear the message, “All calls will be answered in the order received.” We don’t have to wait for God to take our call. We read in Isaiah 65:24, “While they are still speaking, I will hear.” However, He does not always answer our prayers immediately, sometimes we have to wait for His timing, but He does hear us while we are praying.
God has many blessings in store for us. He is patiently waiting for us to want the blessings enough to take the initiative to ask for them. Asking is the beginning of receiving. Have you ever thought about how many blessings you have missed because you have not asked? What a blessing it is when He answers even the little requests, like a parking place.
~Dear Lord, I want to allow You to adjust my spiritual vision so I can see Your power at work in my life. Cleanse me, empty me, and drain me of my preconceived ideas and my expectations. Fill me with Your power and display of glory so You can work in me and through me. Amen.
Questions: How many times have you asked God to specifically to bless you? How much time do you spend communing with God?
About the Author: http://thelife.com/experience/devotionalforwomen/authors/lillian-penner/
Tags: communicate, communication, God, Holy Spirit, interact, pray
5 Responses to “Why Do You Pray?”
Leave a Reply
Start a Conversation
Media
What Do You Fear?
What do you fear, and why? Is it holding you back from realizing your full potential?
>Watch
- Contact
- |
- Advertising
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Link to Us
- |
- Media Releases
- |
- What we believe
dianne r.,
in response to your first reply(sept.20), thank you for your honesty. I, too, felt the same way about the fear. but I came to realize I had the wrong fear in my heart with the Lord. as my spiritual self is growing, I’v come to know that God is a loving God who wants nothing more for me than to be one of His many children. and He understands that this ‘adoption’ for me is uncharted territory. He knows where I am in spiritual awareness even before I do. but He sees that I am on the right path and that I have much impatience to want more out of this relationship, when I know that I can’t just start to listen to the Bible from the beginning and skip to the end. if i’ve lost touch in a day communing with the Lord, i don’t ‘double up’ anymore. i used to because of the fear. i am living now to the best of my ability the Lord’s commandments. spiritual inactivity(which i lived all my life till last year)corrodes the soul which I know of first hand. that was the past(the yesterday’s).
In 1 Timothy 6 it says: ”But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.”
Who measures how we’ve done in life?
And judges our success?
Our God, who gives rewards to those
Who live in righteousness
author-unknown
Wow–So many fewer comments on these devotionals these days. I just quickly went through and looked at a number of more recent devos and saw that many have fewer than 10 or so comments. Did a bunch of people exchange e-mail addresses while I wasn’t looking :- D !
I’m not complaining, because I am one who has been trying not to get overly involved with the computer lately, and one of the most effective ways I have for doing that is to not come here as often-sad to say.
But I am not going away, and I may be able to step it up again in the future. It’s just that I have been looking for work a lot more lately, as well a baby-sitting our 4 month old granddaughter (she’s one who doesn’t tolerate not having full attention on her for more than a few minutes at a time-and she is one of those criers who goes from whimpers to screaming in under 60 seconds).
My current spiritual issue is trying to get a consistent grasp on the idea that I am precious to God always (i.e. a 20.00 bill is still worth 20.00 when it is wrinkled and dirty and even a little ripped up).
Love you all,
Dianne R.
Love you ladies!
To be very honest, I often pray out of fear that I won’t be blessed if I don’t. This isn’t the way I used to be. I don’t know if it is because I spend so much time with other Christians now that I have lost touch with just communing with God (as I did when I was still mostly a lone ranger and got most of my spiritual ideas through contact with people in “secular” 12 Step programs), or not. It is as though I am/have gotten brainwashed into constantly issuing prayer requests for others and myself (for betterment) instead of just experiencing relationship with God. Now it seems that there is a mental barrier between what I used to do, and do now.
lillain, thank your for this devotional. the title is such a simplistic question really, yet a complicated one as I had never really stopped to think as to why I do pray. i had to reflect back when I first felt the Holy Spirit in my heart. prayer was difficult for me at first. I’d stumble with my words, pause, try again, then not pray at all. i felt uncomfortable, my heart was changed but God was intangible to me. i felt inadequate as a new Christian. it wasn’t until I bought my first Bible, started reading His Word daily, that I started to listen to Him. I now know that He not only listens, He hears me when all i know to say to Him is ”Help!”
why do I pray? because of the gratitude and humility I feel, I have that Christ, He died for my sins of my past, so that I could live.
personally, i think that to God, it is inconsequential how times i’v specifically asked Him to bless me. the fact that i am communing to Him as i do daily, re-assures me that our lines of communication are always open. but, am i always listening?
i pray daily to
god so i can be close to Him. He always answers although some times it is not the answer i wanted. but He knows best
sharon
he