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WHY PRAY?

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.
(James 5:16)

BEFORE OUR SON WAS EVER CONCEIVED, we prayed for him. We knew God would give us a child, felt certain it would be a boy, and knew his name was to be Nicholas, which means overcomer. We knew God’s hand would be on him, and that God would teach him how to be an overcomer. How did we know? We had prayed many times, and God had responded to us.

What we did not know was that he would develop autism in his first years of life, and that he would have to learn to overcome even before he could speak his first word. Yet even in the face of such a devastating diagnosis, we have always felt assured that Nicholas will grow to fulfill all of God’s plan for his life. It’s not that we have a super faith or that we are blind to the reality of autism in a child’s life. Our ability to believe comes from our continual prayer, and God’s continued response to us. Of course there are times when we feel overwhelmed and discouraged, and we are concerned for the future. But in those times, we remember how God has been faithful to lead us every step of the way, and we remember how far Nicholas has come since we first learned of his condition. Even though God has not healed him over night as we would have wanted, we have seen God respond to our prayers with many miracles in Nicholas’ young life.

WHY CHRISTIANS DO NOT PRAY

Many Christians know they ought to pray or, if they do, that they should pray more. But many do not. Some reasons for this may include:

1. They are not sure it really works. Most Christians at some level believe, or would like to believe, that prayer makes a real difference, but many have trouble believing that their prayers have any real affect. Will God truly listen to them?

2. They tried it, but see no results. There are those who are suffering from hope deferred, meaning that they put their hope in God at one point, but nothing seemed to happen. They may begin to question God’s love or interest and be reluctant to continue trying.

3. They believe that if God can do anything, He does not need their prayers. B.J. Willhite, a contemporary teacher on prayer, puts it this way, “Many Christians are fatalistic in their view of the future. They believe that what is to be, will be—everything that happens is the will of God. It is easy to see why anyone having such a philosophy would not pray consistently: Prayer would be a total waste of time for them.” (1)

4. They do not believe they deserve a real answer to their prayer, so they are reluctant to approach Him. There are many who feel a real sense of inferiority. Perhaps it’s because of some sin in their life, or because they see no importance to their existence—but for whatever reason, their feeling of unworthiness causes them to not want to bother God.

5. A further reason why some don’t pray is because they are mad at God because of some incident in their life, and are literally giving Him the silent treatment.

6. There are others who have none of the issues mentioned above. They deal more with boredom. When they pray, nothing seems to really be happening, and their minds may easily wander on to other things.

FOUR KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING PRAYER

These are only a few reasons why Christians may not want to or be interested in praying. Whether it be one of these or another issue we face when coming to prayer, understanding what prayer is and why it is a necessary part of our spiritual life may be helpful in overcoming our obstacles. Here are four keys to understanding prayer:

1. BALANCING PROMISES AND EXPECTATIONS
B.J. Willhite goes on to teach, “one of the most puzzling problems faced by many Bible-believing Christians is reconciling the seemingly limitless positive promises of the Word with the limitation of those promises in their experience. …Doubt, frustration, unbelief, anger and depression often are the result of only having part of the truth.”(2) He goes on to illustrate by saying that if someone is working for a rancher building a fence, the rancher will supply everything that is needed to make the fence—posts, wire, the tools necessary, etc. The rancher will then leave the worker to make the fence by saying, “If you need anything, give me a call.” If the worker calls the rancher a little later and says he needs a new car, he will probably be disappointed. Why? Because the rancher’s promise of “anything” did not apply to a new car. It only applied to what he needed to build the fence.

“God’s ‘anything’ has the same implied limitation. He is saying, ‘Anything that will help you to do [and to be] what I have sent you to do [and to be] will be granted.’”(2) In order to understand what we are to do and to be, we need to be in communication with God and understand His covenant with us. Through that understanding, we can receive the promises of God in the right light—not only the promises given to us in the Bible, but promises He give us personally, that we can only receive as we pray. We, for instance, know that our son Nicholas will be an overcomer. God has given us that promise. We, therefore, pray as often as possible that Nicholas will have all he needs to overcome his challenges. And we believe God will supply.

2. DOES GOD NEED OUR PRAYERS?
But, does prayer really work? Yes it does. In fact, prayer not only works, but God generally will not move in human circumstances without someone praying. That may be a new thought to many. We need that when God created the world and the human race, within His sovereign plan, He chose to give humanity dominion over the Earth. Genesis 1:28 says, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (NKJV).

Within the dominion God gave us from the beginning of the world, we have the right to make our own choices and live with the consequences we have created for ourselves. Since the Garden of Eden, we humans have been allowed to choose our own path, and do what is right in our own eyes. God chooses to work through the dominion He has given us, and, therefore, we need to pray if we expect Him to intervene in our circumstances. Gregory Boyd, professor of theology at Bethel College and a senior pastor, has written an excellent book entitled, Is God to Blame? In it he states:

“Because God is a social being and his goal is love, he chooses to work through mediators (humans and angels) who lovingly choose to cooperate with his plans. How they use their freedom genuinely affects the extent to which God’s will is done ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’

“The church is the corporate expression of all those who have said yes to God’s saving grace and are responding to his call to mediate his will on earth. As such, the church is initiating God’s goal for humans to recover their rightful place as his coregents, who ‘subdue’ and ‘have dominion’ over the earth. Our original parents surrendered this authority to Satan, but now, through Jesus, God is giving it back to us.”(3)

Some may question whether the all-powerful God, creator of the universe, needs our prayers to move on Earth. Isn’t that arrogance on the part of depraved humanity to assume such a thing? The fact is, God certainly is powerful enough that He does not need us to do anything on His behalf. His power is complete, and His arm is not short to accomplish any purpose (see Nu. 11:23, Isa. 50:2). But it is God Himself who chose to work through human beings to see His will be accomplished on Earth as it is in heaven. Because He has set it up this way, He has chosen to need us to accomplish His will on Earth.

In his book Intercessory Prayer, Dutch Sheets states this point so well: “So complete and final was God’s decision to do things on earth through human beings that it cost God the Incarnation to regain what Adam gave away. He had to become a part of the human race. I can’t think of a more staggering truth. Certainly nothing could give weightier proof of the finality of this ‘through humans’ decision God made. Without question, humans were forever to be God’s link to authority and activity on the earth.”(4)

The bottom line is that we need God to intervene in our circumstances, but because of how God has chosen to set up the universe, He needs our prayers before He can move on our behalf. We can take salvation as a good example of this. God is not willing that any should be lost (see Matt. 18:14). He gave His only Son Jesus as a sacrifice so that we could be saved (see John 3:16). Because of that sacrifice, salvation is available to every human being on Earth. But is every human being automatically saved? No. God does not automatically intervene in lives with salvation. He may bring people or circumstances into our lives so that we might understand salvation. He may work hard to woo us. But ultimately, it takes an act of prayer on our behalf in order to secure our salvation. The same is true for any type of intervention God may want to have in our lives, whether it is healing, provision, protection or whatever. If God has moved on the Earth, someone somewhere at some time has prayed.

3. THE CIRCLE OF PRAYER RESULTS IN POWER
James 5:16 says, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.” Why is that? Again, it is because God has chosen to involve us in how He moves on the earth. “We are not pawns on some great chessboard of life to be moved about by forces over which we have no control. We are involved. We are working together with God in the implementation of His holy will.”(5) If we can align ourselves with God’s will for our lives, then our prayers have a tremendous impact on what occurs here on earth.

So that leaves us with the question, how can we know what God’s will is for us? How can we receive His personal promises for our lives? The answer is in relationship and revelation. First, we must have a deep, intimate relationship with God. We need to know His character and His nature. How do we come to know Him on this level? Like any relationship, the key to intimacy with God is spending time with Him, which can only be done through prayer.

Out of that intimate relationship with Him, we will begin to gain revelation for our lives. Jesus knew God’s will. The apostles knew God’s will. The prophets knew God’s will. It was revealed to them in their times of prayer and out of their existing relationship with God. This has not changed through the centuries. God still speaks to His people today. When we are able to grasp His revelation for us, and begin to pray according to His will, our prayers will be like those described in James 5:16—they will have great power and wonderful results!

By this we see that prayer is a great circle. We begin in prayer by getting to know God. We gain revelation of God’s will for us through prayer. Then out of our revelation, we can pray powerful prayers that make a real difference on earth. And through this whole process, we get to know God even better, and gain new revelation for the future. Prayer has great movement. It is not just a one-time shot. The more we pray, the more momentum we gain.

4. DELAY IS NOT DENIAL
Finally, we need to understand that when we have been praying fervently for a particular issue, but don’t see any changes, it does not mean that God has not or will not answer our prayers. Delay does not necessarily equal denial. Willhite explains it as the law of relativity: “All things in the universe are related. When there is an action, there is a reaction, even if we cannot see it. …God is not doing only one thing but many things at the same time which are related. When He does something in one place, it affects things in other places. Paul says in Romans 8:28 ‘All things work together for good…’ We hasten so quickly to the ‘for good’ part of the verse that we fail to see a very important truth: Everything is working together.

“When I pray, I give God the option of working in the matter that concerns me, but I must realize that because of what He is doing in other places, He may not conform to my time schedule. What He does in answer to my prayer will affect other things He is doing. …Prayer is something like dominos. Whenever we pray, we are setting up another domino; someday the Father is going to touch one and things are going to fall into place. So do not grow weary and lose heart; when you are praying according to His will, it will be done.”(6)

When we pray for Nicholas, we know God will answer. But at the time of this writing, we have not seen all our prayers for him answered. Do we ever grow discouraged? Yes. Have we ever doubted? Yes. Doubt and faith live side by side. All men and women of faith have struggled with doubt from time to time. It is part of our humanity. Nevertheless, we know God’s character and we know God’s will for Nicholas. Therefore, we cling to the faith that God will answer.

To those of you struggling with doubt in God, we leave you with this final thought: “Doubt only becomes a problem when it dominates your life. In short, doubt is no hindrance to prayer unless it keep you from praying.”(7)

With many blessings,
Jack and Rebecca Sytsema

(1) B.J. Willhite, Why Pray? (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1988), p. 19.
(2) Ibid. pp. 57-58.
(3) Gregory A.Boyd, Is God to Blame? (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), pp. 72-73.
(4) Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1996), p. 28.
Willhite, p. 98.
Ibid., p. 43.
Ibid., pp. 119-120.

©2006, Children of Destiny. All rights reserved.

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WHY PRAY?
SCRIPTURE GUIDE

Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.
(I Kings 8:28, NIV)

then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause.
(I Kings 8:49, NIV)

This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you.
(II Kings 20:5, NIV)

So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
(Ezra 8:23, NIV)

Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.
(Ps 4:1, NIV)

But God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
(Ps 66:19-20, NIV)

But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
(Ps 88:13, NIV)

The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
(Prov 15:29, NIV)

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
(Jonah 2:7, NIV)

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.
(Mark 11:24-25, NIV)

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
(Acts 2:42, NIV)

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
(Rom 12:12, NIV)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
(Phil 4:6, NIV)

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
(Col 4:2, NIV)

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
(1 Tim 4:4-5, NIV)

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
(James 5:15, NIV)

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.
(James 5:16, NLT)

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
(1 Pet 3:12, NIV)

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