Why should I bother praying? God’s going to do whatever He wants anyway. I prayed, and He did nothing. I prayed, and He said nothing. How could I change what I’m going through just by praying?
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Personally, I’ve said all of it before. Many times. While addressing the fatalistic elephant in the room, I want to give you some answers and hope today.
The Point of Prayer
What is the greatest commandment? When He was walking the earth, Jesus quoted the Book of Deuteronomy, which says:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV
This could not be clearer. We are commanded to love God with everything that we have and everything we are. That means we make space in our lives to listen to Him. How we make space to listen to God can look different for everyone, but it often involves prayer.
Prayer is one of the best ways to seek God’s heart and listen to His voice so we can obey His commands.
This is where the journey to our answer starts. But let’s ask a few more questions and address a few more things on our way.
We Pray to Build Our Relationship With God
When we choose to follow Jesus, we begin a relationship with God. But who is God? This may seem like a broad question, but we don’t need to look further than these two verses.
And he [God] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Exodus 34:6-7 NIV
So, who is God? He answers this question, and while it’s worth diving into each part of His response (if you’re interested, read God Has a Name by John Mark Comer), pay close attention to how He starts. “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious …”
God is many things: mighty, righteous, forgiving, jealous. But every part of Him is filtered through compassionate and gracious love. When we pray, we communicate and exist in the same space as God, who is first and foremost Love in its purest and holiest form.
When He moves, prayer helps us notice the effects of His fatherly guidance.
When He doesn’t move, prayer helps us experience patience rather than doubt His goodness and power.
The peace we feel when He comforts us is a long, warm embrace instead of a momentary salve on our wounds. In these moments of holy lament or jubilant celebration, we choose to believe that God loves us and sees us.
Why Isn’t God Answering My Prayers?
To answer this question, we must acknowledge that there are other wills at work besides God’s.
I know, I know. That almost feels wrong to write. I can assure you—it isn’t. Ignoring evil only gives it more power and influence.
I have my will. You have your will. Your favorite company has its will. Every politician, every nation, has their own will. But while there are other wills at play, only God’s will is purely and wholly good.
Part of God being purely and wholly good is allowing us to possess free will. God isn’t interested in a forced relationship with us. He loves us and wants us to choose to love Him, and through this love, partner with Him in His mission of bringing His kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. This means that God has a pure will rooted in perfect love, but He loves us enough to allow us to choose Him.
When I get home from a long day at work and I ask my wife how her day was, I’m prioritizing our relationship over watching YouTube videos, zoning out to music, or staring at the wall, wishing that the last 12 hours didn’t happen.
That kind of prioritization is what God desires from us. When we pray, we’re choosing and prioritizing God, who has always chosen and prioritized us.
What Is Prayer Supposed to Look Like?
While He was on earth, Jesus showed all disciples, past, present, and future, how to pray.
“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” Matthew 6:9-13 NIV
When we pray, we acknowledge who God is and His will for us. And then, we ask Him to come and do what only He can do—provide for us, forgive our sins, and defeat the evil in our lives, including our own will and the other wills at play.
God isn’t a genie we keep in a lamp and only call on when something goes wrong, someone gets hurt, or we need help.
God isn’t a genie we keep in a lamp and only call on when something goes wrong, someone gets hurt, or we need help. While God wants to be who we turn to in those situations, He is so much more. He is the loving and ever-present Creator of the universe who desires a consistent and intimate relationship with every one of us.
Why Pray if God Knows Everything?
- We pray because we’re choosing God and His will over our own.
- We pray because God is beautiful and perfect Love, and we need Him.
- We pray because we’re deeply, madly, radically in love with God, who is deeply, madly, and radically in love with us.
- And finally, we pray because God listens.
We see this in the story of Jonah. He was tasked with a terrifying mission. God wanted Jonah to go to the Assyrian city of Nineveh, a place that actively hated prophets and God, and prophesy that God was going to destroy them in forty days.
When the Ninevite leader heard the news, he did the unthinkable—he repented. And he commanded the entire city to do the same. You can feel the holy brokenness in his question, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger…” (Jonah 3:9 NIV)
And look at the last verse of chapter 3:
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. Jonah 3:10 NIV
God what? God relented? But I thought God always knew everything and had everything planned out.
Remember, God will always lead from a place of compassionate and gracious love. Those who choose to call on His name will always be forgiven.
Therefore, we pray because we believe God is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do. Will He disappoint us at times? Yes. Will His will confuse us? Absolutely. But is He always perfectly loving and wholly good? Without a doubt.
So pray, friend. Pray as often as you can. Pray to the God already in our midst.