Why Do We
Have To Pray?
By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.
© 2000
Why do we have to pray?
The answer to this question probably begins with our understanding of the
nature of God. One of His characteristics is that He is all knowing. This means
there is nothing God doesn’t know. This means, God not only know all facts that
can ever be known, He also knows all events that have ever happened and ever
will happen.
This attribute of God is hard to comprehend. We all have
problems remembering things no matter what our age. When we are young we try to
learn things so we can pass a class, get a job or just function in society. It
seems as we get older and learn more and more facts, this information seems to
fall out of our heads. It’s as if we had a leak in our brains and things we
should be able to remember just aren’t there anymore. To think of God as
remembering all things, events, details, and people intimately is almost
impossible to fathom. He doesn’t possess any of our limitations. In our
attempts to understand what God is like, many times we remove Him from heaven
and put Him on our level. There is nothing wrong with attempting to know God
better, but we must be careful that we don’t strip Him of the qualities that
make Him God.
An equally hard thing to understand related to God’s
Omniscience is that He knows events and decisions before they even happen. God
is outside of time. He has always existed. He had no beginning and He will have
no end. He knows our thoughts and actions before they occur. You now begin to
see the storm cloud of confusion arising don’t you. If God knows what is going
to happen before it does, why do we have to pray? If God knows what will happen
anyway, why pray for change, for healing, for help, for God’s intervention? If
God is in control and wants the best for His children, why doesn’t He just do
it? Why does He have to wait for us to ask?
Well the best way to understand this is to stop putting
ourselves in God’s seat and come down to earth where we live and breath. We are
NOT omniscient. We do have a beginning and an end. We don’t know things before
they happen, despite what you hear on the Psychic Network. We live out life in
one dimension; God exists in all dimensions at the same time. We are faced with
the task of determining our future. The fact that God knows our future, does
not determine it. While He has foreknowledge of our life, He does not force us
down a particular road. We choose the roads and paths we take. God simply knows
ahead of time which one we will choose. Its as if we are living out a movie
that God has already watched.
If I might stretch your thinking a little more, consider
this. What if God knows not just what will happen in our lives, but all the
infinite possible outcomes. What if God knows what will happen if we pray, if
we don’t pray, or if someone else prays for us? What if, with every decision
that is made, there are thousands and possibly millions of possible effects and
outcomes. God can and does know all of these possibilities. This means that God
knows the actual outcome in the end. Our prayers and actions will determine
what path our lives take. God knows not only how our life will be and how it
will end; He also knows what will happen no matter which choices we make. This
means that prayer and communication with Him is vitally important. He wants to
be active in our lives. He wants us to communicate with Him. He wants to answer
our prayers. He wants a relationship with us. While God knows all things and is
not bound by time - we are. We must live out our lives because we don’t know
what tomorrow brings.
When we come to the issue of prayer, we must realize that
God commands us to pray. In Philippians 4:6 it says, “Do not be anxious
about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.” He doesn’t view prayer as a useless practice
that has no effect. It is vitally important to His plan for our lives. All
through the Old Testament with prophets and kings, God acted in response to
requests of prayer and worship. He often limited His involvement based on
people’s actions.
Sometimes we think that it is no use to pray, because God
does not answer quickly or in the way we would like. We must remember that
prayer is not like a charge card. We can’t just go about life asking for
anything we desire and expect to obtain it. I John 5:14-15 addresses the issue
of praying for things, it says, “This is the confidence we have in
approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us-- whatever we ask-- we know that we have what
we asked of him.” God grants answers to our prayers if it is within His
will.
I heard a story about a very devout man and wife who had
conflicting prayers. The godly man was on a plane that was running late because
of fog. He had to teach a class at a seminary and was late. He prayed hard and
long that God would let the plane land. He was almost angry with God for not
letting it happen. He had to teach those future pastors, he knew it must be
God’s will. His wife on the other hand, a very godly woman, was on the ground
at the airport. She knew how dangerous it was and was praying that God would
not let the pilot land the plane because it was too dangerous. In the end God
spared the life of the husband and prevented the plane from landing. Both of
these Christians were in fellowship with their Father in heaven. Both had good
reasons for their prayers. God only honored one. God honored the prayer that
fulfilled His will at the time for both their lives.
Sometimes
our prayers are not answered because we do not persist in them. I suggest you
read the parable of the widow and the judge that Jesus uses to explain the
necessity of persistent prayer in Luke 18. See if you can read between the lines
and understand how often we give up in our prayers when God is requiring us to
continue.
You have to admit it is a baffling question. Why would a
God who knows every choice we make even bother with listening to us pray? Why
bother with these meager, imperfect humans who continually sin and disobey? Why
does He bother with unfaithful creatures that fail to ask and seek Him in more
consistent ways? Why - because He loves us, and because this movie called
“Life” is IMPORTANT! Our worry should not be, why pray if God knows the
outcome? It should be, are we spending enough time in prayer! We should view
life as fragile and dynamic, as malleable and changeable, as able to be molded
and changed...How? Through our prayer God works in our lives.
In the garden before Jesus was crucified you see a
similar struggle and an example. Jesus fore knew what was to happen to Him. He
knew the pain to come, the emotional drain, and the physical torture. He knew
it so well that He sweat blood as He prayed. BUT, He prayed. Why would Jesus
pray if He knew He was to rise from the grave? This is the perfect example that
God has given us. Even when Jesus knew the outcome, both the pain and the
victory, He still felt it necessary to pray. Why, because He knew He should,
because it comforted Him, because He wanted the Father to know His feelings,
because God wanted Him to.
1 Thessalonians 5:17
“Pray continually.”