Prayer Series - Why We Need to Pray

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Daily prayer is absolutely essential in the life of every Christian.

But why?

Here are five reasons:

1. Prayer is how we communicate with God:

We need to pray daily because we need to communicate with God.

God is a person. As a saved Christian you have been given the precious gift of a personal relationship with God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is an unbelievably amazing gift!

Communication is vital in order to grow and deepen a relationship. Your spouse is precious to you, right? What would happen if you did not talk with your spouse on a daily basis? Your relationship would wither and probably die.

If you don't pray your relationship with God will wither.

And... you will wither spiritually.

To be in fellowship with God is why he created us. Communication with Him is what he made us for.

Prayer is the way that we communicate with God.

When we pray we are talking to our creator, the God of the universe who, through his free gift of grace has saved us from sin and death and given us the gift of eternal life with him in heaven.

It's really good for us to be reminded of this truth and this gift.

Prayer - done properly - reminds us of who God is and what he has done for us. When we pray we need to let him know that we are thankful for what he has done for us and that we love him for having gifted us in such an  unspeakable way.

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:15 - "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."

An unspeakable gift, indeed, that has made us complete in him - 

Colossians 2:10 - "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power"

Wow.

2. Prayer helps us grow up:

We need to pray daily because, quite simply we need to grow up as Christians. Daily prayer is an outward manifestation of our maturation process. The bottom line is you will not grow spiritually if you do not pray.

Contrary to what many Christians seem to believe, prayer is meant to change you not to change God.

God is not our personal genie or a magic wand. We don't pray in an attempt to get God to bend to our will.

God has his will and his will is far greater than our will. His will rules over all of his creation - and that means, well... everything.

When we pray, regardless of what we ask for or pray about it will always be God's will that will be done. It is always God's prerogative to answer or to not answer our prayer.

Remember Jesus Christ praying to God in the garden of Getsemane for what awaited him to pass him by? Did that cup pass him by? No, it did not. God's will was done.

Remembering this grows and strengthen us. Praying knowing this helps us to become stronger so we are better able to do the things that are righteous in the eyes of God.

Praying about our cares, troubles and concerns helps us to become stronger in facing them. Rather than asking for our situation to change we ask God to change us so we can better meet the situations we are dealing with in our lives. We stop praying for "fleshly stuff" or for things in our lives to change and instead pray with the knowledge of God's will in our hearts and our minds. Remembering that His will is always greater than our needs not only brings us closer to God (because knowing his will is knowing his truth and it is what God wants from us -

1 Timothy 2:3-4 - "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

...it also helps grow us up into mature Christians.

3. Prayer strengthens our inner man

We need to pray daily because we need to strengthen our spirit.

Ephesians 3:16-19 says this best:

"16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

Praying to know God more deeply, to be given the gift of wisdom and revelation in Christ Jesus and to know the love of Christ absolutely strengthens our inner man, when done with the right heart and with the genuine desire for that to happen. Christ's spirit within us is strengthened and makes us better able to do his will, walk in the spirit more and more (even though we live in the flesh) and grow to love God more than we love ourselves and our lives.

We should all strive for this.

4. Prayer exercises our faith

We need to pray daily because we need to stretch and grow our faith.

When you pray you are talking to the Lord that saved you.

He is real.

He is omnipresent.

He sees into our heart.

He hears us.

Praying believing that we are talking to God and that he hears us is an exercise of faith.  2 Corinthians 5:7 - "For we walk by faith, not by sight"

Every time you exercise your faith it grows. Every time your faith grows your inner man is strengthened, your fellowship with God gets deeper and stronger and your love for God grows.

1 Corinthians 2:9-11 -
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

5. Prayer reinforces our love for God

We need to pray daily because... we love God.

When we pray in the knowledge that we are praying to the God that loves us so much he sacrificed his Son on the cross to pay our sin debt we cannot help but love him.

2 Cor 5:21- "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

And through God's absolutely free gift of grace - nothing whatsoever needed from us - he has given us everything we could ever hope for or want: a glorious inheritance, an everlasting life with him in heaven.

Titus 2:13 - "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;"

Praying daily with this in our minds and hearts reinforces what God has done for us and our love for God and for our precious Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, who died for our sin, was buried and resurrected, so that we could live forever.

2 Timothy 4:8 - "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

God has given you riches beyond all measure. He has given it to you as a free gift. Nothing you could do or say could get you what God has freely given to you.

He deserves to hear from us every day, don't you think?

Prayer is the breath of the Christian life and the breath of the Christian.

That, blessed friends, is why, as Christians we need to pray.

Every day.

Clare