Why you must pray

                                                      

Luke 18:1 Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit (MSG)

In this piece, I want to share with you a brief thought on why we as believers must pray. Some people see prayer as a burdensome requirement of religion, hence, there is no motivation for them to pray. Some others see prayer as one of the options to getting issues resolved, whether spiritual or physical. But while many can testify to the efficacy of prayer, there are also some who cannot boldly tell you in clear terms that God answers prayer. This is simply because of their personal experiences of failure in the place of prayer; for nothing can be more convincing to an individual than to have a personal experience of it. So, if most of your experiences show that your prayers were not answered, you are in danger of being in the place of doubt as to whether God really answers prayer, or if prayer is ever needed at all.

Indeed, many have come to this point of doubt in their heart even if they never have to say it out to others. They clearly object to prayer with the thought that God is unchangeable, hence there is absolutely no need to pray. Their motto is “whatever will be, will be”, but to this kind of thought, Finney countered in his book Mighty Prevailing Prayers, when he said “The objection to prayer that God is unchangeable, and therefore cannot turn aside to hear prayer, is altogether a fallacy and the result of ignorance. Consider what is the true idea of God’s unchangeableness, surely, it is not that His course of conduct never changes to meet circumstances, but it is this – that His character never changes, that His nature and principles which control His voluntary actions remain eternally the same. All His natural, all His moral attributes remain forever unchanged. This is all that can rationally be implied in God’s immutability. Now, His hearing and answering prayer imply no change of character, no change in His principles of action. Indeed, if you ask why he ever answers prayer at all, the answer must be because He is unchangeable.”

So then, we understand that the thought that “whatever will be, will be” does not hold true with God, because you have power with God, and you can come into prayer to determine what should be. You have authority as a believer to change the course of things in the direction you desire, and in accordance with the will of God. You are not powerless as Satan tries to paint it through the lens of religion or the circumstances of life. Don’t refuse to pray because you now consider prayer a lifeless routine, and don’t refuse to pray because you think nothing will ever change anyway. A lot more will definitely change as you begin to pray with the understanding that you have power with God, and that answered prayer is your legal right according to the scriptures.

As you get answers in prayer, you will also begin to develop more faith in your own faith, and become less dependent on the prayer of others on your behalf. As you may well be aware that one of the most potent weapons of Satan is deception – trying to convince you that nothing good can really come out of your prayer, but nothing could be farther from the truth than that. You may have to re-learn how to pray to get results, and there are many helpful books on that, but don’t ever give up on prayer. The more you pray, the more you will learn to pray, and the better will be your results in prayer. This is not the time to faint in prayer, rather it is time to raise the altar of prayer and begin to change things in your life and all around you. Pray, whether you feel like it or not, whether you have got the burden or not, just pray. In the end, you will have loads of testimonies, and you also will be able to testify to the efficacy of prayer, not just by what you have been taught, but by your own personal experience.