People often ask, “Why do we pray?” The reasoning behind that question goes something like this: “If God is who you say He is, if He knows everything, does not need my help, and will get everything done that He intends, then why do we pray in the first place?” Many have asked that question, and it is valid. Why do we pray? There are at least three reasons. First and simply, God has told us to pray. We must accept that God does not always explain certain things. He just says, “I want you to do this,” and because He is God, we need to respond in obedience. Second, we pray because God wants us to partner with Him in the work that He is doing. God has invited us to be coworkers with Him. That is an amazing thing. God does not need us; quite honestly, we do not bring a whole lot to the table. In fact, I do not bring anything that God needs.
It is sort of like the experience I had with my younger son, Braden. When he was small, I had to do some plumbing work at home. There I was, crammed under the bathroom sink. It was a tighter spot than I could even fit in. There I was in all of my frustration, twisted up under the sink, trying my best to get this leak stopped. Next thing I know, my little boy, with a plastic tool kit in hand, is climbing into the cupboard and trying to arrange himself on my chest so he can help me fix the thing. Needless to say, that did not really help with the plumbing problem. It was a precious moment, for sure. It is a moment I cherish. But it did not help me solve the problem. It created a bigger problem than actually fixing the one that existed. And that is similar to the way it is with God. God does not need us to do anything, but He actually wants us to participate with Him. And the amazing thing is that, in the end, He will reward us for having participated with Him, even though we did not do much.
The third, and in my opinion, the main reason we are to pray is because prayer benefits us. God wants us to pray because He knows we need to come into His presence as often as possible. When we are in His presence, He is able to do the work in our lives that needs to be done. Therefore, God bids us to come and pray so that He might transform us into His image. Our alone time with the Lord is reminiscent of Moses, who went up on the mountain and spent forty days and nights with the Lord. Remember what happened? The very image of God was impressed on Moses such that when he came down the mountain, his face shone with such glory that the children of Israel could not bear to look at him. And Paul tells us, “If the glory of the old covenant was such, how much greater is the glory of the new covenant?” In other words, if Moses came down the mountain shining, how much more should we be shining when we come out of our prayer closet, having spent time looking into the face of Jesus Christ? That is why we pray, and that is what we are talking about here. Jesus set the example. He got alone with God, and His disciples were drawn to Him. As we get alone with the Lord, we will become people of influence as well.
In Luke 9:29, Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John: “As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered.” Jesus was transfigured, and the glory resident within Him broke forth from behind the veil of His humanity. Notice when this took place. It was “As He prayed …” The word altered means changed. Prayer changes things! We live in a world that desperately needs change. We live in a world that needs to be radically altered. And we do not have to look far to see the need for change. We can just look, quite often, right into our own hearts, our own families, our own homes, our own communities, and even our own churches. We can look all around us and see the need for serious alteration. How is change going to come? Change comes through many different means, but the greatest changes come through prayer.
In prayer, we have access to the throne of heaven. We have access to Almighty God. But how many times have we, in our frustration, thought about a problem and wished we could talk to someone in charge! The state of California has many problems. We could just go to Sacramento to see the governor so he can fix them. Or maybe it is a problem bigger than California. Maybe we need to get into the White House to sit down with the president. But what is the likelihood of that happening? What are the odds of any one of us standing before the U.N., the E.U., or any other great political body? The chances are minimal. But you know what? We have an audience with the King of the universe whenever we want.
We already know that the governor cannot really fix anything, nor can the president, nor any other politician. But we know that God can handle everything and that nothing is too hard for Him. God can change any situation. God can change the one thing that no human government can change: the heart of a human being. And in changing the heart of one human being, He can change the course of history. That is amazing. We have access to God, and we can come to Him in the name of Jesus Christ and pour out all our problems and needs before Him, whether personal, national, or global.
