Why Should I Pray

I am a very logical and curious person and sometimes this can be to my detriment. It can also be difficult for the people around me because I will not be convinced that I should do something until it makes sense to me. This means that sometimes I won’t do something that I have been told I should be doing if I don’t understand why I should do it.

Because I didn’t understand it, I have neglected to pray for a large portion of my life.

I have wondered, for a long time, “Why should I pray?”

Maybe you have a similar personality to me, or maybe you’re a new believer, or maybe you’ve never thought about this until now and have had your curiosity sparked. If so, I would like to help you by sharing the journey I have been through that has helped me answer this question

The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it

Why should I pray? 

Well, the obvious answer is because the Bible says I should.

Philippians 4:6 – Do not be anxious about anything but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Romans 12:12 – Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Pray continually…

See, the Bible says you should pray, so you should. 

Yes, true. But for me, not enough. 

I was not interested in being told that just because the Bible told me that I should pray that I should. I wanted to know why! Why does God care that I pray? Why does He want me to pray? He doesn’t need me to pray. In fact, I can quote a bunch of verses which tells you that He knows what I am thinking:

Psalm 139:2 – You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

Psalm 94:11 – The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.

Matthew 12:25 – Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

Romans 8:27 – And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

So since God is already aware of what I am thinking, as long as I keep thinking He knows and I don’t need to tell Him. (This is how I think, I am not an easy person to live with). I mean, yeah ok, God does command it, so I will throw up a prayer here and there so I can be obedient but honestly there’s no real need.

God wants a relationship with you

After telling me that the Bible told me that I needed to pray, and therefore I should, this was often people’s second go-to answer: “God wants a relationship with you.” 

Want to know how I argued my way out of this one? I read my Bible and God hears my thoughts, so that constitutes a relationship. 

This isn’t really true. 

The thing is that I wasn’t thinking of God as a Father who loves me and wants to know about my life. I was thinking of Him as someone who was being difficult and making me work to get what I wanted and I didn’t like that.

Psalm 103:13 – As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him

Matthew 7:11 – “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Matthew 6:9 – Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

I have been blessed with an amazing earthly father. He is the person I turn to with my problems, my happy moments, my questions, my doubts, my concerns, my joys. I talk to him all the time. During breakfast, lunch breaks, dinner time, sometimes I interrupt him while he works because I have something I want to ask or say more urgently… like I said, all the time. Shouldn’t it be the same way with my Heavenly Father?

So why pray?

God has designed us to be completely dependent on Him. He has designed us to be in close communion with Him as our Father. He has done this for a reason. And the way He has designed for us to foster that relationship is to pray. 

I could probably go on a lot longer than I already have and urge you to pray, but instead I encourage you to go and look for yourself. Look at the many verses and passages about prayer. Go and ask the people who you know to be prayer warriors why they pray. Try it for yourself and see if you can understand why God has asked you to practice prayer. You may be surprised, and you may start to do it more. 

Matthew 6:9-13 – Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. 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 do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.