Audio Message: Why Do We Pray?

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Is Prayer Pointless?

On several occasions I have been asked:  What’s the point of praying, Dan?  God is sovereign, so He is going to do whatever He wants to do anyhow, right?

My answer:

First of all, I think it’s important for us to acknowledge that there are plenty of aspects of prayer that we do not completely understand.  So, this is a subject that should be approached with humility.  In light of what we DON”T know, it would be rash to quickly dismiss prayer with the two simple questions mentioned above.

In a way, I feel hesitant to even attempt to address the questions.  But since they have come up a number of times, recently, I’m going to humbly take a shot at it.  This certainly is not a definitive answer to the questions (I don’t have that) but hopefully this will provide some thoughts to consider.

1) We do not have a full understanding of how or why our prayers affect God.  Similarly, we do not know why certain prayers are answered in the way that we hoped they would be answered and others are not.  We do not know the full extent of the influence of our prayers.  We simply do not know.  Some people may confidently assert that they do know these things, but I would suggest that anyone who thinks they fully understand how and why God answers prayers isn’t being honest about the magnitude and mystery of the issue.

We are definitely limited in this matter, however, we do know this: the Bible clearly teaches that our prayers do affect things.  “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:16. 

So, it is not accurate to say that God is “going to do whatever He wants to do anyhow…” and, therefore, our prayers are meaningless.  Actually, our prayers are—or, can be—effective.

You say, “But wait a minute, isn’t God sovereign?”

Yes, He is.

Then how would our prayers have any affect over a sovereign God?

I don’t know.  That’s why I began my answer by appealing to the idea that there are truths about prayer that we do not understand.  But our lack of understanding does not mean we should not pray.  It will not be helpful for us to wait until we “have God figured out” in order to pray or to relate with Him.  Especially since we’re never going to have God “figured out”…at least not on this side of eternity.  He’s too big.  He’s beyond us.  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8

Nevertheless, it is fair to say that our prayers do have an effect.  The fact that we can’t answer all the puzzling questions related to the effectiveness of prayer does not mean we shouldn’t pray.  Pray anyhow.  Believe anyhow.  Trust God anyhow.

2) There is a flaw inherent in the questions.  If you will notice, the questions make the assumption that “praying” is solely about making requests of God.  The questions suggest that God will do whatever He wants to do and…[watch this]…therefore, the entire act of prayer is pointless.  Do you see how the sole reason for prayer, according to the questions, is getting God to do something?  

The assumption built into the questions is: if we can not get God to do something then, obviously, prayer is pointless.

But what if there is more to prayer than just making requests of God?  Would prayer still be pointless?

Now, actually, we all know that making requests of God is a legitimate aspect of prayer.  I’m not denying that truth.  The Bible clearly describes prayer as communication with God that involves making requests of Him.  But making requests is not the ONLY aspect of prayer.  There are other aspects of prayer such as: thanking God, praising God, listening to God, confessing sins to God, and even, just, being silent in the presence of God.

From a strictly logical standpoint, we could say this:  Even if God never granted a request, that would not necessarily render prayer pointless, because there are other reasons for prayer besides making requests.

[Please note: I am emphatically NOT saying that God will never grant requests or that it would be a good thing if He did not grant our requests.  I’m simply putting forth the point that making requests of God is not the ONLY important aspect of prayer.]

3) God says to pray.  We don’t always understand how or why certain requests are answered or not answered in the way we had hoped.  I freely admit that there are mysteries about prayer that are far beyond me.  However, we should pray because God says to pray.  In fact, for followers of Christ, this response can stand alone as a reason to continue praying: because God says so. Over and over again the scriptures call us to prayer.  So, if we believe in God and we trust that the Bible is His word, then we should pray, even though we don’t fully understand everything about it.

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Eph.6:18

Blessings,

Dan

What Happens When Some Pastors Gather?

I got together with some of my pastor friends today.  We meet on a monthly basis to talk about life, and church, and our relationship with the Lord, and other issues that come up in the life of ministers….Did I mention fistfights in the church parking lot?

And we spend some time praying for each other and for our respective churches.

By the way, I’m just kidding about the fistfights in the church parking lot.  That one hasn’t happened for any of us, yet.

...I don’t think.  (*NOTE: Fellas, if you’re reading this, feel free to correct me at our next meeting, if necessary.)

You might be thinking, “Wow, a small group of ministers sitting around talking!?!  That must be a thrilling time of white hot excitement.  Hey, Dan, can you video tape the meetings for us and broadcast it on the Internet?”

I tried to do that, but the folks at YouTube rejected the video.  They said it was too explosive and they feared that people might have heart attacks or other types of debilitating physical episodes while watching something that exciting. 

“There’s a limit to how thrilling we can get with the videos we allow on our site,” said the YouTube People.

At one point in our pastors meeting, we were talking about prayer.  And we talked about the tension that can exist when we pray in faith, truly believing God will answer our prayers—the Bible instructs us to do this—and yet the prayer may go unanswered, at least, as far as we can tell.

What do we do with the tension of this reality?  It is a reality that is known and experienced by anyone who has spent many years following God and bringing requests to Him in prayer.

We may pray for many years for some good thing, like the salvation of a loved one, and yet the person remains resistant to God.  If this happens, how do we remain hopeful and faithful and, even optimistic, when we pray?

We talked about these questions and other similar ones.  We talked about trying to help people who experience these types of genuine struggles in their prayers.

Pastors—at least the ones I know—are folks with terrific hearts for people.  Pastors have a very good and understandable desire to help the people in their churches.  And it seems reasonable to believe that there are many times when it would be proper and right for pastors to help minimize some spiritual struggles that people are experiencing, if we can.  But, today, as we were talking about this tension that can be experienced in prayer, it occurred to me that sometimes “the struggle” that may happen in our seemingly unanswered prayers is important.  Perhaps we might even say that “the struggles” that may occur in the wake of our seemingly unanswered prayers are necessary.

Please understand, I’m not intentionally looking for any more struggles in life, however, it may be that this struggle regarding our prayers might bring us into a form of interaction with God that we wouldn’t experience any other way.  And it might just bring a new dimension of strength and depth to our relationship with Him.

When we pray earnestly, looking to God in faith, truly believing, and yet we do not see the results that we’ve asked for, I do not believe it is because God is callously and arbitrarily playing games with us.  He has His reasons.  Even in our struggles—even when we don’t understand—He has His reasons.

I don’t take times of struggle lightly.  I realize that sometimes they can be heartbreaking and demoralizing.  But I hope and pray that even our struggles would help us to be closer and more dependent on Him.