deathtolife116:

Ever asked yourself, why do I pray?
I mean if God is going to have everything in His will come to pass, why do I need to pray for something?

I have found reasons why prayer is important. 
1) God commands us to.
2) Our life as a believer is a relationship with God
-and just like any other relationship, we have to speak
in order to communicate. (you don’t have a good relationship
with your b/f or g/f without speaking to them, do you?)
3) Ultimately its about recognizing that God is 
the authority and that everything comes from him. (James 1:17) 

-Isaiah 62:6-7 Says this,
“On your walls, O Jerusalem,
    I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night
they shall never be silent. 
You who put the Lord in remembrance 
take no rest,
and give him no rest,  
until He establishes Jerusalem
and makes it a praise in the earth.

God here is speaking through Isaiah, telling the Israelites to keep praying until Zion’s coming salvation arrives, who is Christ.

Furthermore, in James 4 it says, “you do not have because you do not ask.”
Does this not imply that if we asked we would have?
Jesus also taught that to have persistence in prayer, in Luke 11:8-10 the original greek literally means, “keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.” 

It is clear throughout scripture that faith is necessary for God to act.
-Peter walking on water (Matt. 14:22-33)
-Centurion bringing his request for the healing of his servant (Matt. 8:5-13)
-The women with the hemorrhage (Matt. 9:18-22)
These examples and plenty more reveal that faith is required when we pray to the Lord.

Now don’t get me wrong, God doesn’t grant wishes like a genie and sometimes he says no or even wait to our requests, but that doesn’t mean that we still don’t ask.

Jesus asked for the cup (death by crucifixion) to be taken from him three times
Paul also prayed three times for the removal of his thorn in the flesh, and each time God denied the request but provided something that was needed (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

But as a believer we can pray in confidence that the all knowing, all wise, good, and gracious God will give us not necessarily what we ask for, but what is best. For just as the psalmist says, “no good thing does he [the Lord] withhold from those whose walk is blameless” (Psalm 84:11).

Hope this sheds some light, 
Grace and Peace
Gonzo 

11:48 am  •  21 February 2012  •  7 notes