“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
by Pastor Patrick Cho
Prayer is one of the greatest blessings God has bestowed on men. Growing up in San Diego, I always appreciated the friendships that were developed over the years. This is especially true of the relationships I have built at Lighthouse. One of my favorite things to do is just to sit around and chat with my friends, sometimes talking about nothing significant at all. It’s the company that is so enjoyable, the time spent together. That is the great thing about prayer. There are many things we do to direct our attention and service to God, but prayer is God’s way for us to enjoy intimate communion with Him. How awesome is it that we can talk with the God of the universe without dread (cf. Heb. 4:16)!
I love to teach God’s Word. There are few things that exhilarate me more than to open up the Bible with others and dive into its depths. I know that I should also have this same excitement for prayer, but sadly for whatever reason it isn’t always there. I know that many believers struggle with the same thing. While our times of prayer should be the most precious moments of our day, too often we as Christians struggle in our prayer lives and only have sporadic times alone with God.
I’m certain Satan is pleased with the believer’s struggle to pray. There are all sorts of reasons for our failure in this. Sometimes we don’t pray because we don’t feel like we need to. A sense of self-sufficiency guides our thinking and we believe we can handle things on our own. Because of this, we only go to God when our circumstances become extremely dire. Of course, we would never admit that we don’t need God, but our actions betray us and bring this attitude of self-sufficiency to light.
There are other times we fail to pray because of our lack of faith. We simply don’t believe it will accomplish anything. Perhaps we have been too discouraged by what we would perceive is a lack of response from God. Maybe we have asked for things in the past only to be disappointed. We know from what we read in Scripture that God is eager to answer prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to ask, seek, and knock (Matt. 7:7), and though we would perhaps never admit it, we sometimes wonder, “What good will it do?”
These attitudes truly reveal the sinfulness of our hearts. Not only does this demonstrate how little at times we trust God, but it also reveals our general lack of true wisdom. Like Christ’s disciples, we need to ask God to teach us to pray (Luke 11:1). The Apostle James makes it clear that we don’t have because we don’t ask, and that we ask and don’t receive because our motives are wrong (James 4:2-3).
The Bible promises us that God works through the prayers of His people. Certainly our prayers don’t change God (cf. Num. 23:19; Mal. 3:7), but our prayers do change things (cf. James 5:17). Perhaps more importantly, our prayers help change us, molding and shaping us to think more like Christ (cf. Phil. 4:6-7) and make His desires our own (cf. Ps. 37:4). Because of how important prayer is for the believer, God instructs us not to cease in it but to persevere (Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17).
Our struggle to see prayer accomplish much in our lives usually comes from our lack of understanding God’s will. God answers our prayers according to His purposes for our lives. This is why the Apostle Paul draws a close relationship between Scripture and prayer (Eph. 6:17-18). We are to take the Word of God praying, because it is through God’s Word that we can understand what He desires for us. When we pray according to the will of God as Jesus did (Mark 14:35-36), God is sure to hear and answer us.
Think of what an awesome resource is at our disposal that we can talk to God and that He desires to hear from us! Especially when we consider our sinfulness and from what Jesus saved us, how comforting to know that God is eager to hear from us (cf. Ps. 8:4). Prayer needs to be our constant lifeline to the Father. We must not grow weary in it. Is it any wonder we fail and falter in our walks of faith as often as we do when we do not pray as often as we should?