Why pray?

Why do Christians pray?

According to the Strong’s Concordance (which calculates and translates the words in the Bible), the word pray is found 313 times in the King James Version of the Bible. Granted in the old “King’s English” the word pray often means, ask (ex: I pray we leave as soon as possible.  I ask that we leave as soon as possible). So, what about the actual act? Prayer itself is found 114 times in the Old and New Testament books. By contrast, the word fasting, another important biblical principle, only is mentioned 17 times. Prayer is extremely important to the Christian life.

So, what is prayer?

Prayer can be a request for God to intervene in a situation. It can be a request for him to provide something tangible or intangible. It can be a confession of our trust in the truth of his word.

But wait. Since God is omniscient, meaning all knowing, why do Christians pray? God knows the end from the beginning, so he already knows everything we need and everything he has planned for us to do.

So, why pray?

Ultimately, prayer is a conversation.

Just as communication is key for a successful earthly relationship, it is key for a growing faith relationship with our heavenly father. When was the last time you spoke with your spouse or your best friend? What did you talk about? Were you concerned about a job situation? Were you worried about your children or how you would pay your bills? Did you complain about a co-worker’s behavior?

Did you know you can talk about those same things with God? When you talk with God and discuss these same things with him, that is called prayer.

When you finished your conversation with your spouse or friend, how did you feel? Were you still emotional? When pray, or talk things over with God, oftentimes we leave the conversation still not knowing what the answer is. But, we can trust he is faithful to provide it at just the perfect time.

That knowledge and trust fills us with a sense of peace that he who created everything and knows the end from the beginning already has a resolution in the works for our concerns. And, at least in my mind, achieving that peace in the midst of the situation is reason enough to pray.