Why Pray 3

As we journey through life, God will interact with us at different levels in different ways. He comforts us when we are hurting; He chastens us when we are sinning; and He encourages us when we are downcast. Prayer is a multifaceted tool that God uses to accomplish different purposes in our life for different occasions.

God will show up in your life in many different ways; so also, the function of prayer will vary in your life.

Praying sometimes looks like thanking God for our daily bread; other times, it looks like praying for those who persecute us. God doesn’t expect us to thank him for daily bread while we are being persecuted; He also doesn’t expect us to pray for persecution while we are receiving our daily bread. A prayerful petition for healing becomes a prayer of praise after we are healed. We don’t need to continually pray for a specific healing when we have already been healed. Life events should always draw us towards God just in different ways. 

As you pray to God, you never know which tool He will fit onto the handle of your prayer

While prayer has many functions, its one purpose is to shape us by bringing us into a deeper relationship with God. Prayer is meant to change us rather than a means to get God to change something for us. We were designed to grow and change through the context of relationships. The more time we spend building and enjoying a relationship, the more we will become like that person. Since prayer is spending time in a relationship with God, the more we live a prayerful life, the more we become the person God made us to be. We can’t become more like God by spending less time with Him. If we spend more time with God, we will become more godly.