10 Reasons Why Christians Should Pray

Firstly, What do you understand by Prayer? Prayer is a loving communication with God and the expression of our inner spiritual needs. We can find strength of spirit, guidance, wisdom, joy and inner peace through prayer. A prayer may be long or short, alone or in a group, silent or loud but it should be a communication with God and not done for public recognition( Matthew 6: 5-8). Some people might ask since God knows everything, why should we pray? Well, prayer is our greatest privilege as a Christian and our greatest christian failure. We all need to learn how to pray more but one of the reasons we don't pray better than we do is that we keep on asking ourselves a lot of question about prayer and these questions causes a great uncertainty. This uncertainty sometimes neutralizes us and we become immune about prayer. According to Philippians 4:6, " Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God". So in addition to this , lets explore few other reasons for why we should pray.

1. We Pray Because We Need God and Not Because God Needs Us

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land". -2 chronicles 7:14. God made us to serve Him, not for Him to serve us. He is complete in Himself and we should not fool ourselves into thinking God need us. Galatians 6:3 says "For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.". We desperately need God in what ever aspect of our lives and we are made complete in Him. Prayer is the key to being made complete in Christ Jesus and we need God to move miraculously in our lives and this can happen only through prayer. We pray not inform God , not to get our will done and not because He need us but because we need Him, we love Him and we are created to worship and adore Him.

2. We Pray To Communicate With God 

Prayer allows us to worship and praise the Lord, it also allows us to offer confession of our sins and grant us the opportunity to present our request to God. All these highly involves a personal and intimate communication with our Creator. He care for us and want to commune with us through prayer. Hebrews 4: 15-16 reads "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." In order to find this grace, we need to communicate with God, without communication a relationship fall apart, so too our relationship with God suffers when we do not communicate with Him. 

3. We Pray To Receive From God 

James 1:5 says " If any of you lacks wisdom, you should pray to God , who will give it to you ; because God gives generously and graciously to all". We do pray to receive and we have a father who loves giving. All good gifts comes from Him and in prayer we rightfully seek and ask of Him to receive spiritual understanding and wisdom.

4. We Pray To Get God's Will Done on Earth

We should seek God's will and not our own. The hard part is learning to trust God's will for us. Jeremiah 29:11-14 says, "For I know the plans i have for you, declares the Lord, a plan for welfare and not calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you, and you will seek me and fine me when you search for Me with all your heart , I will be found by you." We need to start putting our trust in the Lord's will for our lives. It is also important to tell God what it is we think, we want and need but we need to listen to God and find out what He thinks of our will. We can tell God our need but we need to tell Him "not my will be done, but your will be done." Matthew 6:10. If we would pray for God's will to be done in our lives, we will have a lot fewer problems. God's will is very important in our lives and the best thing we can do is to get our will in line with His.

5.We Pray To Have Power Over Evil and Temptations

Physical strength cannot help us overcome obstacles and challenges in the spiritual realm, for our struggles is not against flesh and blood , but against powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in this world. In prayer, even the physically weak can become strong spiritually. So we need to call upon God to grant us power over evil. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptations. The spirit is willing but the body is weak." Matthew 16:41.

6.We Pray To Strengthen The Bonds Between Believers

Prayer not only strengthens our relationship with God but when we pray with other believers, it strengthens the bond between fellow Christians.

7. We Pray Because God's Word Calls Us To Pray

One key reason to pray is because God instructed us to pray. Prayer must be a part of the lives for he who obeys His will. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says "Prayer is an act of obedience and God calls us to pray and we must respond."

8. We Pray to Express to God Our Gratitude

Like the one leper who returned to Jesus, We are to return to God time and again with thanksgiving. All that we have been given, all that we have received and all our answered prayers is a gift from His hand. Through prayers we provide our offering gratitude and give Him thanks.

9. We Pray Because We Love

If we say we love a friend but never speak to him, it is likely that we don't love that friend. If we love that friend, then we will want to talk to him, spend time with him and support and encourage that friend to succeed. This is why we see Jesus in some passages like Mark rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, went to desert places and prayed. He loves the father and the father loves him. God loved us and forgive our sins and only wants our heart as a living sacrifice. John 3: 16-17.

10. We Pray To Keep Us Awake Spiritually

Prayer is very necessary to keep the spirit in us awake. Effective prayer for revival and spiritual awakeness is God's will for every Believer. 1 Peter 5:8 says, " Be of sober spirit be on the alert , your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." So we need to be all time spiritually awaken to resist the devil. Ask God to bring deep conviction of sin, spiritual brokenness, a holy fear of God and genuine repentance among his people."

The Truth can Hurt you or the Truth can Change you. So what will the Truth Do to you?