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Why Pray? Part One

Colossians 4:2

Introduction:
• This has happened only once in all the years I have visited people in the hospital. I asked a man if I could pray for him and he said, “No thank you. It won’t do any good.” I had to agree with him in part. He was dying and I didn’t believe my prayer would change that.
• If God already knows what is going to happen, why even start to pray? Why ask God when he has already decided whether or not to do what he is going to do? Why pray to a God who knows everything before you even ask?
• The next three weeks will seek to answer this question with three answers that encourage me when I pray. I will share one of the reasons with you this week.
• The first reason why we should pray is because God commands it.
• Text: Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
• This is not a satisfactory answer for some.
o Skeptics say that our faith trumps reason
o We say, “We come to a place where we no longer feel the need to challenge God on everything.
• This is the struggle of Job: Do I trust God even when I don’t understand?
o Job 40:1-5
o Job 42:1-6
o Who is God? Is God under your control, or you under his?
• God did not answer the prayers of Israel as they wished. They though God didn’t see them. Why pray if God is not listening?
o Isaiah 40:27-31 “27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Is there not a time in which our trust in God triumphs over our doubts? Can we not lay our lives open to God and say to Him, “I trust you, your way is best?” Is it possible for us to come to the place of surrender and submission, where we thank him in trials, praise him in difficult times, and trust that “all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose?”
When doubters doubt and scoffers scoff, when we are attacked for our faith in God, when life just doesn’t make sense…to us, is it possible for us to pray because God wants us to talk to Him about all our fears, all our concerns, all our doubts, all our trials and so we do so in obedience to Him?
If there were no other reason why we should pray, obeying our God, obeying our creator, should be enough.

I pray in this church that we would be a people devoted to prayer. That we would not let skepticism, doubt or fear stop us from talking to our creator. I pray in this church that we would have such respect for God that his command becomes our wish. So many are holding back from open obedience to God. Let go…and let God fully control your life.