This week, we continued our series, "WHY?" by asking the question, "WHY PRAY?"
Why bother praying? I’m sure there have been times where you've prayed and asked God for something and NEVER saw that thing happen (I’ve definitely been there a ton of times), so you might even think that prayer is pointless. If that's true--if it doesn’t work, shouldn't we probably all give up doing it and quit pretending that it makes a difference? Why do Christians pray? Why is prayer a part of every church service that we go to? Why are we encouraged to do it during the week? Does God really answer prayers? This week, we tackled some of those questions.
PRAYER IS A PART OF RELATIONSHIP
Prayer simply means “talking or expressing yourself to God”. It’s pretty much impossible to know someone closely and to have a great friendship with someone without regular communication- and the same is true when it comes to us and God. A lot of people might wonder why they feel disconnected and distant from God—and it might be because they’ve got sin in their life and have basically walked away from God and what he wants for them, or it might be because they just never put an effort into having a healthy relationship with him. If you don’t read and reflect on God’s Word (the Bible)—which is basically God’s instruction manual for living a healthy and fulfilling life, and if you don’t ever talk to him, than really, you’re not going to be that close and you’re also not going to be able to hear HIS voice when HE speaks to YOU!
At some point, I’ll probably dedicate an entire talk about how we can hear God speak to us—but the point I want to make here is simply that we’re meant to have a RELATIONSHIP with God—and you just can’t have a relationship without putting some effort into it and having an open line of communication.
Prayer isn’t something you should be scared or intimidated by. There are no magic formulas involved. You don’t even have to speak in ye ol’ English! God just wants you to be REAL with him. In fact the Bible is full of places, like in the Psalms, where people prayed prayers that were ANGRY, UPSET and FRUSTRATED with God! God didn’t get angry with them! In fact, those prayers are recorded in the Bible for a reason! God wants us to talk to him about the stuff that bothers us! He wants us to talk to him about stuff we’re dealing with in life. He wants us to talk to him about our doubts and frustrations!
2. GOD WANTS US TO PRAY!
Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t worry about anything. No matter what happens, TELL GOD ABOUT EVERYTHING. Ask and pray, and give thanks to him”.
1Thessalonians 5:17 has just three simple words, “NEVER STOP PRAYING”.—which, by the way, doesn’t mean that we need to quit school, give up our jobs and spend every waking moment talking to God…but what it’s saying is that God wants an open line of communication with us.
In a world where almost everyone has a cell phone—we get that. We can send a text message whenever we feel like it. We can share that viral cat video at the click of a button, AND we have the freedom to talk to God whenever we want about anything we want! This week, I shared how one of the "habits" in our family is that, when we're driving and spot an ambulance with its lights flashing, we take a second to pray for that person in need. It's something my little kids are super aware of. They know that you don't have to be in a church building to talk to God or ask him for help. In fact, there are times in our home when one of us might stub our toe, and within seconds our kids are praying that God would heal us and take the pain away.
Over the last year, one of the things I’ve started practicing is that I’ve decided not to ever say that I’ll pray for someone and never do it. Sometimes someone shares something on Facebook and they’ll have a ton of people say things like “my thoughts and prayers are with you”. I used to be one of those “thoughts and prayers people”, until I realized that I wasn’t actually thinking about them or praying for them at all—it was just a nice thing that I said at the time but would forget all about it! Well NOW, what I do is I’ll take the time to pray for someone and their situation right then and there and then, I’ll just type something like—“I just took a minute and prayed for you”!
I share all of that stuff to say that you can make prayer an everyday, everywhere, any time part of your life! It’s like sending a text to the most powerful being in all of existence—and you don’t even need a phone! No data plan is required!
3. GOD IS NOT A GENIE
The third and final thing I want to do is answer the question about why it seems like God’s not answering those texts—and why it seems that he’s either not listening or doesn’t really care enough to do something about it. You’re not the only one with those doubts and questions—even the prophet Habakkuk said to God, “Why does it seem like you don’t listen to my prayers? Why am I not getting an answer? Do you even care?” (Habakkuk 1:2)
The Bible very clearly tells us that God wants to hear from us and that He actually cares about what we’re going through! Psalm 56:8 says that God keeps a record of our tears—which doesn’t mean that he’s LITERALLY got a filing cabinet with your name on it—but it means that he knows exactly what we’re going through and the tough stuff you’re deal with! 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”.
The main verse I want us to think about is found in 1 John 5: 14-15. It says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him”.
Now, it’s really easy to read this verse and say—“Well, look at that--- it says right there that God will give us what we ask for! BUT…that’s not EXACTLY what it says. It actually says that God will answer those prayers that are ACCORDING TO HIS WILL.
What that means is that God is not a genie! Rubbing the lamp (praying) doesn’t mean he’s required to grant you wishes! I mean, we’re talking about the God of the Universe here—not our servant. He’s not a candy dispenser that spits out treats once we pull the lever! He’s not going to make money rain from heaven or have all of your problems disappear just because you pulled the lever or said the right magic words!
Part of praying is trusting that God knows and wants what’s best for us. While we CAN pray for anything, that doesn’t mean those things are good for us! I mean, my kids can ask me to give them desserts 24/7, and they might be disappointed when I say no and think that I don’t really love them, but the truth is, no good parent is going to do whatever their kids want! Being a good parent means doing what’s best for my kids, even if they might get mad at me and think I’m terrible and unkind!
I shared a story of this one time I was looking for a job, and came across a job that seemed perfect for me. The interview went well, and I thought for sure that it was what God wanted for me. When I didn't get that job, I felt that God had seriously dropped the ball, but as it turns out, when I look back on it, I'm really glad God didn't say "yes" to all of those prayers. In fact, in one of those jobs, there ended up being a big upheaval where I would have moved my family to a new city only to have to look for a new job just a few months later. God not answering my prayer saved me a lot of stress, hardship and money!
Sometimes you’ll pray for REALLY good things—like praying for your family to come to know Jesus---and when that doesn't happen, you might think that God doesn't care or that prayer doesn't work, but we need to remember that God’s not going to over-ride their own freedom of choice just because you prayed! While God might open opportunities for that to happen because of your prayers, he’s not going to force someone against their will or turn someone into a mindless robot just so that my prayer is answered!
You see, God ALWAYS answers prayers, but SOMETIMES the answer is “no”. Other times the answer is “I’m working on it, but you’re going to have to wait”, and we need to be ok with that. We need to trust that God knows best! Even Jesus, right before he was going to be arrested and tortured on a cross, prayed and asked God to not let it happen…but he also famously said, “NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE”. (Luke 22:42) Even Jesus said, God, this is what I want, but ULTIMATELY, I want what you want! And I’m so glad that Jesus didn’t get a “YES” to that prayer, because his going on the cross was something that made a way for all of humanity to have their sins forgiven!
Why pray? When we talk to God regularly and read and reflect on what the Bible says, we’ll feel closer to God and be more able to hear him speak to us! We also pray simply because God asks us to do it--- he wants us to tell him about all of the things that worry us and stress us out--- he wants us to ask him for help! But it’s important for us to remember that while GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS PRAYERS—sometimes the answer isn’t what we want or expect. We need to remember that God isn’t a GENIE. He’s not going to give us everything we want and ask for. We need to trust that, as the ULTIMATE GOOD PARENT, he knows and wants what’s best for us! We need to remember to pray like Jesus did—“God—this is what I want, but ultimately, I want what YOU want”.
DISCUSSION FOR HOME
1. As a parent, try to inject some time for prayer into your home life this week. It might be as simple as, when you ask your teen about their day, ask them if there's anything you can pray with them about. Remind them that, while sometimes the answer is "no" or "not right now", or the prayer might get answered in a way we don't expect, God always wants to hear from us. He wants us to depend on him and ask him for help.
2. Has prayer ever made a difference in your life? Have you seen God answer one of your prayers in an amazing way? Talk to your teen about that experience!
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