Nature and Purpose of Prayer

Christians sometimes pray without thinking much about why. They ask God to grant their wishes for themselves or others, express gratitude for blessings, confess neglect of or rebellion against their creator, perhaps use liturgical (formal) written forms, and do these things in a mode of acknowledging the worthiness of God. All these are important, but they do not reflect the foundational purpose of prayer, which is to align ourselves with God and his purposes. That we have the opportunity to do this is astounding.

Alignment requires that we commune with the invisible but nonetheless present God, share God’s mind to the extent we can, and participate in his work. It implies that we remain open to reordering our priorities by remaining open to God’s Spirit and not numbing ourselves and closing off. The overarching theme of all proper prayer is, “Thy will be done.” As mere mortals, we remain in the dark about God’s grander purpose, his Grand Design. The test of faith is whether we continue to believe God to be loving.

In his Gospel, Luke reports how Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples, goes off by himself to pray. He pleads with his Father to spare him the agonizing pain and death that he knew was coming (Luke 22:42). As a human being, he naturally wanted to avoid the suffering and humiliation of crucifixion. Luke tells us, “in anguish of spirit, Jesus prayed ever more urgently.” But—and this makes all the difference—Jesus prays, “Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me, yet, not my will, but yours be done.”

Prayer involves synchronizing our desires with God’s.

, and even when we can make no sense of why bad things happen after we have prayed for a better outcome.

the good to prevail. Perhaps the ultimate test of faith is how we handle

When we pray, ideally prompted by God’s Spirit, we express our desires, thoughts, and emotions, and the Spirit occasionally whispers back. To hear God’s whisper we must listen with spiritual ears.

to commune intimately with God and

and better align with God’s purposes.