Why Pray When I Can Worry?

Worry is nothing other than the hopeless feeling that God left me in charge.


The title for this message is more clever than any I could come up with.  It is actually the text of a message I heard as a young Christian.  I've thought of it often over the years.  We have an innate aversion (the Bible has a name for it: sin) to prayer.  But prayer is to be a hallmark of all true and faithful Christians.  We're likely familiar with Acts 2:42, which tells us that prayer was one of the activities the early church devoted itself to.  But over and over, the New Testament speaks of being devoted to prayer (Acts. 1:14; 2:42; 6:4; Rom. 12:12; 1 Cor. 7:5; Col. 4:2).

The Bible exhorts us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Th. 5:17), which means something quite different from what some brothers and sisters seem to think it means, if their prayers at the prayer meetings are any indication.

In light of the importance of prayer and our reluctance to do so, I'd like to ask (and hope answer) another question even simpler than the first: Why pray?

Prayer reminds us of our dependence upon the Lord.  When we take the time to earnestly pray,
we are reminded that, in ourselves, we can do nothing.  Self-confidence and independence is the enemy of faith, anything that undermines our self-confidence and independence  helps us to grow in faith.

Prayer seeks the intervention of heaven when situations are beyond us.  Which is always, by the way, the real trouble isn't when things are out of our hands-as if a situation in the Lord's hand is a  bad thing-but when we think ourselves sufficient to the task at hand.  The Lord Jesus didn't say that apart from Him there were a few hard things we can't do, but that apart from Him we do "nothing" (John 15:5).

Those two reasons pertain to the petition aspect of prayer.  But other purposes become clear when we ask ourselves yet another question: Why did the Lord Jesus pray?

Here we must be careful.  It is sometimes asserted, for example, that during His night of prayer, before the selection of the Twelve (Lk. 6:12ff), the Lord was praying for wisdom and guidance.  Surely this can't be the case!  The One who is called "the wisdom of God" (I Cor. 1:24) lacked no wisdom.  Indeed, and we say this reverently, the Father had no extra wisdom to impart, for in Christ "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3).  We certainly need to pray for wisdom (Jas.1:5) but not the Lord Jesus.  So, why did He pray?

Prayer benefits others.  The Lord Jesus knew whom He was going to choose, but He also knew the difficult road that lay ahead of those men.  So the gospels are filled with examples of His prayers on their behalf And, to our delight, we are assured that He continues to intercede (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25).

Prayer is fellowship with God.  Whatever other purposes our Lord had in prayer, He certainly savoured the time of communion with His Father in the midst of this dark and sinful world. Isn't this the best reason to pray?  Simply spending time enjoying the company of the One we love transcends any other motive for prayer.

Prayer reveals our hearts.  If we want to know how we're doing spiritually, all we need is honestly evaluate our prayer lives-how often we pray, how we pray, and why we pray. The world and the flesh will resist genuine prayer, but let us persevere, confident of the Spirit's help, for this is the desire of the Lord Jesus: "Men ought always to pray, and not lose heart" (Lk. 18:1).

Sincerely,
Pastor Dale Morgan

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