Why Pray?

January 24, 2022

We are into our third and last week of 21 Days of Prayer. Our unified time of prayer always encourages me as we seek God together. One of the things I do during our prayer time together is to read different authors on prayer. This week Dr. Myles Munroe’s thoughts on prayer have been helpful, and I want to share some of them with you.

Have you ever thought, “Why should I pray” when God already knows everything, has ultimate control, and does not change?

Those are interesting questions and Satan definitely uses them to his advantage in trying to convince us that prayer doesn’t matter. The problem is we do not fully understand God, what He has established, and how He chooses to operate.

Dr. Myles Munroe states…

“Prayer is a result of God’s established authority structure between heaven and earth, as well as a product of His faithfulness to His Word. Therefore, prayer is simply respecting God’s authority. Prayer was born out of humankind’s God-given assignment.”

God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, and let them have authority over all the earth, over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Genesis 1:26-27 NIV

God is letting us know His intent and desire for us. He is defining the boundaries of His rights legally to influence and interfere on planet Earth. So God has established laws not only for humankind but also Himself. He will hold Himself accountable to these.

When our kids were growing up there were times they wanted me to do something for them in regard to the usage of our building. I told them that I couldn’t because of a policy that had been established. They would reply to me, “But you are the ‘Boss’. You can do anything you want to do.” I would share with them that I was held to the policy that I had helped make, and I would lose my character if I went against it. So it is with God.

So any law of God is a law to God. He is faithful to His Word at all costs.

Again, Dr. Munroe shares…

God said, “Let us grant them authority… over the earth.” Legal authority to rule the earth was given to humankind only, God did not include Himself in the legal authority structure. Humankind has been given stewardship. The legal authority over the earth is in the hands of humankind, which means nothing will happens in the earthly realm without the active or passive permission of humankind who is its legal authority.

So we see that every action taken by God on the earth requires the involvement of a human being. Look at history:

• Noah was needed to rescue humanity in the flood.
• Abraham was needed to create a nation.
• Moses was needed to lead a nation.
• Joshua was needed to defeat Jericho.
• Esther was needed to preserve the Hebrews.
• Jesus needed to leave heaven and become a man for the salvation of humankind.

John Wesley said, “God does nothing but in answer to prayer. You have not done all you can until you have fasted and prayed.”

Prayer is not an option, it is a necessity. Too often I believe that many of us look around and think, “Why doesn’t God do something?” I believe that God is thinking, “I have given you authority—why don’t you use it?” Why don’t you invite Him to help you?

Heaven depends on you; earth needs you. Without you, heaven will not and without heaven, earth cannot. Remember, the great prayer we all know was Jesus’ response to the disciples when they asked how they should pray. He said to pray like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10 NIV).

Heaven needs you to cooperate in order to impact the earth. You can make a difference and change the course of history if you will understand the purpose and power of prayer.

I am grateful to Dr. Munroe for these thoughts which are very helpful to me. I pray they will spur you on in these last days of our unity in prayer together for 2022.