Draw near to God he will draw near to you. James 4:8 NKJV
Why do we pray? If we are bottom-line honest, the motivations are varied much of the time and not all of our prayers come from a great place. Sometimes we pray from habit, from guilt, or from need. We pray to be forgiven, to get out of a jam we’re in, or to get God to perform a miracle whether small or great because we are frightened. All of those reasons to pray are understandable and don’t annoy our loving Father. But that’s not the real reason He invites us to pray.
Prayer is important because God loves us so much that He wants to have a deep and growing relationship with us. When we pray, we are opening up our hearts to Him and He is able to work in us and through us. When we pray all the time, in normal times when we don’t just need something, our relationship flourishes and deepens.
In any relationship the more we talk and spend time together, the more satisfying and close the relationship becomes. We know them better and better and understand each other deeply. The same thing happens when we spend time in prayer connecting with God. The more time we spend talking to Him, the closer we will become.
The closer we are to God, the more we will see as He sees. We will never love like Jesus until we see the world as He sees it. We will never have unquenchable hope in dark times until we see life through His eyes. We won’t see the solutions to the challenges we face until we have His perspective. Prayer is absolutely vital so we can see as God sees.
We will never “live like Jesus in this world” (1 John 4:17) as we are called to do, we will never do as He does, until we have His heart. We get His heart as we draw near to Him in prayer. When we see as He sees, we will feel as He feels, and then we will do as He does. Prayer is our path to fulfilling our purpose in this world.
We often hear “Prayer changes things.” Actually, the reason we are to pray is because prayer changes US as we draw close to God and our relationship deepens. Then we are able to partner with Him to change things.
- Father, thank You for inviting me into a transforming relationship with You through prayer. I am recommitting to this wonderful privilege. I know that as I draw close to You, You will draw even closer to me.