Review

Last week we looked at the question, "What is Prayer?,"to see how the Bible defined prayer for us.  We found two says that theBible defines prayer.  First it was defined a a memorial (Acts 10:4)and the second definition we found was as incense (Ps 141:2, Rev 5:8,8:3-4). 

We looked at how Cornelius, a roman centurion, wastold by God in a vision that his prayers and gifts to the poor havecome up before God as a memorial.  We looked at what a memorial was andfound several examples of memorials from the old testament and how theywere used as a way to remember what God had done in the lives of theIsraelites.  As we know that God does not forget, the fact thatCornelius's prayers were a memorial could not be for God's to rememberbut for Cornelius's to remember.


When we looked an prayer"like incense" we saw that when prayer was defined this way, it definedas God view's our prayers.  We looked then at the usage of incense inthe old testament.  We saw that God command a very special formula ofincense to be mixed and burned all day and all night in the Tabernacleby Aaron, the high priest of the time.  We compared this to severalplaces in the new testament about prayer, where we are told toconstantly or at all times be in prayer.  We also looked at theseriousness of the incense in God's plan.  First, the formula could notbe used for personal usage.  Anyone who did was cut off from theirpeople (their family).  We also saw that no other incense could be usedto burn in the tabernacle before God.  We even saw a case where Godtook the lives of Aaron's sons as they offered "strange" or unknownfire and incense before God.  We compared this to Ananias and Sapphirawho lied to the Holy Spirit and lost their lives because of it.  Wealso looked in James at a double minded man, how he is unstable andwill not receive anything from the Lord (James 1:5-8).  We comparedthis to our reason for praying, how God knows the true intent of ourheart and how we can't fool or think we can manipulate God just becausewe take time to pray to him.  Our prays must be offered with thecorrect attitude.

Why Pray?

This leads into the question for this week.  Ithought a lot about this, where should we go next and there were a lotof good directions to go.  We have looked at what prayer is, at leastin part, so the next logical question to me was Why Pray?  And eventhat was a very large question.  There can be a lot of reasons we pray,some of them I know are Biblically founded, but I am also sure we couldcome up with really good sounding answers that if we really looked atwhat God has said about this, we would find that they are man's answersto "Why Pray?" not Gods.

So, as we did lat week, let's start with how you would answer this question.  Why Pray?

Thereason I think this is a difficult question to answer because "WhyPray?" is so broad.  It needs to be refined so that we can really lookfor the answer. 

Prayer for "Things"

The first thing I want to take out of thediscussion today is the things we pray for or about, and there is areason.  The Bible is full of examples of people praying for things. 

• Peter in Prison - Acts 12:5 NIV  So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
• Selfish Requests - Pharaoh
• Deliverance - Psalms
• For Gifts - Acts 8:15 NIV  When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit
• A Wife - Genesis 24:45 NIV  "Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, 'Please give me a drink.
• Repentance - Ezra 9:5-6 NIV  Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God  (6)  and prayed: "O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens
• For Help - 1 Timothy 5:5 NIV  The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.

There are many many morethat I could list as I am sure you could also, and I am not sayingthese are not good reasons to pray.  If I were sick and dying ofcancer, I would sure be praying for my healing as would you, but allthese can be answers for the question "What do we pray about or for?"and that is not what I am wanting to answer today.  I want, and I don'tlike putting it this way but can't think of any other, deeper answers. These are the "milk of the Word" answers and I want the "meat of theWord" answers.  What I really want to find out is why is prayer soimportant to our relationship with Christ?  I know it is, even withoutlooking for that answer, but why.  So I want to refine the question to"Why does prayer matter?" 

I'm not going to say that some ofthe verses we will look at won't have "things" in them that we shouldbe praying for or about, but the "things" are not what I want to focuson.  I want to focus on the result of the prayer, the changes that itcan bring about that makes prayer significant.

Why Does Prayer Matter?

It's a Command

How about we start at the very basic reason prayer matters.  We are told to pray, so if we don't we are being disobedient.

Ephesians6:18 NIV  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds ofprayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep onpraying for all the saints.
Colossians 4:2 NIV  Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 NIV  (17)  pray continually;

Thesemay not sound like command ("You must Pray!"), but read them again. There is no "if you'd like to," or "it would be a good idea to,"anywhere in these verse, is there?  What does it say?  Pray in theSpirit on all occasions...., always keep on praying, devote yourselvesto prayer, pray continually.

So how many people want to disobeyChrist?  Anyone?  Come on raise your hands so everyone can see.  Noone, then what do you need to do?

God's Presence

So we understand that we need to pray because God wants us to pray, but why does he want us to pray?

There are a lot of reason, but there is one that is found in the old testament that I want to look at.

Deuteronomy4:7 NIV  What other nation is so great as to have their gods near themthe way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

This is echoed through the Bible.  Many of the Psalms have verses that talk about being near to God.

Psalms 145:18 NIV  The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Ithink we all understand that there is only so much we can do to be nearto God, right?  After all, if we were able on our own to reach God thenChrist did not have to die for use, but He did die for us because wecan't reach God.  But as you can see here, when we pray, God is near tous.  We haven't taken a large step toward God, we might not have takenany steps at all.  If you look at the old testament, many times ittalks about praying toward the temple?  Any idea why?  Does it matterwhat direction you are facing when you pray?

1 Kings 8:44 NIV "When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you sendthem, and when they pray to the LORD toward the city you have chosenand the temple I have built for your Name,
1 Kings 8:48 NIV  and ifthey turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land oftheir enemies who took them captive, and pray to you toward the landyou gave their fathers, toward the city you have chosen and the templeI have built for your Name;
2 Chronicles 6:20-21 NIV  (20)  May youreyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which yousaid you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer yourservant prays toward this place.  (21)  Hear the supplications of yourservant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place.Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.
2Chronicles 6:26 NIV  "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rainbecause your people have sinned against you, and when they pray towardthis place and confess your name and turn from their sin because youhave afflicted them,


Of course not, but what was at thetemple?  Maybe I should ask Who was at the temple?  God's Spirit wasthere.  When they talk about turning toward the temple to pray, is itnot a symbol of turning to face God when you pray?  We may not be ableto take ourselves any closer to God, but we can turn to Him, and lookwhat happens when we do.  God is near!

James 4:8 NIV  Come near to God and he will come near to you...

Whenwe "come hear to God" even as little as turning toward Him, He comesnear to us, and unlike us, He can reach us.  But that is not all thatthe verse says, so let's not forget the rest.

James 4:8 NIV Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, yousinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

We have toremember that we cannot just sort-of turn toward God.  We have to cometo Him in the right attitude.  We can approach Him only because of theblood of Jesus spilled out on the cross for us.

Ephesians2:12-13 NIV  remember that at that time you were separate from Christ,excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants ofthe promise, without hope and without God in the world.  (13)  But nowin Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought nearthrough the blood of Christ.

Protection from Temptation

My final point will be a verypractical one.  We have seen that God tells us to pray and He promisesto be near us when we turn toward Him and pray, but does that really doanything for us?  Oh sure, being in God's presence is great, but we allhave days when it seems like our prayers just "bounce off theceiling."  Is there anything tangible that we get out of prayer, and Iam not referring to the answers to the prayers, but the pray itself?

Mark 14:38 NIV  Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

Theseare the words of Christ to the disciples as He was praying in theGarden of Gethsemane.  When I read this before digging into it, Ialways just breezed over it.  After all we are suppose to avoidtemptation and praying to stay out of it is a good idea.  But when Idug into this more, I was something different.

Jesus is nottelling them to pray to avoid temptation, he is telling them to pray sothey will not willingly go into temptation.  The words "so that" in theoriginal Greek indicate a voluntary action.  What Jesus is saying hereis that prayer can keep us from putting ourselves into a place where wecan be or will give into temptation!  That struck me like a bolt oflightning.  I never thought about that before.  I know that 1 Cor saysGod will never let us be tempted beyond what we can bear (1Co 10:13)and I know that James says temptation is born of our own evil desires(Jam 1:14-15), but for some reason it never really hit me that if I amin prayer, not only won't I be walking into a situation to be tempted,but also if I find I have, prayer is my way out.   Prayer can keep usfrom temptation and ultimately sin.  And I don't mean praying to avoidit, but just praying, turning toward God and letting Him draw near tous.

Closing

Do we have an answer for the question of the week?  What did we learn about why prayer matters?

• It is a command
• It is an act of turning toward God, and He in turn comes near to us when we do
• It is a protections from ourselves, our own evil desire to sin