The Purpose of Prayer

How we need to pray! Not talk about it. Not have conferences about it. But to actually practice the privilege of prayer.

Paul said, “Continue in prayer” (Colossians 4:2). The Greek word for “continue” speaks of persistence and constancy. Continue steadfastly in prayer.

Why is persistence necessary in prayer? Some people say that praying for the same need more than once shows a lack of faith on our part. Yet, in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed the same prayer three times (Matthew 26:39–44).

Also, in speaking of his own thorn in the flesh, Paul the apostle said, “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8).

Jesus taught persistence in prayer in two parables. In the first one He said, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). He then illustrated this by the story of a callous judge and a determined widow. The widow visited the judge every day saying, “Avenge me of mine adversary.”

The judge, even though he did not fear God or man, said, “This woman will drive me crazy by coming here every day!” So, he wrote out his judgment in her favor. Then Jesus added, “Shall not God avenge his own elect…? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily” (Luke 18:2–8).

At first I found difficulty with the fact that Jesus used an unjust judge as a comparison with our just God. But the parable actually shows a vast contrast. If an unjust judge could be persuaded to act by the persistence of a woman, how much more will our fair and loving Father bring about a just and speedy judgment for those who are calling upon Him.

The other parable about persistence in prayer concerns a fellow who heard a knock on his door at midnight. He opened the door to find some of his friends had come to spend the night. Wanting to feed them before he bedded them down, he went to the cupboard but found he didn’t have enough bread. So, he went to his neighbor’s house, knocked on the door, and said, “Open up and give me some bread! I’ve got company.”

The neighbor replied, “I’m already in bed with my wife and children. Come back tomorrow.” But the fellow kept knocking and wouldn’t stop until he had what he needed. Because of this man’s importunity, the neighbor finally got up and gave him the bread (Luke 11:5–10).

We see that the Bible teaches persistence in prayer. Does that mean our prayers persuade God to do things our way? Does God have an arbitrary reluctance to answer us, and we make Him give in to our demands by being persistent and obnoxious? I hardly think so.

I am convinced that prayers do not and cannot change the purposes of God—though you pray fervently, though you petition with tears, though you pray for days. God is far too loving to give in just because you are weeping and persevering for something He knows would be detrimental to you and would destroy you in the end.

Prayer doesn’t change the purpose of God, but prayer can change the action of God.

Jesus said, “Your Father knows the things you have need of, before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8 NKJV). Your prayers aren’t for the purpose of informing God of your situation. He knows all your needs before you ever ask Him. But your prayers open the door and allow God the opportunity to do those things that He’s been desiring to do, but wouldn’t do in violation of your own free will.

In John 15:16, Jesus said to His disciples,

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you (NKJV).

Note, He may give it to you. God knows your needs and desires to meet them. Prayer opens the door to allow Him to do those things He desires to do. It is giving God my consent to do what He desires in my life. God has given me a free will and will not violate my free will. Thus, I must ask in order to receive.

God knows that in one year I will need a particular thing, because He knows all my exact needs in advance. I don’t know my needs even a month from now. If God gave me today what I’ll need in a year, then I might not use it as He intends it to be used.

So, as I become aware of my needs, I cry out to God, “Help me and meet this need now.” I have finally become aware of the problem. But God has been aware of it all the time. Now when I ask Him for help, He is free to give it to me because I’ll use it as He wants it to be used.

God’s Timing

Sometimes our prayers are answered almost as quickly as they’re spoken. Eliezer the servant was sent by Abraham on a special mission: to find a wife for Isaac. As he came to a certain well, Eliezer said, “Lord, let a young virgin come here to draw water and when I say to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ Let her answer, ‘Not only will I give you a drink, but I’ll also draw water for your camels.’ And Lord, let her be the one you have chosen as a bride for Isaac.”

While the servant was yet praying in his heart, a young girl came to the well to draw water. He said to her, “Give me a drink.” She quickly let the water jug down from her head, gave him a drink, and then said, “Not only thee but I will also draw for thy camels.” And she drew water for the camels (Genesis 24:1–20).

This is one of those beautiful, instantaneous answers to prayer that always thrills us. No sooner do the prayers escape the heart than God is answering them.

It is also true that we have prayed many years for certain needs and have not seen the answer.

Why is it that some prayers are answered immediately and others seem to be delayed? We pray for some people and they’re healed. We pray for others and they die.

First of all, this demonstrates that we’re not in control of the situation. God is in control and He does according to His own purpose and will. Prayers should never be thought of as changing the purposes of God.

We have a very wrong concept of prayer when we think of it as changing God’s mind, altering God’s purposes, or getting my will done. The true purpose of prayer is to get God’s will done—to open the door for God to accomplish that which He has purposed to do.

Thus, we are led to the conclusion that true prayer begins in the heart of God. God makes known to me what is His purpose, His desire, His wishes. I offer it back to God in prayer, and the cycle is completed. When I pray in this manner, I am in harmony with God’s will. In 1 John 5:14,15 we read,

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

Actually, I am the one often changed by prayer. Many times as I am praying God will speak to me. He will show me His way and His plan, which is always so much better than what I had in mind. While in prayer, God deals with me and shows me the folly of certain things that I have been insisting, and practically demanding, from Him. I respond, “Thank you, Lord, for not answering me during the last five years.” He knew what was best for me all the time! At this point in my life, as I look back, I am as thankful for the prayers He did not answer as those He did.

God has a plan for this earth, and He has chosen human instruments to do His work. Some people say that God can only work through man. That’s not true. God has chosen to use man. God could work in any way He wants. He is not limited by human instruments. If we fail, God isn’t going to fail. At times in history God has used angels to do His work on earth, such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We must not lay the heavy responsibility of thwarting God’s purpose on any person. We sometimes hear said, “If you fail to help in the purposes of God, the program of God is going to fail, and you’ll be responsible! You’ll have to stand before God and answer for that failure!” That isn’t true. God will accomplish His purpose one way or another.

By choosing to use you to do His will, God is giving you the blessed opportunity of knowing the joy of working together with Him. Then, as results begin to take place, He rewards you as though you did the work! When you get to heaven you’ll be rewarded for those accomplishments, even though it was God who did the whole thing!

When the survival of the Jewish race was being threatened by a cruel edict, Mordecai told Esther, “If you at this point hold your peace, deliverance will come from another quarter. But you’ll be destroyed” (Esther 4:14). He was warning her that when they try to wipe out the Jews, she would not escape the edict, even though she was in the palace.

Likewise, when you fail to do God’s will, deliverance will come from another quarter. You’ll lose the blessing and the reward of being a co-laborer with God, but God’s program and purpose will not fail.

God Wants to Bless You

Second Chronicles tells us of King Asa’s calling upon the Lord. When he first came to the throne, the King was faced with a very difficult situation—the Ethiopians had invaded the land with a million-man army and 300 chariots. King Asa cried out to God,

LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee. —2 Chronicles 14:11

He knew the odds against him surviving meant nothing to God. If God be for us, who can be against us? God and you make a majority. The Lord was with Asa, and the king went out and destroyed the Ethiopian armies.

When King Asa returned from victory the prophet Azariah met him and said,

The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. —2 Chronicles 15:2

Asa began to prosper. He became very strong and powerful. In the later years of his reign he was threatened again. But this time, the threat came from Baasha, the king of the northern tribes of Israel, who was building fortified cities north of Jerusalem in preparation for an invasion. King Asa took money out of the treasury and sent it to hire Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, to invade Israel from the north. This caused Baasha to withdraw his troops from invading Judah and to deploy them to defend the northern border. It was a clever and successful strategy that worked. However, rather than seeking the Lord in prayer, he sought human help. The prophet Hanani came to him and rebuked him for seeking the aid of man rather than the help of God. The prophet reminded him of how the Lord had helped him against the Ethiopians at the beginning of his reign, and he declared,

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him —2 Chronicles 16:9

Here the Bible is declaring one of the basic truths of God. He is looking for people to bless. God wants to work in your life and bless you. He wants to use you as one of His channels, as one of His instruments. But He’s waiting for you to come into alignment with His plan. The moment your life comes into harmony with the purposes of God, you become a channel through which God’s power and love can flow to a needy world.

God is looking for people whose hearts are in tune with His desires. Thus, the greatest prayer is “Lord, bring me into harmony with Thy will.” You can’t improve on that. But it has to be more than just lip service. It must come from the heart. And that’s not easy.

There are so many things I want done, and so many of my prayers reflect selfishness. So many of my petitions are for things that would bring me comfort, ease, and happiness. But the real purpose of prayer is to see the work of God accomplished in my life and then, through my life, in the lives of others.

I believe that God intends to give you every right thing that you pray for, but His timing is often different than yours. Many times God delays the answers to your prayers for a very good reason.

One reason God may delay an answer to your prayer is that He desires to give you more than what you were asking for at the moment.

Hannah is a good example of this. She had been barren for years. Her husband had another wife with many children. Day after day Hannah’s barrenness plagued her.

One day Hannah and her husband were traveling to the tabernacle while the other wife stayed at home with the kids. On their journey to Shiloh her husband asked, “Hannah, why are you so sad?”

Hannah replied, “Give me children.”

He responded, “Am I God that I could give you children? Aren’t I better to you than many sons? Aren’t you satisfied with me?”

When Hannah arrived at the tabernacle the agony of her heart was so great that she couldn’t even utter her request. She felt the grief so deeply that she just lay before God in the court of the tabernacle. Her lips were moving, but she made no sound with her voice.

Eli the priest passed by and saw Hannah prostrate before the Lord. He thought she was drunk and ordered her to stay away from wine. Hannah said, “No, I am not drunk. But the handmaiden of the Lord is grieved because she is barren. I’ve been pleading with God to give me a son. If He will give me a son, I have promised to give him back to God all the days of his life” (1 Samuel 1).

That’s what God wanted to hear from Hannah, because God needed a man. The state of the nation Israel was so corrupt that there wasn’t a man around for God to use. Before God could get a man, He had to get a woman. Therefore, He dealt with Hannah’s heart.

Hannah had been praying for a son for many years—a son for her own joy and pleasure, a son that would put an end to the taunts from the other wife. Hannah had prayed, “Lord, give me a son. Take away the shame.” But finally she prayed, “Lord, give me a son. And I’ll give him back to You all the days of his life.” Hannah had finally come into harmony with the purposes of God.

The priest told her, “Go in peace. The Lord has heard your prayer. You will have a son.” Hannah went home and God gave her a son, Samuel. He became a prophet, a priest, and one of the most outstanding leaders of God’s people in the Old Testament.

Yes, God wanted to give Hannah a son all the while. But He delayed the answer to her prayers, so that He might work in her heart until she would be aligned with His purpose.

Do not get discouraged when God delays the answers to your prayers. He may want to give you so much more than what you’ve been asking for.

God knows the right time to answer our prayers. Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they receive:

The promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence…ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. —Acts 1:4–5,8

After Jesus spoke these things, while His followers were standing with Him on the Mount of Olives in Bethany, He ascended into heaven, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

The disciples returned to Jerusalem and continued steadfastly in prayer in one accord. The Bible says that they continued to wait till the day of Pentecost had fully come. It would have been possible for God to have poured out the Holy Spirit on them in the first ten minutes, but for His own purposes He saw fit to wait approximately seven days (Acts 1–2).

How long are you to persist in prayer? Until you get an answer—either a yes or no.

Pointers on Prayer

In Colossians Paul exhorts us to “watch,” which literally means to “stay awake.” Sleepiness is one of the weaknesses of our flesh while we pray. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, He found His disciples asleep. He said, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). God wants our minds to be sharp and alert when we talk to Him. I think it’s insulting to talk to God when our minds are half–awake.

Paul also exhorts us to pray “with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2). Our prayers should always be coupled with thanksgiving. The Psalms serve as an ideal example of this.

David prayed for everything in the Psalms—for himself, for his friends, and for his enemies. He also filled the Psalms with praises and thanksgiving unto God. They are as well-balanced with thanksgiving as with requests. Quite often, but not often enough, people come to me and say, “I don’t have any problems to lay on you. I just wanted to praise the Lord with you! The Lord has been so good to me. I want to tell you how He’s been blessing my life.”

That’s so exciting! I hear so many problems as a pastor that it’s a great joy when someone says, “No problem. I just want to tell you the Lord is so good!” That’s glorious!

It’s a shame to continually lay some heavy problem on God. We ought to be thanking Him more for what He has already done for us.

In the early days of the United States the Puritans observed days of fasting and affliction. There was at least one day of fast each month of the year. Then someone said, “Let’s have a day of thanksgiving! We won’t fast or afflict ourselves, but we’ll have a feast to thank the Lord for all He has done.” Thus, Thanksgiving began.

Certainly, personal petitions are necessary in our prayers. But if I only pray when I have some desperate need in my own life and only bring personal petitions to God, I’m denying myself a fantastic blessing. Oh, that I would go to God with more praises and thanksgiving!

Paul also exhorts us to pray for ministers (Colossians 4:3). May God help the ministers. Often, people place ministers on a pedestal and make us into something we’re not. We’re all too human. I wish I were more of a saint, but I’m not!

Ministers have problems just like everybody else. We go through the same trials, perhaps to an even greater degree than most other Christians. Many times we’re under heavier attacks by Satan because of our position of spiritual authority and leadership.

Ministers need prayer. Someone asked Spurgeon about his success. He answered, “My people pray for me.” The Apostle Paul said, “Pray for us.”

What did Paul want them to pray for him? He wanted them to pray that God would open a door of utterance (Colossians 4:3). At this point Paul was in prison. You’d think that he would desire liberty. “Pray that God will open the door of the prison and get me out of this place!” Instead Paul prayed that God would open the door of opportunity to freely speak the Word.

Pray that God will help me not to be a powerless minister, but to be filled with His Spirit. Help me not to speak a lot, but say nothing. Pray that God will help me not to be a fantastic minister, speaking only to please and excite the people. Pray that I’ll not be an idle minister, not being thoroughly furnished in the Word. Pray that I’ll not be a cold minister and become unresponsive to the people’s needs.

Pray that I might be a faithful minister speaking forth the mysteries of Christ, really demonstrating His love, setting an example before the flock, walking humbly before God as He would have me to do. Pray for your ministers. We covet your prayers. In turn, we’ll pray for you.