Why should I pray? Does it really matter?
If you’ve been walking with God for any amount of time, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Why should I pray? Does it even make a difference?” When you don’t see your prayers answered, you may be tempted to stop altogether. So why should we pray? And does prayer really make a difference?
Distinguish between sovereignty and determinism
God’s sovereignty means that God has complete control over everything. Think of it like this. As a parent, you are in full control of your home. But you still give your children some level of autonomy over certain things. Nothing happens in that house that is out of your control. But you aren’t necessarily forcibly dictating every single thing that your children do.
Determinism means God determines every aspect of this world. If you believe in determinism, you might ask why you should even work, if God is going to provide for you anyway. Why should you seek a spouse if God has determined whether you’re going to be married or not, and to whom? What good is it to go to the doctor if God is going to determine whether or not you’ll be healed?
The Bible teaches sovereignty, not determinism. There’s a big difference.
God responds to the prayers of his people
Possibly the clearest example of this is in Exodus 32, when God was about to destroy the people of Israel at the bottom of the mountain for their sinful idol worship, until Moses interceded in prayer on their behalf, and God relented. God responded to the intercession of Moses.
Another example is in 1 Samuel 1. Hannah was barren, and prayed for a son. God eventually blessed her with that. Look at Exodus 15 and Numbers 11, Moses prayed for food and water for the people, and God responded. Additionally, in 2 Kings 20, Hezekiah prayed for a longer life, and God added 15 years to his life.
In Acts 12, the church prayed for Peter to be released from prison, and God responded by freeing him.
That doesn’t guarantee that God will do the same for you specifically, but it does make it clear that God responds to prayer. Don’t give up on prayer!
Jesus commands us to pray
In Luke 18, Jesus teaches a parable about a persistent widow, and the point of the parable was to tell the listener not to lose hope and to continue in prayer.
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up… Luke 18:1-8 NIV
It’s easy to give up if nothing happens after a few weeks of praying. Jesus clearly says that’s the wrong thing to do.
A woman once told me after I taught a lesson on prayer that she prayed for her husband’s salvation for 20 years, and the prayer was finally answered. Until God says no, keep confidently asking God for things in prayer and seeking his will.
Why should I pray? Because Jesus prayed
Jesus wasn’t down here on earth trying to figure out whether his prayers would make a difference, or debating sovereignty, etc. He was obedient, and snuck away to places of solitude to pray to his father. So we must follow that model. If the son of God would do it, why wouldn’t we?
There are some things about God’s sovereignty and man’s free will that we will never understand in this life. So it’s not our place to try to put ourselves in the place of God to figure all that out in terms of our prayers.
We are to be faithful in prayer, pray in accordance to God’s will, and pray for other people. God wants us to get serious about prayer, and we should be persistent and never give up.