PRAYER-PURPOSE
A great emphasis in prayer is what God desires
to do in us. He desires to get us under His loving authority, dependent on His
Spirit, walking in the Light, motivated by His love, and living for His glory.
The collective essence of these five truths is an abandonment of one’s life to
the Lord and a continual openness, dependence, and responsiveness to His loving
control.
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 175.
Believers
do not pray with the view of informing God about things unknown to Him, or of
exciting Him to do His duty, or of urging Him as though He were reluctant. On
the contrary, they pray in order that they may arouse to seek Him, that they
may exercise their faith in meditating on His promises, that they may relieve
themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into His bosom; in a word, that
they may declare that from Him alone they hope and expect, both for themselves
and for others, all good things.
John Calvin
Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke, Eerdmans, n.d., p. 314.
Prayer
girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly
wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer can do.
Prayer gives
you opportunity to praise God and to request His divine intervention in your
life and/or the lives of others. Prayer
allows you to glorify His Name and also provides an avenue for you to be filled
with joy.
Biblical Counseling Foundation
Self-Confrontation Manuel, Lesson 3, Page 9,
Used by Permission of the Biblical Counseling Foundation.
By fasting,
the body learns to obey the soul; by praying the soul learns to command the
body.
William Secker
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 79.
Prayer will
make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.
John Bunyan
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 211.
1.
Prayer
is a form of serving God (Luke 2:36-38). We pray because God commands us to
pray (Philippians 4:6-7).
2.
Prayer
is exemplified for us by Christ and the early church (Mark 1:35; Acts 1:14;
2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31; 6:4; 13:1-3). If Jesus thought it was worthwhile to pray,
we should also.
3.
God
intends for prayer to be the means of obtaining His solutions in a number of
situations:
a.
Preparation
for major decisions (Luke 6:12-13).
b.
Overcoming
demonic barriers in lives (Matthew 17:14-21).
c.
The
gathering of workers for the spiritual harvest (Luke 10:2).
d.
The
gaining of strength to overcome temptation (Matthew 26:41).
e.
The
means of strengthening others spiritually (Ephesians 6:18-19).
4.
We
have God’s promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we don’t receive
specifically what we asked for (Matthew 6:6; Romans 8:26-27).
5.
He
has promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will,
He will give us what we ask for (1 John 5:14-15).
Author Unknown
Why
Pray?
www.GotQuestions.org.
Used by Permission.
Whenever
the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the
track. The meaning of prayer is that we
get hold of God, not of the answer.
Oswald Chambers
If
God sees that my spiritual life will be furthered by giving the things for which
I ask, then He will give them, but that is not the end of prayer. The end of prayer is that I come to know God
Himself.
Oswald Chambers
Prayer does
not equip us for greater works – prayer is the greater work.
Oswald
Chambers
[We
pray] not to inform God or instruct Him but to beseech Him closely, to be made
intimate with Him, by continuance in supplication; to be humbled; to be
reminded of our sins.
John Chrysostom
Homilies
on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, 19:4.
Prayer is not
appointed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it
is designed as a confession to Him of our sense of the need. In this, as in
everything, God's thoughts are not as ours. God requires that His gifts should
be sought for. He designs to be honoured by our
asking, just as He is to be thanked by us after He has bestowed His blessing.
A.W. Pink
Although we
must insist that, because of who we are and who God
is, our prayers do not change God's mind, it is right for us to understand that
God has ordained that prayer "changes things." The design of prayer is not that the
immutable will of God be altered, but that His will may be accomplished in His
own good time and way. Our prayers are
not intended to change the purpose of God or to move him to create new
purposes. God has not only decreed the
end of all things, but He also has decreed the means to reach that end. Thus, it is improper for us to say that,
because God is sovereign and is in control of all things, certain things will
happen whether we pray or not. That must
be absolutely rejected because God has ordained that prayer be the means to
accomplish His purpose.
John Sale
God’s Sovereignty and Prayer, Revival
Commentary, v. 2, n. 1, p. 9.
I do not know
what the reader's particular idea on this subject may be, but I would like to
say that if you believe you can change the mind of God through your prayers, I
hope you are using some discretion. If
that is the power you have, it is certainly a most dangerous thing. Surely God does not need our counsel in order
to set up what is desirable. Surely God,
whose knowledge penetrates all minds and hearts, does not need to have us
intervene to tell Him what He ought to do.
The thought that we are changing the mind of God by our prayers is a
terrifying concept.
Roger Nicole
Prayer: The Prelude to Revival, Reformation
and Revival Journal, v. 1, n. 3.
God
has ordained the end; prayer is the means.
Author
Unknown