Speaking to the God who Listens
“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.”—1 Peter 3:12 (NIV)
The apostle Peter calls the Lord, “The God of all grace” (1 Peter 5:10 NIV). The word grace (Greek: charis) means “favor extended.” It implies a gift or blessing, a loving kindness; it’s where we get our English word for charity. So, God’s the giver of all blessings, all gifts, all loving kindness, and all favor. He’s the giver of EVERYTHING that’s good. And one of the chief vehicles through which He extends all grace to us is through prayer!
What Is Prayer?
In the most basic terms possible, prayer is talking to God; it’s a conversation between us and God. But as one Christian author said, “Prayer, for the Christian, is not merely talking to God, but responding to the One who has initiated toward us. He has spoken first. This is not a conversation we start, but a relationship into which we’ve been drawn. His voice breaks the silence.”
In prayer, we’re speaking to the One who has spoken to us through creation itself (Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1–4), the One who has spoken grace (2 Corinthians 12:9), peace (Psalm 46:10), and love (John 3:16) over us, the One who has spoken the words of truth (John 6:68) and life (John 10:10), and the One who has shown us the way (John 14:6). In light of this, prayer is thus a response, a reflex to the grace He gives us.
When we come before Him in prayer, to speak to Him, we can be sure He’s already spoken to us. 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NLT) declares, “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding ‘Yes!’ And through Christ, our ‘Amen’ (which means ‘Yes’) ascends to God for his glory.”
Prayer is our two-way relational lifeline that’s made available to us through the person and work of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and by the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.
What’s the Purpose of Prayer?
Okay, so now we know prayer is a conversation that God initiated; it’s our response to the God who hears us, listens, and “accepts [our] prayer” (Psalm 6:9 NIV) . . . but what is the grand purpose of prayer? God knows what we’re going to pray before we do it. He knows our hearts better than we do. He also knows our needs, desires, dreams, fears, and the areas we need Him most. So then, why do we pray?
Well, it’s not because we get stuff from God, but because we get God! John Piper once wrote, “It is not wrong to want God’s gifts and ask for them. Most prayers in the Bible are for the gifts of God. But ultimately, every gift should be desired because it shows us and brings us more of Him.”
Friends, in the simplest terms I can muster, the purpose of our prayers is for us to experience more of God! In every request, every expression, every question, every pleading, every confession, and every revelation, everything we ask for or declare in prayer, the endgame of prayer is to know on the deepest level possible the God who saves, sustains, redeems, and restores.
Why Do We Pray?
Augustine once said that nothing happens in this universe apart from the will of God. So, if God’s sovereign and knows all things from eternity to eternity, if He knows our hearts, hurts, intentions, and requests and knew them even before the foundations of the universe were laid, why pray at all?
Two reasons . . .
- We pray because our sovereign God, in His holy and perfect Word, commands us to pray. Aside from being a lifeline to relationship, prayer isn’t optional for Christians—it’s an expectation. So, regardless of whether God knows what we’re going to pray before we pray it, if He knows what we need and what we’re struggling with, God commands us to pray, so we pray!
- We pray because our merciful and loving God INVITES us to pray! God wants to hear from us. In fact, God’s readier to hear from us than we are to pray. Think about that . . . He wants to interact with us. He desires more than a head knowledge, shallow, hypothetical relationship. The God of all grace wants to fill us with all His grace beyond our ability to measure.