Top 7 Reasons Why Christians Pray

Since sin entered the world, God does not often show up in physical form for you to talk to. Instead, just like any other relationship, you get to know someone by spending time with them, listening to their voice, and talking to them. Prayer is one way that you can communicate with God. It is done through two-way communication. Sometimes, you listen to God, while other times, you do the talking.  

Like David models so profoundly in the book of Psalms, your prayers should be full of whatever emotion you feel in your current situations and circumstances. God wants you to come to Him expressing all your joys, frustrations, celebrations, struggles, and even heartbreak. Just like an earthly Father, God wants you to tell Him everything. Nothing is too big or too small to share with Him. Yes, He is all-knowing, but He truly wants you to share it all with Him and hide nothing.

Think of your most intimate relationship. What types of things do you share with that person? Do you only share the joys? When do you grow most in a relationship with them? What determines that someone is your closest friend or confidant?  The deep, dark secrets or hurts you can share with a person determine how close you are to them. You don’t trust everyone with your hardest trials, sins, and heartbreak. But you can definitely trust God with them. He is your Creator who knows you best and how you tick. He is also the one who comforts and provides for you in your darkest or hardest moments. He knows what you are thinking, your passions in your heart, and your deepest desires. However, He longs for you to share ALL of it with Him, and He is honored when you allow Him into every aspect of your life.

He wants ALL of you. The good. The bad. And the ugly.

The more you share with God and listen to Him, the more your trust and faith in God strengthens. This allows you to share more with Him and allows Him to share more with you. Luke 16:10 declares, "Whoever is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones." The amplified version adds a little more by saying, "Whoever is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much." (emphasis added)

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Thanksgiving is not just something you do once a year around the holiday. It should be a daily practice of your heart. Each day, you can start your prayer with thanksgiving. You thank God for the blessings or good part(s) of your day. It helps you recognize His goodness during your day, and it postures your heart to be full of gratitude. In addition, it helps you see the world and your current circumstances the way God sees them. It allows you to take your eyes off your flesh and open them up to God’s goodness that is all around you. Sometimes, the only thing you may be grateful for in your day is the food on your table. However, by acknowledging that one thing, you are taking your eyes off of the doubt or fear that may have surrounded you during your day, and it places your gaze back on God.

Offering thanksgiving and praise reminds you of the character of God and His mighty power. God is your all-powerful, loving, kind, gentle, gracious, merciful Provider, Comforter, and Refuge. Being reminded of His character will foster a sense of appreciation and contentment over time. It will get easier and easier to see His hand in your daily life, even during the hardest tribulations. However, it will take time to grow a thankful heart as you acknowledge God’s greatness, majesty, and character throughout each day you are here on earth.

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After thanking God for who He is and what He has done in your day, the next step is to confess your sins. This sometimes can be the most difficult part of prayer because it challenges you to lay down yourself and admit your shortcomings. You are tempted each day, but choose which temptation to disobediently walk in. That disobedient choice is a sin. God knows we will all sin. That is the very reason Jesus came to this earth: to lay down His life for all humankind and be resurrected into heaven. 

However, God doesn’t want you to wallow in your sin. Instead, He wants you to come with a repentant heart, turn from those sins, and walk in the righteousness only Jesus can give. 1 John 1:9 states,

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

You won’t always know every sin you commit in a day. However, you can reflect on what you knew you did wrong in your day and hand over those disobedient moments to him. This is best illustrated in Luke 9:23: 

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." 

God wants you to leave your wrongs behind and follow in His perfect way and plans.

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When you pray, it helps you examine your thoughts, actions, and intentions. You reflect on your day. It helps you see if you were walking in God’s calling for your life or if you were mainly walking in your fleshly desires. Every day, you will do both, but your desire should be to walk in the Holy Spirit’s guidance more than your flesh-driven desires. Romans 12:2 urges us, 

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

By sitting with the Lord and assessing your day, you allow Him to show you where you got it wrong and give Him the time to help you transform and renew your mind. For example, He may give you a scripture to reflect on and pray over yourself until it embeds itself in your mind, heart, and actions. Then, that is a life truly transformed and renewed when you walk out in truth in purposeful obedience.

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You know from the previous reasons, “Confess and Repent and Personal Reflection,” that by nature, we sin. Before we ever choose the sin, we are tempted by it. The tempter, Satan, is crafty and strategic. Priscilla Shirer notes, “He carefully considers and calculates your current situation, taking into account your weaknesses and strengths, your interests and tendencies, your history and past abuses, everything. Then, utilizing this available information, he crafts a specific strategy to hook you and reel you in.”

Since he is strategic and formulates a battle plan, you must prepare and create your counterattack. In prayer, our spiritual eyes are opened to see and utilize our spiritual resources. You can not use your spiritual tools if you can not see them. Just like your cell phone needs to be plugged in from time to time to hold a full charge, you need to plug into God through prayer to have the strength, energy, and power to fight effectively. “Prayer is the mechanism that brings down the power of heaven into your experience.” (Priscilla Shirer) It gives you the spiritual power through the Holy Spirit to activate your spiritual armor and be effective. Prayer is a powerful tool that helps you resist temptation by allowing you to have mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual strength to resist the enemy and walk in righteous choices instead of fleshly desires. “Prayer is able to change the trajectory of [our] whole lives. Victory in spiritual warfare is inseparable from prayer.” (Priscilla Shirer) James 5:16 urges, 

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (personal emphasis added). Prayer is a major weapon in our daily spiritual battle."

However, you must remember that this major weapon is not used in your own willpower. Your Counselor, the Holy Spirit, must guide it. Romans 8:36 states, "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (personal emphasis added)

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Prayer can also provide peace, comfort, and direction for you. It is a time for you to talk out your needs and allow God to help you sort through them for guidance, direction on moving forward, and wisdom to discern the next steps. However, it is not only a time for you to bring your requests to God but also a time for you to be quiet and still before the Lord. In that quiet, he can speak to you audibly through scripture, worship music, nature, or other avenues. There is no limit to how God can reach and talk to you. 

There are so many distractions in your world. Daily, you need to quiet “the noise” and sit with God. He has so much He wants to teach and share with you, but sometimes, all the things are louder than His direction. Carve out even a few minutes of your day and prayer time when you stop talking and listen. At first, you may not hear anything except your thoughts, but over time, you will learn to hear His voice and recognize it. For more information on hearing the Shepherd’s voice, read John 10.

Peace and comfort come with spending time with God. He can encourage you to open your Bible while in prayer for direction, peace, and comfort. He can remind you of a scripture you previously memorized that speaks to your situation. He can quiet your fears by drowning out the noise and tuning into the creation around you, such as the gentle sound of a breeze, the chirping of a bird, the crash of an ocean wave, or the laughter of a family member somewhere else in your home or place you are staying. Other times, God gives you comfort as you wail behind tears at how unfair, sad, mad, or painful a circumstance is, and He holds you as you share the hurt with Him. The best prayer is when God wraps you in His arms and tells you, “I am right here with you, dear child. I am not going anywhere. 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. - Matthew 11:28-30

God doesn’t want you to carry the burden alone and act on your willpower. He wants to be your tour guide and shine the light on the path you are to take (see Psalm 119:105).

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Prayer is also our time to intercede for others. Your prayers should not be a laundry list. You throw up to God for everything you want and need. Instead, your prayer time should include bringing others’ needs and well-being before the King of Kings. You walk in compassion and love by asking God for His guidance, provision, and blessing over the lives of others. This can be healing for a sick relative. It can also be God’s loving hand and protection for a wayward child who is not walking in obedience to God. Additionally, it can be mercy, love, and transformation for a colleague who is making a work environment toxic. 1 Timothy 2:1 states,

"I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone."

That means you are implored to pray for ALL PEOPLE, not just yourselves, your family, and your friends. ALL PEOPLE! The sky is the limit! Heaven is limitless! You serve a God who patiently waits at His altar for your daily prayers. 

As a Christian, your prayers are important. It is imperative for victory in the spiritual battle you are thrown into every single day! It is your choice to armor up and stand guard with the most important spiritual tool, PRAYER. Revelation 5:8;

"And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints (personal emphasis added). May your prayers reach heaven and be the incense that God gleans as He hushes the heavens and whispers to those in heaven something like “Shh listen, my child is speaking.”

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