One common denominator whenever we see the miraculous power of God is prayer. When you see a person changing, a family changing, a town changing, a city changing or even a country changing positively; someone has been praying. All these questions of “Why is my life not moving forward. Why are bad things always happening to me,” will wither away through prayer. Prayer awakens us to the life of possibilities. Prayer is not just a thing we do by habit, it is our habitat. It is our oxygen.
Prayer is important but more important is the reason why we pray. We know that motives are very important because you can be doing something that is morally right but if your motive is wrong then what you are doing becomes wrong. You can give all your money to the poor but if your reason is not based on love, it may be received well by the poor people but to God, it is an absolute zero. It means nothing to him. Not only that but it would not profit you. There are people who their giving is religiously motivated. Their giving won’t profit them. Once we get to the heart of the matter of why we do things, the benefits connected to it will become ours. We are blessed to be a blessing. Once your motive is wrong, you can be a blessing to someone and yet not experience God’s blessing in your life. You will give and nobody will give back to you. The same goes for prayer. If you do not understand why you pray then you will not be getting the result you ought to get in the place of prayer.
So why do we pray? What is the primary reason we pray? If the primary reason you pray is to live holy, you would not go very far at all. Prayer will turn to works. You will be leaning on your own strength. Your strength will fail you. Ok, maybe it is when you are in a crisis that is when you pray? Prayer has now turned to “in case of emergency, start praying.” It is like learning how to swim when you are already fallen into deep waters. It will lead to an up and down lifestyle. Your life will seem as if you are drowning. Stagnancy will be the order of day and progress would not be in a prevailing and prospering manner. That is not how we should live.
In Luke 11:1, one of Christ disciples said “Lord teach us to pray…” then Jesus said in verse 2 “When ye pray, say, Our Father…” Wow, is that not awesome! We pray because we now have a Father. We have received the spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15) and now are empowered and entitled to call and cry, Abba, Father. We are no longer the children of wrath or the devil being our Father. We are now Children of the Most High God. We have a father who cares, who loves, who provides, who guides, who saves, who heals and who promotes. I believe this is very obvious to most people but problems we face daily have conditioned some minds not to live in the reality that we pray because we have a loving Father and he wants us to love him. This is the true purpose of prayer. If God is now our Father then we are his Children. We are sons. So in prayer act as a son.
I have heard people say “if you do not pray, you do not love God. Pray or you will not receive the promises of God. Pray or else the devil is going to get you.” This shifts people’s mindset to walk in fear and duty rather than to walk in love. When we pray out of fear and duty then you will struggle. You will not be consistent. The desire and fire to pray will soon die out before you know it. Are you not tired of going from one revival or the other just to revive your prayer life again? Awake to righteousness! Awake to the Love of God! The connection between a father and a son is love. It is all about the relationship, not duty. We are sons, not soldiers.
We pray so that all that the father has given us is establish on earth. His word is settled in heaven (Psalm 199:89). We are the ones that will settle things here on earth. Anything that does not look like God’s will or desire, we enforce his will with prayers. Christ through his sacrifice has settled things for us. Scripture talks about anyone who believes in the tried stone, the precious cornerstone, the sure foundation, shall not be put to shame (Isaiah 28:16). He shall not be defeated.
Through prayer, we begin the manifest the work of Christ in every area of our influence. Prayer is taking advantage of our sonship with the Father to bring down his kingdom on earth. The name “Father” encompasses all the names of God. Names like Jehovah Jireh (the Lord will provide) and Jehovah Shammah (the lord is there) are in the name father. A father provides, protects and should always be there for his children. That is why Jesus said, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me….” (John 17:6). Jesus introduced the name “Father” to us. What do you need? Begin to take advantage of your sonship by praying to your Father.
Every time Jesus was directly talking to God, he called him “Father” with only one exception. There is only one time where he called him “God” and that was when he took my sins, your sins and everyone’s sin on the cross (Matthew 27:46). Do you know why? It was because when he took the sins of everyone, he lost his relationship with the father. It was at this time that our relationship with our heavenly father was restored. This is one of the great pillars of the gospel, “the Fatherhood of God.” Is it not awesome that through His death and resurrection we now have peace with God and we can call him Father! Take advantage of it.