The Purpose of Prayer

The Purpose of Prayer

Series on Prayer, I

I. “We Pray To Have Our Needs Met”

If you ask many people, “Why do you pray?” you will receive a variety of answers – but most will be along the lines of “I need things, and God promises to answer our prayers.” Asking for help is a good thing, because it recognizes that God does care about us. It also recognizes that we are creatures – that we have not made this universe and that we are not in charge, having everything and needing no help. To accept our limits is a good thing. Our fallen human nature is such that we tend to think that we are in charge and that we can produce whatever we need. So, to ask God for something is a recognition that we do not have, in ourselves, all the power and resources for our lives and for our needs.

However, if the reason that we pray is so that we can get what we need, we tend to enter into a “patron and client” relationship with God. We have a need, and he has the power and resources to meet that need – and the question is, how do we get him to use that power and those resources on our behalf? Do we need to learn the proper techniques to pray so that we are granted what we request? Can we offer a bargain to God: “If you do this for me, I will do “X” for you” – or perhaps, “I will stop doing “Y”? Is there a certain standard of goodness we must exhibit in order to have our prayers answered? How many requests can we make at one time without exhausting God’s patience?

If the purpose of prayer is to get our requests answered, these are the sorts of questions we are very likely to be asking. We begin to think of ourselves as petitioners seeking not only to present our requests, but also to find reasons why our patron should give us what we ask for.

When Jesus taught about prayer, he taught that we can expect to have our prayer requests responded to. In Mt 7:7, 11, Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you… If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”

I want you to note how Jesus refers to God in these verses: “your Father in heaven.” And o f course, Jesus taught us a model for prayer in the Lord’s Prayer, which begins, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” When we pray, we are not petitioning a patron who has power to grant our requests and who must be cultivated in order to receive our desires. We are instead addressing a loving, heavenly Father, whose love for us is seen in his giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. If he loved us enough to send his Son when we were sinners and had done everything to deserve his condemnation, then the relationship we have is not that of patron and client. We do not need to cultivate him as a patron. We are approaching our loving Father as a son or daughter. That is a huge difference. We do not have to persuade him that we deserve his help. He is not engaged in bargaining with us, for the kind of relationship he offers to us is that of father and child, not of patron and client.

When Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father,” he was teaching us about the purpose of prayer: “Father” is a relational term. In John 17:3, Jesus defines eternal life: “this is eternal life, that they know you, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The first purpose of prayer is fellowship with God. In prayer, we are spending time with the one who knows us and loves us beyond our imagining. Eternal life is being in a relationship with him – knowing and being known, sharing our hearts, seeking to enjoy him. It is of course not a relationship of equals – but it is a relationship of love and delight.

As I ponder the purpose of prayer, I see three things. The first purpose I have just given: fellowship with God. The second purpose is transformation: as we know God and deepen our relationship with him, we are changed. We resemble Jesus more and more, and we exhibit more fully the Fruit of the Spirit as given in Gal 5:22, 23: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” These are not qualities we can force ourselves to have; they are characteristics we get by spending time with Jesus in his Word and in prayer.

The third purpose of prayer is indeed to make requests of God, with the hope of having those requests answered. But there will be a difference in our requests as they are made by a heart that enjoys time with God and seeks to be more like Jesus, rather than as a petitioner approaching a powerful but distant patron.

II. Fellowship with God

The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” We were created to enjoy God. In Genesis 3:8, we hear of what happened soon after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit: “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” The story in Genesis 3 is of the fall of humanity into sin, so that we are locked into the rebellion against God shown when Eve and Adam ate the fruit that had been forbidden to them in the wisdom of the Lord God. But even though that is the main story, we get glimpses into other things.

Chapter 2:15 tells us that God placed Adam “in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Adam and Eve had work to do. It was not burdensome, because caring for creation was part of why God made humanity. We were to be stewards of his creation. Before humanity rebelled against God, work was fulfilling and enjoyable at all times. Gen 3:8 speaks of God coming to Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day.” Their work ended in the evening, and so they enjoyed fellowship with God in a way that they could not while they tended creation. Before their disobedience, they were morally pure and completely open to God – but they were not infinite in their capacity, so God made them especially aware of his presence after they had done their day’s work. The greatest joy in the Garden of Eden was not its earthly beauty, but the fellowship with God that Adam and Eve enjoyed.

Through an act of rebellion against the wisdom and goodness of the Lord, Adam and Eve lost that fellowship. By God’s mercy, we may enjoy that fellowship again, through faith in the Lord Jesus. God graciously offers us forgiveness, as we depend upon the death of Jesus as payment for our sins, receiving his righteousness so that when the Father looks at us, he sees Jesus’ goodness and perfect obedience and calls us his own. In Hebrews 4:16, we are to called to approach God without fear: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find mercy to help in time of need.” In Christ, we may come to God as our loving and merciful Father.

The mercy of God was at work long before Christ came to earth. One little-remembered case of a close relationship with God is noted in Gen 5 is the little note about Enoch: Gen 5:24 says, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Although a sinner, like all humanity after the Fall, Enoch’s heart was turned by grace and he trusted and loved God, so much so that he could be described as “walking with God.” Enoch was one of two Old Testament Saints who did not taste physical death, but who were brought directly into heaven. Enoch and Elijah had very close fellowship with God.

But they were not the only ones. We know that Moses spoke often with God during the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings. Isaiah was granted a vision of the throne room of heaven, and called to be a prophet. Indeed, when you read of the various prophets in the Old Testament, it is clear that they all had exceptional relationships with God. They spent time with God, and God used them to carry out his work.

But there is one Old Testament figure who had a unique relationship with God. In 2 Chron. 20:7, King Jehoshaphat is praying, and he says to the Lord, “Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” And in Isaiah 41:8, God is speaking through the prophet and says, “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend…”

There is no other individual in all of Scripture whom God refers to as his friend. I noted that Enoch and Elijah were very close to God – but he does not call them his friends. Only Abraham has that distinction. We all have friends, and if we are fortunate, we have a friend whose friendship is extraordinarily close and a tremendous help in life. If you consider that friendship and all its closeness, imagine what it means for God to call someone his friend. Of all the men and women of the Old Testament, no one had the honor of being called God’s friend except Abraham.

But then note what Jesus says in John 15:15: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” The privilege that Abraham alone enjoyed of all the great figures of the Old Testament is ours in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins, we who rely upon him for mercy have not only forgiveness, but access to a relationship with God that is completely open from his side. He calls us “friends,” and offers us his heart.

The first purpose of prayer is to enjoy time with God. It is not a relationship of equals, but it is meant to be a relationship of intimacy. In prayer, we can spend time with our Father.

III. Transformation

The first purpose of prayer is spending time with God. The second is transformation. In any good friendship, we are changed for knowing the person. We know that – parents take care about who their children have as friends. We want our children to have friends who have good values and good habits, because we know that they will reinforce one another in those same good values and habits – while getting in with a group with bad habits and worse values will drag them down. Our friends change us – so being in a friendship with God will bring changes. God, of course, being sublimely and supremely perfect, will never change – but we will.

Such change is good news for us. While each of us has been given good gifts, strengths, and characteristics, we each know that we are not perfect – and if we are keeping our eyes on Jesus, we see many areas where we do not live up to his standards and his character. Many of us remember Romans 8:28: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” That verse is a great verse to lean on in times of trouble, when we feel like the world has turned upside down and our dreams are being shattered. It is also a great verse to hang onto when we see how greatly we have failed God. But the next verse should give us even more hope. Rom 8:29 says, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” The “good” promised in verse 28 is defined in verse 29: “to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

That is the transformation God has in mind for us, and the transformation he works within us as we pray. I must hasten to add that it is not just prayer that works the transformation, although prayer is an essential part of growing to be like Christ. Another essential part of friendship with God is reading his Word. In prayer, we speak to God. In his Word, the Lord speaks to us. As we open our hearts to God in prayer, he will often bring to mind some passage of Scripture to encourage us, to guide us, or perhaps to challenge us. Prayer is ultimately a conversation with God – we open our hearts to him, and he opens his heart to us.

And as the conversation progresses, we are changed. We learn about God and we learn about ourselves. Our requests grow to include not only things around us, but things within our hearts. In knowing and talking with God, we become concerned about our character as well as about our circumstances and the circumstances of those we care about. We want to be more like Jesus.

Isaiah was a man who was changed as he met with God. In Isaiah 6, we hear of Isaiah’s call to be a prophet. “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’”

We see in this account a profound change in Isaiah. He is challenged about his own goodness, admits his unworthiness, is forgiven, and entrusts himself to the Lord for the Lord’s purposes. We are not likely to have such a dramatic encounter with the Lord, but he is still at work within our hearts.

There is another account of transformation in the New Testament. At the end of Acts 7, we meet Saul of Tarsus, who guarded the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death. He participated in the first martyrdom for Christ. Later on, he made others into martyrs, as he persecuted the young Church with great fierceness. In Acts 9, Saul meets the Lord Jesus – and turns from someone who made martyrs for Christ into someone who was eventually martyred for Christ. But there is something about Paul’s transformation that we seldom think of, and that is of the time involved. When he met Jesus face to face on the Damascus road, he changed directions immediately. He went from an enemy of the Lord Jesus to one who looked to Jesus as Savior and Lord. But other changes took longer.

In Gal 1, Paul gives a chronology of the time after he met Jesus. He was converted on the way to Damascus, and after his conversion, he did not go to Jerusalem, which was the “headquarters” of Christianity. Rather, for fourteen to seventeen years, he stayed away from Jerusalem and from large-scale public ministry. For about a decade and a half after his conversion, it would seem that Paul’s main activity was both intellectual and spiritual. He was a man of vast learning, trained from his earliest days as a Pharisee. If he had not been converted to Christ, he probably would have been one of the most famous teachers of Judaism in history. He had a vast body of knowledge – and over those 14 to 17 years, he went over his knowledge and focused it on Christ, so that he knew all the teachings and prophecies from God’s perspective. He also took stock of his own life. In Phil 3:4b-7, Paul described his qualifications as one who could take pride in his position and accomplishments for the Lord: “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel,⁽ of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law blameless.” Reliance upon one’s accomplishments for God is our natural inclination as sinners. We want to be in charge, and so we seek to find reasons to tell God why he must do as we are asking.

It takes time to grow out of this mental habit – time that is used for conversation with God. It is he who enables us to see that it is his grace and mercy that makes us acceptable to him, not our accomplishments – and it is he who enables us to see that his response to our requests is a matter of his mercy and grace as well. Those years between Paul’s conversion and his missionary journeys were time in which Paul was being transformed into the instrument that God would use to bring the Gospel to the Roman world and to write a third or more of the New Testament. Paul did not begin his major ministry right after his conversion – God had Paul take time to grow and to be transformed before he sent Paul out as an Apostle.

God transforms us over time, as we spend time with him. Sometimes there are profound changes that happen over a short period of time, and sometimes there are changes that happen from a series of almost invisible little changes, day after plodding day. Over time, God helps us to develop ever greater insights and fresh appreciations for his Word and for his deeds for us. Our faith grows and our character develops, so that we are more and more like Jesus.

IV. Responses to Our Requests

The third reason for prayer is what we often think of as the first reason: to obtain what we request of God. In John 16:23-24, Jesus makes this amazing promise: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name Ask, and you will receive that your joy may be full.” This promise is but one of several that Jesus makes about our requests being answered.

We do indeed have needs that are bigger than ourselves, things that we cannot do for ourselves or with the help of others. We can only bring them to God. It is tempting simply to draw up a list of things that we want and present the list to God for his approval and response. We may try to tell God why we deserve what we are asking for, or make promises to him, or restrict our list to just one item so that we will not bother him too much. Those are the kinds of things that can happen when we think of our position as being clients to a patron, and when we see answers to our requests as the major or, indeed, only purpose to prayer.

However, when we recognize that our relationship is that of father and child and not patron and client, and when we grasp that the purpose of prayer is first of all fellowship, how we pray changes. We are not anxious, but delighted. We are not striving, but confident. When we learn that prayer is a transforming experience, we also know that we do not know what we need as well as God knows what we need. We grow in trust that God will give us what is best, and what will accomplish his purpose in us, to make us like the Lord Jesus.

A friend of mine once said, “God never answers our requests with a ‘No.’ He tells us ‘Yes,’ or ‘later,’ or ‘I’ve got something better for you.’” Time with God helps us to understand the truth of what my friend said. We can trust God to do the right thing and the best thing when we offer our requests to him.

I want to conclude with one final thought: when we spend time with God in fellowship and as we are transformed by his Holy Spirit, we learn more and more the kinds of things he wants to do for us. Our requests are more frequently answered with the requests we made – not because we have learned more effective ways of twisting God’s arm but because, as we have had our hearts made more like Jesus, we ask for what Jesus would ask for.

Next week, we are going to consider the first half of the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer that Jesus gave us as a pattern for all our prayers. As you go through the coming week, let me suggest that you take the time to pray that prayer, pondering it and thinking about the requests made in that prayer.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:20)