What’s the Point of Prayer?

In the rush of life, it’s easy to forget to pray thoughtfully. I’ve found that when I don’t start my day talking to God and paying attention to His gentle prompting, I become stressed and so caught up in busyness that my focus is only on myself and what I need to accomplish.

Peace refreshes me when I’ve started my day with prayer. There’s strength and endurance when I’ve prayed using scriptures. I become both bold and settled when my prayers are based on God’s Word.

I remember praying one Sunday morning with a worship team as we were getting ready for the service. I added several scriptures to my prayer for that morning, such as, “Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is here in our midst. So as we’re together this morning Father God, I thank You that Jesus is here and we can honor and worship Him. Father, we’re not here to exalt ourselves; we’re here to exalt You. Just as the apostle Paul said that his words and preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but he ministered in a demonstration of the Spirit and power, as we lead worship today Father, we commit to focus on You, and we ask that You would minister through us in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

I prayed like that, adding scripture and thanking God that what He had promised was happening. By the time that I finished that prayer, I was full of confidence and strength. Nothing else mattered but pleasing God and flowing with the prompting of the Holy Spirit in leading worship.

Prayer is powerful.

Our words to God express our faith in Him. He’s pleased by that (Hebrews 11:6), and things change in our lives.

When we use what God has said in the Bible as the basis of our prayers, we can be assured that God hears us. 1 John 5:14-15 in the New American Standard Bible says, “This is the confidence that we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”

That’s pretty straightforward. When our prayer is based on what God has said to us and about us, we are praying according to His will. So then He hears us. If He hears us, then we know that we have what we’ve asked from Him.

I pray for many people in many countries every day, basing my prayer on Ephesians 1:16-19 and 3:14-19, and Colossians 1:9-12 (from several translations). Here’s what I pray.

Father, I never stop giving thanks for (state names of family, friends, and ministry partners). I pray for all of us, that You, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, would give to us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of You.

I pray that our spirits would be flooded with light so we would know what is the hope of Your calling, what are the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in believers, and what is the surpassing greatness of Your power toward us.

I bow my knees before You Father—from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name—that according to the riches of Your glory, You would strengthen us with power through Your Spirit in our spirits so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, and that we, being rooted and grounded in love, would be able to comprehend with all believers what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that we may be filled up to all the fullness of You Father God.

I don’t stop praying for and asking that we would be filled with all the knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that we will live in a manner worthy of You Lord, to please You in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of You; strengthened with all Your power so we can attain steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to You Father God, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of believers.

After I have prayed, I’m definitely ready for my day. And later, if I find myself feeling stressed, I’ll thank God again for His strength, power, and wisdom.

When our work flows out of a relationship with God, it’s truly worthwhile. It pleases Him and accomplishes what He has uniquely designed us to do.