Is Praying Important?

 

Is Praying Important?

 

Is prayer important?  Well, to answer this question, we must first answer what prayer is.  How would you define prayer?  Possibly you might define it as “talking to or asking God for a specific thing (not necessarily a physical object)” or how about “communicating with God”.  Those are good but wouldn’t you like to know a deeper meaning for the word prayer?  The Bible Dictionary by Easton says prayer “presupposes a belief in the personality of God, his ability and willingness to hold intercourse with us, his personal control of all things and of all his creatures and all their actions.”  I love that, because it gives you a great visual of how big our God is.  The Dictionary goes on to say “It is a "beseeching the Lord" (Ex. 32:11); "pouring out the soul before the Lord" (1 Sam. 1:15); "praying and crying to heaven" (2 Chr. 32:20); "seeking unto God and making supplication" (Job 8:5); "drawing near to God" (Ps. 73:28); "bowing the knees" (Eph. 3:14).”  If we were to take all of those examples of prayer and look into our own lives would we see a match?  Well, we might see that in our times of great desperation and need, we were “praying and crying to heaven” or when we really wanted something to go a certain way we were “pouring out the soul before the Lord”.  Are we praying to God because we need something or are we praying to God to converse with Him? 

When we have a conversation with someone, we usually tell them about what is going on in our life, work, family and even our friends (not gossiping, of course).  Then maybe at the end of the conversation we ask, “What do you think I should do?”  And the other person usually responds with his or her personal opinion on the matter.  That opinion can be derived from an experience or knowing of another person’s experience who dealt with the same thing.  Why is it that we would rather seek a person’s opinion rather than God’s?  Is it because God’s not standing right in front of us to tell us exactly what we should do or what He thinks?  Or is it because we are afraid of what He might say?  I think it’s a little bit of both.  Personally, I am falling directly under this category.  I get so caught up in the worldly outlook of my situation or life that I forget about God’s opinion.  I forget that God is more than just some One I cry out to when I need help or when I’ve made a mistake.  He is my Sole Communicator as well as my Soul Communicator (see what I did there, haha).  I know I need to come to God more so I can experience Him in every single level and stage of my life.  But what am I doing wrong?  In Matthew 6:6 it says “When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”   That “secret place” is more than just a room where no one can find you; it is a place in your thoughts where nothing else matters but your sole attention to the One who created you.   As Oswald Chambers says in his book, My Utmost for His Highest, “When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God.  We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else.  Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time” (Prayer—Battle in “The Secret Place”, Oswald Chambers).  So, how important is prayer?  Well, when we can truly understand the meaning of prayer that is when we’ll know how important it is.