Is prayer really all that important? (A series on prayer: Day one)

This post is part of a series on prayer. You can find all of the posts here

In my quest to dive deeper into the gift of prayer, I have written out several questions about prayer, as well as several statements which I believe contribute, at times, to my lack of prayer.

I so want to make this post all pretty and ~~coherent~~ structured. But I fear if I adhere to those standards I won’t write it at all! 😉 So with one kid home sick from school, a new book to write, and another child’s 16th birthday to plan for, I am choosing to embrace the idea of an “it is what it is” post 😉

The first bullet point reads:

Considering God already knows everything, is prayer really that important?

The main passage I have been studying is Matthew 6: 5-15. However, after praying over this bullet point for several days, I found myself in Luke 11:1-13. The scene opens with the disciples, who have seen Jesus do extraordinary things and who have already been sent out in His name and power to do extraordinary things, ask Him to teach them to pray.

I found that fascinating! Here they are seeing, observing and even participating in the mission and work of Jesus Christ and then one day as they see their Teacher and Lord praying, they suddenly think to ask, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Jesus’ answer to them seemed to speak directly to my first bullet point.

“He said to them, ‘When you pray…..” Luke 11:2.

He didn’t say if you pray or in case you pray. He said when you pray.

The assumption being that we will pray. An unspoken command to pray. An example to follow. An instruction to heed.

I often get to wrapped up in the wrong question words.

I want to know the whys, the whats, the hows and the whens of prayer. When God simply asks us to consider the WHO of prayer (the Who being the Almighty deity, not the rock band! 😉

Jesus spent much of His earthly time talking to His heavenly Father.

Jesus, fully God and fully man, deemed it important enough to spend time lingering with the Father.

Why would we do any less.

Even if my quest to understand more of prayer ended here, I think it would be enough.

Enough to simply follow Jesus’ example. To focus on who God is. To pray. Even if we don’t understand it all, even if all we do is rehearse to God who He is, even if all we do is ask God to teach us how to pray. (to borrow from Nike…. let’s JUST DO IT.

Let’s:

Pray.
Talk to God.
Listen for God.
Get up early or stay up late.
Keep our eyes open or shut them tight.
Raise our hands or sit on them.

Let’s just pray. Let’s follow the example of the One who knows us and loves us more than we can imagine. And let’s walk in the footsteps of the One who delighted in drawing near to God—the source of His strength, peace, and purpose.