Why Pray

[Guest lovinghim4ever]

I posted in another thread how a couple of years ago my oldest sister became critically ill after a simple, routine medical procedure and ended up in ICU.

After many days of uncertainty as to whether she would live or not she was released to a private room where she was expected to make a FULL recovery. Hallelujah!

My family and I were especially thankful to God for healing her. Our prayers had been answered, and she was recovering nicely. However, early on the day she was expected to be released from the hospital she passed away.

Shocked and totally confused, my faith was tested and is still being tested to this day.

Why did we even have to pray so hard, if God was just going to take her home anyway?

Why would God let our hope get so high then just pull the rug right out from under us?

Why is prayer so important if God is just going to do what He wants anyway?

I do still love God, however I do still struggle with these questions.

Do any of you have any positive input to offer?

Thank you in advance!

[kat8585]

I've had these same questions. I hope someone has some insight. My prayer life seems to be just a series of build-ups (hope and faith), followed by letdowns, sometimes devastating ones.

My faith has been severely tested by this, and at times has gone away.

[Marnie]

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

That is why you must pray.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

{T}he Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. Romans 8:26, 27

You can never stop praying no matter what. You might as well stop breathing.

[7thseal]

My pastor was praying over a member of the church while he was in the hospital with cancer. He asked the Lord for his will to be done and bring healing to the guy....well the guy died right when he asked this.

Our pastor 'boldly' asked God, whats up with that God? You said ask in the name of Jesus and it shall be done. A few minutes later the nurse came in the room and was covering up the body. She said the only thing he kept repeating before the cancer rendered him unable to respond any longer by speech was...I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home.

My pastor received the answer from God through this nurse, you see the guy wasn't speaking about his earthly home but his home that Christ had prepared for him. His will was in line with God's will at that moment and God honored his request when the pastor prayed over him.

God can see things that we can't and he know things that we don't, but everything that he does is for good not evil. We must place or faith in him alone and trust him even though his will may not always be what we think it should be. Stay in prayer he only wants the best for us and nothing else.

[irishcowboy]

My mother in law went home this past october....

the onlything that kept her here is that she wanted all her children to know God.....

mom was in pain 24/7 could not even walk by herself anymore, and the use of a walker was not much bettter.... you could tell she was hurting.... most of her children wanted prayer that she would get better and stay here...... one day she said she was tired.... she then said that she wanted to go home..... and that night, she went home.....

we can pray a person to stay.... if their work is done, why would we want to delay them from going home?

Smith Wigglesworth wife passed, and he carried her home to her bed and laid her in it and prayed over her, she came back and told him that he needed to let her go, that her work was finished, but he still had work to do. he bid her farewell and she then laid down and went home.....

please do not pray me out of the earthly grave....

I grieve with you for your loss, for there has been many in this family that have gone home.....

I do not understand why some would go and some would stay..... some that are needed here go and some that would like to see gone stay.... this i do not understand, but then again, i am not God, and do not pretend to know what He has instore for all of us....... even with Job, started out a wealthy man, lost everything, including his family (all that is except his contentious wife and wonderfully loyal friends) and then God blessed him even greater after the trials....

is it wrong to ask why? no, i do not think so.... and if a person prays YOUR WILL BE DONE. they have just allowed God to do what God needs to do for the good of us all.....

mike

[forrestkc]

Prayer is not for trying to manipulate God into doing what we want him to do. Prayer is for trying to get into fellowship with God. We should use prayer to find out what we should be doing rather than telling God what he should be doing.

Look at the Lord's Prayer, it says "Thy will be done", it does not say "do what I will you to do".

So often in prayer we pray for divine intervention to get that better job, or for that loan to go through, or for whatever we happen to want then, its typically "God please do this for me", when really we ought to be praying for guidance on what we should do instead of for divine intervention where we plead for God to do for us.

[Marnie]

Prayer is not for trying to manipulate God into doing what we want him to do. Prayer is for trying to get into fellowship with God. We should use prayer to find out what we should be doing rather than telling God what he should be doing.

Look at the Lord's Prayer, it says "Thy will be done", it does not say "do what I will you to do".

So often in prayer we pray for divine intervention to get that better job, or for that loan to go through, or for whatever we happen to want then, its typically "God please do this for me", when really we ought to be praying for guidance on what we should do instead of for divine intervention where we plead for God to do for us.

Forrest, in principle I agree with what you say. However, we are most definitely supposed to pray for divine intervention when the situation warrants it. There are numerous examples in both the OT and NT where G-d moved at the behest of a saint's prayer. The sun stood still for a day, a dead child was raised to life and so on. No, there are times when are supposed to CRY out to G-d for His intervention.

Romans 8 also tells us there are times when we dont know how to pray or what to pray for. In those instances the Holy Spirit prays for us, on our behalf. This is not referring to glossolalia but rather to allowing the Spirit to simply bear witness to our spirit and to allow our Mediator to pray to His Father on our behalf. When this happens, G-d the Father can and does do amazing things, far greater than we could think or imagine. He will move heaven and earth to meet the needs of one of His children. The good shepherd cares that much for the one sheep.

[forrestkc]

Forrest, in principle I agree with what you say. However, we are most definitely supposed to pray for divine intervention when the situation warrants it. There are numerous examples in both the OT and NT where G-d moved at the behest of a saint's prayer. The sun stood still for a day, a dead child was raised to life and so on. No, there are times when are supposed to CRY out to G-d for His intervention.

Romans 8 also tells us there are times when we dont know how to pray or what to pray for. In those instances the Holy Spirit prays for us, on our behalf. This is not referring to glossolalia but rather to allowing the Spirit to simply bear witness to our spirit and to allow our Mediator to pray to His Father on our behalf. When this happens, G-d the Father can and does do amazing things, far greater than we could think or imagine. He will move heaven and earth to meet the needs of one of His children. The good shepherd cares that much for the one sheep.

I agree with what you are saying here. I did not mean that we should not pray for the sick and at times when something is beyond our ability. There is certainly nothing wrong with praying for a miracle. Just the same, if all one ever prays for is "God please do this for me", they are setting themselves up for a lot of disappointment. Usually, if we actually let the Good Lord lead us, we won't end up in very many situations where we are needing to pray for divine intervention.

[kat8585]

I think some prayers should be nothing but praise prayers, and every payer should start with praise. Of course there will be times when we just blurt out our need.

[Amhis]

While reading this thread it gave me joy to see what many of you had to say about prayer and how and why they pray. Very uplifting! I don't have much to add to this discussion except perhaps just a few personal thoughts.

I don't want to get into too much depth on my travel through life, except to say that I have been brought down as low as I could imagine with the loss of my own dear son. Shortly before that time I became completely disabled and lost everything I had, both professionally and then personally, except for my wife, my surviving children, and somehow by the grace of God, my house. Through it ALL I continually gave glory and praise to God, even on the day I lost my son! I never asked why all of these things happened to me/us, because I knew and know my mind is too small compared to God to remotely understand His purposes. I never once questioned God and asked WHY? I completely trust Him to do His will in my life without questioning His purposes.

I hope in saying all of this that I am not coming across as boasting. Far from it. I just wanted to maybe be a small example of one that always gives all the glory and praise to God no matter what happens in life, and trying to truly trust God... Since all these recent very low times in my life, God has been richly blessing me/us. I give ALL Glory, Honor, and Praise to God my savior and God my Father, no matter what happens to me in life.