Why We Pray.

This was something i read while i was doing my devotion last night, and it talks about prayer.

I know many friends who keep seeking for people to pray over things and problems they face. I've got nothing against praying, but i digress when it's about things which they themselves have to put effort in, and not solely depend on others to pray for them.

I hope this would somewhat thug something within.

The Purpose of Prayer (by Greg Laurie, from Our Journey, May 12, 2008)

Why do we pray for certain things? What is the purpose of prayer? Perhaps if we didn't think about it first, if we just said what came to mind, we would say that prayer is to get things from God.

Then there are some who would tell us that if we name it and claim it and ask for it in Jesus' name, then God must give it to us. but this is nonsense. It distorts the purpose of prayer.

It comes down to our motives in prayer. When James warned, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions" (James 4:3), he was saying, "Because of your lust for pleasure, because of your obsession with self, it can even affect your prayer life." If I pray about something and yet my motive is wrong, then my prayer will go unanswered.

Prayer is not getting my will in heaven; prayer is getting God's will on earth. Prayer is not trying to convince God to do what I want Him to do; prayer is a process that I go through in which I learn the will of God and live accordingly.

Am I suggesting that God will not answer a prayer that is outside of His will? Yes. Does this mean that God will inspire us in what to pray for and that is all we should pray for? In a nutshell, yes. God wants us to get into alignment with Him and start praying for the things that will bring glory to His name. And when we start praying like that, we will start seeing our prayers answered in the affirmative.

"1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."

James 4:1-3

Hmm... pray about it.

Love & Peace!~

BC?