Why Pray?

Each week, my husband and I host a small group of folks from our church in our home as we participate in a video Bible study. This semester our study is “Intercessory Prayer” by Dutch Sheets.  In our lesson last week, we talked about the “Why?” of prayer.  If God is sovereign and all powerful – isn’t He just going to do what He wants to anyway?  Why do we need to pray?

     Without trying to re-teach Dutch Sheets’ lesson, I’ll summarize it to say that God gave man dominion on the earth, making him God’s representative here.  When Adam and Eve forfeited that legal right in the fall, Jesus bought it back for all of us.  So now we have the legal right and responsibility to invite God into our situations.

     My husband gave this amazing example to make this much more understandable. It’s just like renting a house.  The landlord owns the house and his name is on the deed, yet because you reside in the house, he has to have your consent to enter the house.  When something in the house breaks or malfunctions, it is your responsibility to bring it to the attention of the owner so he can put things right.  He wants everything to be maintained properly in the house, yet he needs you to inform him of the needs and to give him permission to enter your home to make repairs.

      The Bible says that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Just like a landlord, He retains ownership but gives us the stewardship of the earth.  When something is wrong (and there is so much wrong here) it is our responsibility to make those needs known to the only one who has the right, power and resources to fix them.  When you think about prayer that way, it seems a lot less like a religious exercise and more like an awesome interaction between the God of the universe and a person who He values as having authority to intervene in a situation.