Why Pray?

“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

If we stop and examine the weight of these words, the child of God is driven to say, “I must pray, pray, pray. I must put all my energy and all my heart into prayer. Whatever I am doing, I must pray.” Why is constant, persistent, overcoming prayer so needful?

1. There is a devil. He is cunning, he is mighty, he never rests, and he is always plotting the downfall of the child of God. If the believer becomes weak in prayer, the devil will succeed in ensnaring him. This is the thought in the context of Ephesians 6, which describes our spiritual battle and the need for the Christian to take up the armor of God. Paul tells us that effective spiritual warfare requires prayer—constant, persistent, untiring prayer in the Holy Spirit.

2. Prayer is God’s appointed way for obtaining things. One major source of scarcity in our Christian walk is neglect of prayer. James brings this out very forcibly: “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). Many Christians are asking, “Why is it I make so little progress in my Christian life?” Often in Christian service we wonder, “Why is it I see so little fruit from my efforts?” God answers us all: “Neglect of prayer. You have not because you ask not.”

3. The apostles regarded prayer as one of the most important parts of their ministry. When the multiplying responsibilities of the early church crowded in upon them, they recruited helpers so they could “devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). Paul, in what he wrote to churches and individuals about praying for them, made it evident that much of his time and strength were given to prayer.

4. Prayer occupied a very prominent place in the earthly life of our Lord. He was not unfamiliar with “rising very early in the morning” (Mark 1:35), or spending “all night … in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). The words pray and prayer are used at least twenty-five times in connection with our Lord in the brief record of His life in the four Gospels, and His praying is mentioned in other places where these words are not used. A man or woman who does not spend much time in prayer cannot properly be called a follower of Jesus Christ.

5. Praying is the most important part of the present ministry of our risen Lord. Christ’s ministry did not close with His death. After Christ accomplished His atoning work, He rose and ascended to the right hand of the Father, where “He always lives to make intercession for them [believers]” (Hebrews 7:25). “Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34). The ministry of intercession (praying for others) is a glorious and mighty ministry, and we can all have a part in it.

Nothing has so impressed me with a sense of the importance of prayer as knowing that it is the principal occupation of my risen Lord. Since I want to have fellowship with Him, I have asked the Father to make me an intercessor, to make me a man who knows how to pray, and who spends much time in prayer.

—Adapted from How to Pray by R. A. Torrey.