The Importance of Prayer

What do you most need to get done today? A work project? A house project? Chores or groceries? A homework assignment? What busy tasks are poking at your brain right now, begging for attention?

I submit to you that what you most need to do today is PRAY.

My friend and I have a running joke about the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. I have become somewhat of a “Martha-apologist,” trying to come up with excuses for the busy sister. “If everyone became like Mary, who would get any work done?!” I’ve said. Yet we can “caveat” to death Jesus’ rebuke to Martha so that it loses all meaning. Jesus actually says,

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:41-42

ONE THING IS NECESSARY. It’s clear as can be. Our to-do lists are long, but Jesus’ is rather short – spend time with Him! Commune with the Savior. Sit at His feet, getting to know Him. How do we do this? We pray!

So why don’t we?

Excuses for Prayer

In our Sunday evening class on spiritual disciplines, we came up with a list of our most common excuses for not praying, utilizing the excellent book A Praying Church by Paul Miller. What keeps us from praying?

Secularism – the “real world” of what we can see and sense is what’s most important, not the “fake” spiritual world that we can’t see. Of course, this is the reverse of what the Bible calls us to do – we walk by faith, NOT sight. We need to recalibrate our priorities and see God as more “real” than what we see in reality!
Busyness! Noise! Who has time to stop and just talk or think? It is said that Martin Luther remarked, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Wow! That’s incredible – I wish I had such a desire. I’ve quoted this often to make the point that busyness should drive us to pray, not vice versa. But I recently found out from a preacher that this quote is actually not true! There’s no record of Luther saying this…but there is a letter he wrote to a friend lamenting how he had gone eight days without praying! Oof – that’s more like our lives, isn’t it? We get so busy – sometimes even doing good things, serving in church, reading our Bibles even! And yet we neglect this essential practice of prayer. The warning of James is true – why don’t we see God working? Why don’t we see revival in our land? Why does the church seem hindered? “You have not because you ask not.” You reply, “Well I have been praying!” Perhaps we should consider what kind of prayers we pray – “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). We pray hurried prayers, harried to get God to do what we want…and quickly! We are too busy to pray…or to busy to pray RIGHTLY!
It feels too “emotional” for some personalities. Unfortunately, men try to make the terrible excuse that prayer is more for women or perhaps you’ve used the excuse that your personality is not geared toward prayer. Actually, Paul calls on the MEN of the church specifically to pray in 1 Timothy 2:8, perhaps because this is an area where women do a better job. Prayer is not a specific spiritual gift for certain people or geared only to those who are more in tune with their feelings. That would be like telling your boss that you don’t have the personality type to interact with him, and so you won’t bother replying to his emails or calls! Our Master in heaven – more than that, our FATHER – invites us to talk with Him and welcomes all types to come to His presence in a variety of ways.
I don’t know what to say. Sometimes the need is so pressing and so unending that we just run out of words to say. This actually may be the “best” excuse because the Bible tells us not to worry about this! Romans 8:26 says, “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” If Paul includes himself on not knowing what to pray for sometimes (this is the guy who wrote some of the most amazing prayers in the Bible!)…then it’s okay that we sometimes don’t either! But the Spirit intercedes for us, and Christ Himself intercedes for us, and the Father loves to hear from us…so don’t fear! Our needs are well-represented before the God of the Universe! But if you want to grow in finding words of prayer, there are no better words than the Word of God! Pray the Psalms, pray Paul’s prayer – books that could help you learn to do that would be Praying the Bible by Don Whitney or Praying with Paul by DA Carson. Or pick up a book of prayers by others like The Valley of Vision or Every Moment Holy. Most of these are available on our 10ofthose Online Bookstore or elsewhere on their site.
It feels “fake” and “showy” when we pray in front of other people, like we’re trying to impress one another with our flowery Bible talk. And let’s be honest – in Matthew 6, Jesus did identify prayer as an area where we are tempted towards hypocrisy. We must be on guard against this, but just because it happens doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray. Just because sometimes you tell your spouse, “I love you” in a flippant or unthinking way doesn’t mean you should stop saying it altogether!
Or it’s just too awkward to do together – ever had to do the dreaded popcorn prayer (*shudder!*) where there’s no structure as to who prays when? Praying together can be awkward…but I assure you, God doesn’t mind when two believers accidentally start praying at the same time! He is more than capable of hearing us even in our stuttered or awkward prayers together. Do I criticize my daughter for mispronouncing certain words or having poor grammar as she learns to talk? She frequently messes up her pronouns and says, “hold you” when she means, “Hold me.” Do I correct her or refuse to speak to her until she gets it right? No way! It’s adorable as she learns and grows in her language – so God LOVES it when we speak to Him, even though we have many stumbles and much awkwardness along the way!
It doesn’t seem to make any difference. Have you prayed recently and not seen any change? I too have experienced that – my prayer list includes a request for a lead pastor that has many past dates I was praying toward scratched out on it! Why hasn’t God answered? Doesn’t He promise to do “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20)? As I lamented this to a friend recently, he reminded me that “far more abundantly” doesn’t necessarily mean God will answer SOONER than we ask or with MORE than we ask…but perhaps with something BETTER. Perhaps God’s answer to our prayer for a pastor has been, “Wait,” because He has something better in mind for us in the waiting…perhaps He wants us to increase in our prayer lives more than giving us a new Lead Pastor? Or perhaps He has not granted relief to that suffering because He is after something more – a lifetime of ministry to those who suffer in that area, a changed heart that loves Him far more in the end, or something even greater that we cannot even fathom! Prayer does make a difference, even when that difference isn’t what we would like!

An Invitation

I hope you’ve been able to see how invalid these excuses are. But I don’t want to add another guilty obligation to your life. If you try to “guilt” yourself into praying more, it may help initially but won’t last…nor lead to the deep communion with our Father that He offers to us in the Scriptures.

Instead, I want you to see this as an INVITATION to pray to God. I want you to BEHOLD God long enough that you WANT to pray to Him. If you don’t feel like praying (and many times, I don’t!), perhaps spend time considering the amazing truths of Ephesians 1 or some attributes of God in the Psalms. If you see God as He really is, you won’t be able to help praying to Him! Who wouldn’t want to talk to such an amazing Person as Jesus? Who wouldn’t bring their needs to the One who is 24-7 available to hear them and actually has the power to do amazing things?

If nothing else in this season of transition and waiting and suffering, may it be said of us that we GREW in our prayer, the one thing that’s needful for us to do today.