Why Should We Pray

One of the most powerful stories of a man praying for his family is the story of Isaac and his wife Rebecca.  Genesis 25:19-26 records that Isaac prayed for his wife Rebecca because she was barren.  Moses is careful to tell us in this account that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca and at the end of the account, he tells us that Isaac was 60 years old when the babies were born.  In that society, couples did not wait years to have children.  In addition, God had promised Abraham (Isaac's father) would be the father of a great nation, and Isaac would be heir to that promise.  This means that Isaac knew that he needed a son through whom this promise would pass.  I take it from a straight reading of this passage that Isaac could have prayed for up to 20 years for his wife to have a baby.

This leads us to a question. Why did Isaac pray?  If God had already promised that he would be the heir through whom a great nation came, he knew that God had already promised him a child.  So why should he pray?  Put another way, if God is sovereign and in control of all things, why then should we pray?  If God has already promised to provide all our needs through his riches in glory, why should we pray and ask God to provide our needs.  What was the purpose of Isaac's prayer?

The answer to this question lets us know the purpose of prayer.  We pray not to change God but to change us.  As we pray we are demonstrating our dependence upon God and we are training ourselves to live in that dependence.  As we pray, we are changed.  We become more dependent upon God, we learn to trust him more and we learn to love God more.  We pray because God has called us into a relationship with Him and we grow as we grow closer to our heavenly father.  Many are the plans of men but the Lord's purpose will stand (Proverbs 19:21).  God is at work in this world, He is bringing about His purposes.  We pray not to change Him so that our purposes become His, we pray so that we change so that His purposes become ours.  Think about it.