The What, Why, and Blessing of Prayer
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It’s likely that many Christians evaluate the quality of their prayer life partly on the amount of time they spend in prayer. A person who prays for at least, say, an hour a day must be someone who values the privilege of prayer and makes it a priority. Someone who prays for, say, five minutes a day doesn’t seem to be as devout of a Christian. Is there an appropriate amount of time to pray each day, and why does God want us to pray to him?
What is prayer and why do Christians need to pray?
Godly prayer is humble prayer; as we learn from the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), the humble and lowly—those with a penitent heart—are the ones whose prayers are heard by God.
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) teaches us that “prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness which God requires of us” (Q&A 116). When we pray, we testify that God is sovereign over all, that he hears our prayers, and that he is completely able to fulfill our requests according to his will.
In prayer believers humbly confess their sins to God, admit that they aren’t in control, and acknowledge that it is only by God’s grace that their daily needs are provided for and the debt for their guilt and sin has been paid. As theologian R. Scott Clark notes regarding the nature of prayer,
Prayer is our response. It is the instrument through which we reply from the heart, with thanks, to God for all he has done. Prayer is the first expression of the grateful, believing heart… Prayer is the act of a needy sinner.
Prayer is the exercising of the believer’s trust in God—the outworking of the gift of faith that God has given us in Christ.
Do our prayers change God’s will?
We know for a fact that some of God’s actions are based on our prayers. There are far too many instances of answered prayer in the Bible to list them here (just a few include Hannah’s prayer for a son in 1 Samuel 1:10-20, Elijah’s prayer to raise the widow’s son from the dead in 1 Kings 17:17-24, Daniel’s prayer for his people in Daniel 9:1-23, Jesus’ healing of the leper in Matthew 8:1-4, and the believers’ prayer for boldness in Acts 4:23-31).
Yet, one may ask, “So, does God’s will change based on our prayers?” The Bible is clear that God always does his holy will, and while we cannot fully understand how our prayers and God’s will are connected, we know from Scripture that God hears the prayers of his children and answers our prayers according to his good purpose in all things (Eph. 4:6-7; Rom. 8:28). It is helpful to remember both truths that 1) God is sovereign and 2) people are responsible to love and obey their Creator, including in their duty to pray. The role of our prayers in God’s sovereign reign is mysterious and vital.
Christians should not be surprised by their struggles in prayer.
It should come as no surprise to any Christian that Satan hates humble and penitent prayers to God. The devil despises believers coming before their heavenly Father in prayer with due adoration along with petitions for their needs and the needs of others. When we pray, we are entering a spiritual battleground.
Pastor Stephen Kneale notes that the great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther struggled with praying consistently, one time admitting to his friend Philipp Melanchthon that he had gone eight days without praying due to temptations of the flesh and other burdens.
As Kneale points out, knowing that such a giant in the faith as Luther could allow such a lapse in his prayer life should help us to remember that we are all sinners. Instead of racking ourselves with guilt over our own lack of prayer, we can choose to pray.
“Habit-stacking” can help Christians integrate more prayer time into daily life.
When Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, he wants believers to know that praying to God is an activity that should pervade the Christian life (1 Thess. 5:16–18). God won’t ask us to do things that he doesn’t give us the time to do. While the Bible doesn’t tell Christians how long they should pray each day, prayer is an essential and integral part of daily Christian life. Yet, believers shouldn’t use prayer as a reason to avoid fulfilling the responsibilities God has given them.
While we can be tempted by things and activities that distract us from praying, we can also feel pressured to set prayer time aside due to our responsibilities that must be done each day. In James Cleary’s highly acclaimed and must-read book Atomic Habits, he encourages readers to use “habit stacking,” a method created by BJ Fogg, to develop and keep a new habit. This method of combining at least two habits to be done concurrently has been a significant help to me in praying more and with intention.
For example, I make it a habit not to leave my bedroom in the morning to go enjoy the lovely cup of coffee my husband has made for me until I have prayed first. My husband and I like to spend time together in the morning in our kitchen area, and we have developed the habit of not going off to do our responsibilities and activities until we have had a time of prayer as a couple. We also have developed the habit of including a short prayer to the Lord about the people on our hearts when we thank him for our food before we eat our dinner. Connecting prayer time with other activities has been a game-changer for me in consistently spending time with the Lord throughout the day.
We bless our heavenly Father when we pray to him.
God wants us to cast our cares upon him, and such a privilege it is to know that whatever is plaguing us, whatever is causing us to be downcast and feel tempted to give up hope, is the very thing that God wants us to bring to him in prayer! When we pray to our heavenly Father, we communicate not only our thanks and petitions but also our utter need for his love, his friendship, his help, and his sovereign rule over our life.
Are we not blessed as parents when our own children come to us for love, wisdom, support, and a timely hug? How much more must God be blessed by our heartfelt prayers and never-ceasing dependence on him as we lovingly cry out, “Abba, Father!” (Rom. 8:15).
Our prayer life is a powerful indicator of what we believe about God.
In a recent sermon pastor Eric Chappell made an important observation about prayer that cannot be taken too seriously:
Prayer is an honest indicator—one of the best indicators—of what you believe about God, of where you place your confidence. If you believe that God is the Creator, if you believe he’s sovereign, if you believe he’s present and among you, you will pray. And if you don’t pray, it means that you believe that somebody else, maybe even yourself, is actually in charge.
Our prayers are a testimony to our faith in God—that he is real, he loves us, he is listening to us, and he is able and willing to help us.
No matter how much we pray, there likely will always be the feeling that we could have prayed more, and this is a good thing. Instead of feeling badly about not praying more, may we take to heart our duty to pray and our privilege of being able to talk to our loving heavenly Father anytime and anywhere. And may our prayers be a blessing to God and our neighbor until the glorious day comes when we are in our Lord’s presence forevermore.
This article was originally featured in BCL’s June 2025 monthly newsletter “Prayer.”
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