Why Pray?

For many of us (myself included) prayer often falls into the same category of eating healthy, exercising, or flossing: something we know is good for us, yet is hard for us to do. Then when we don't pray we may feel guilty, and the guiltier we feel the harder it is for us to enjoy prayer because we are so weighed down by guilt. Because Lent is a time not only to give up what may be harmful, but also a time to embrace what is good, I'll be doing a series of postings on prayer, hoping they will encourage all of us to deepen our prayer lives and find fulfillment in doing so. Most of these posts will be drawn from Worshiping with the Church Fathers by Christopher Hall. Hall looks to the early leaders and teachers of the Church for wisdom in prayer and worship. One question many of us may wonder about but may be afraid or embarrassed to ask is this: If God knows everything, including what we need, why do we need to ask for these things in prayer since God already knows we need them? Quoting the contemporary author Richard Foster, Hall writes,

The answer could be as simple as this: love often likes to be asked something, even when it knows the answer. Such is the nature of love. "We like our children to ask us for things we know they already need because the very asking enhances and deepens the relationship. . . Love loves to be told what it knows already . . . It wants to be asked for what it longs to give."

At its root prayer is not a transaction, a kind of service contract between us and God. At its root prayer is a means of relationship where we open ourselves to God's love for us and presence with us. This is the same God Jesus described as a father who never stopped waiting and longing for the return of his child who ran off and wasted half the family fortune, desiring nothing more than to embrace his child and welcome them home. God is not like a frustrated lunch date, glancing at the clock and wondering why we haven't shown up yet. God longs for our fellowship and is delighted when we turn to God in prayer.