Why Do We Pray

Why Do We Pray?

Scripture Reference: Matthew 6:6-8

Matthew 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

INTRODUCTION

As I continue to move forward in the ministry I understand one thing to be true more than anything else and that is that there is power in prayer

The reason I say this is because there are several people that approach me with different situations and there is always one answer that is common to all problems and instrumental to all healing and deliverance that is to take place

That common solution is that there is always a need for more prayer

MAIN BODY

It is interesting and I am glad that when Jesus displayed his power of deliverance he did it several different ways. In fact, I can go as far as to say that he never delivered a person the same way twice

This is good because had he had a favorite method of delivery then that would certainly be used as doctrine in today’s theological studies

When I am questioned concerning any of the difficult challenges that life may bring our way I am always sure to include prayer as the first remedy to any situation

One of the most ineffective prayers is to launch a prayer at a person or situation when they are in disagreement with you

It seems so convenient to pray out loud against someone when you are in disagreement but in actuality the proper and most effective use of prayer is to pray for the other person when you enter your prayer closet

This brings another problem because many of us have long left our prayer closets and we have deemed them as no longer necessary now that we have erected our sophisticated and public prayer alters

Jesus is teaching in this scripture that we should always remember to use our private payer area.

Not only does Jesus advice us to pray in our secret closet but he also advises us to close the door behind us when we pray

Have you ever thought about why Jesus said to close the door behind us

When is the last time (honestly) that you have been in a closet with the door closed praying

Every time I think of being in closet closed up I can only think of having an invasion by the “boogeyman”

I wonder where this came from

I wonder what force could have made sure that me as well as many other children are afraid to close themselves in a closet for fear of the “boogeyman” attacking

I am sure with today’s standard there are many people with closets that have lighting but I don’t think that Jesus had these types of closets in mind when he suggested that we close ourselves in a closet

As I write this I am getting an eerie feeling knowing that I must now go in my prayer closet literally because I would not dare suggest something to you that I have never done

While we are on the subject of boogeyman and Satan it is interesting how no one in the new testament (except Jesus) has claimed to have had a face to face confrontation with Satan

In other words, even if we were confronted by Satan, would we be able to identify him

Usually when I think of Satan I think of someone so bad that I would easily be able to identify him out of any crowd but is this really true

I had this conversation with some of my religious friends. One said (Making a very long conversation very short), “We have to always remember that his position in heaven was the minister of music so he would probably dwell somewhere where music is being played.”

I immediately began to think about all of the music that is most popular and how the one thing that it doesn’t want you to think about is the glory of God

I began to think about how many would be saints have been eternally lost because of a favorite song that led to ungodly memories which led to other things which ultimately and subtly led them away from the glory of God

This was a stiff reminder that I have got to be careful about the music that I listen to because I have noticed how when I hear a good beat my body began to move almost uncontrollably regardless of what the lyrics were saying