If Jesus knows my need's before I can think of them, why do I need to ask him in the first place? Even my prayers for other's he knows ahead of time. But for some reason I've got to pretend that my prayer requests are new to his ears. I forget that I'm having a conversation with a being who already knows what will happen or not.
I believe that Jesus will either move on my prayer's or not, but in reality he's already decided long before I was born what he will do or not.
Say I ask Jesus to heal my neighbour of her migraines, well Jesus will either heal her or not. But Jesus already knows if he will or will not heal her, so what difference does it make when I ask him to heal her. Jesus is going to do or not do what he planned long ago, so my prayer's aren't going to change his plan.
Right?
I mean why pray about something that you can't actually effect. Christians really think that Jesus has answered their prayers, but in reality he has only done what he planned long ago.
Yes, very confusing.
Question: "Why pray? What is the point of prayer when God knows the future and is already in control of everything? If we cannot change God's mind, why should we pray?"
Answer: For the Christian, praying is supposed to be like breathing, easier to do than to not do. We pray for a variety of reasons. For one thing, prayer is a form of serving God (
Luke 2:36-38) and obeying Him. We pray because God commands us to pray (
Philippians 4:6-7). Prayer is exemplified for us by Christ and the early church (
Mark 1:35;
Acts 1:14;
2:42;
3:1;
4:23-31;
6:4;
13:1-3). If Jesus thought it was worthwhile to pray, we should also. If He needed to pray to remain in the Father’s will, how much more do we need to pray?
Another reason to pray is that God intends prayer to be the means of obtaining His solutions in a number of situations. We pray in preparation for major decisions (
Luke 6:12-13); to overcome demonic barriers (
Matthew 17:14-21); to gather workers for the spiritual harvest (
Luke 10:2); to gain strength to overcome temptation (
Matthew 26:41); and to obtain the means of strengthening others spiritually (
Ephesians 6:18-19).
We come to God with our specific requests, and we have God's promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we do not receive specifically what we asked for (
Matthew 6:6;
Romans 8:26-27). He has promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will, He will give us what we ask for (
1 John 5:14-15). Sometimes He delays His answers according to His wisdom and for our benefit. In these situations, we are to be diligent and persistent in prayer (
Matthew 7:7;
Luke 18:1-8). Prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God's will done on earth. God’s wisdom far exceeds our own.
For situations in which we do not know God's will specifically, prayer is a means of discerning His will. If the Syrian woman with the demon-influenced daughter had not prayed to Christ, her daughter would not have been made whole (
Mark 7:26-30). If the blind man outside Jericho had not called out to Christ, he would have remained blind (
Luke 18:35-43). God has said that we often go without because we do not ask (
James 4:2). In one sense, prayer is like sharing the gospel with people. We do not know who will respond to the message of the gospel until we share it. In the same way, we will never see the results of answered prayer unless we pray.
A lack of prayer demonstrates a lack of faith and a lack of trust in God’s Word. We pray to demonstrate our faith in God, that He will do as He has promised in His Word and bless our lives abundantly more than we could ask or hope for (
Ephesians 3:20). Prayer is our primary means of seeing God work in others' lives. Because it is our means of “plugging into” God's power, it is our means of defeating Satan and his army that we are powerless to overcome by ourselves. Therefore, may God find us often before His throne, for we have a high priest in heaven who can identify with all that we go through (
Hebrews 4:15-16). We have His promise that the fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much (
James 5:16-18). May God glorify His name in our lives as we believe in Him enough to come to Him often in prayer.
www.gotquestions.org/why-pray.html
What are some hindrances to a potent prayer life?
