As ministry opportunities permit I ask Christians about their prayer life. More often than I like to hear, the response I receive when asking about a Christian’s prayer life is, why bother? This objection also typically comes from Christians that have not developed the spiritual discipline of prayer in their lives. This objection to prayer is based on the following: “Why bother praying? God will do want he wants regardless of my prayers”.

There is truth to that statement. From a perspective of God’s Sovereignty, every single moment of our lives is foreordained by God.[1] With that said, prayer plays a vital role in the purposes of God in our lives. God has told us to pray[2] and is pleased to use our prayers in accomplishing His will for us. With this said, there is a vital truth that is still missing and it is this: prayer draws us close to God, in person. Although God is omnipresent and omniscient[3], He is pleased to manifest His presence in a unique way when his people speak to him in prayer.

God’s Timetable
The fact of the matter is that the Lord has a timetable for everything that occurs, including the very personal events in our lives. The fact also is that His timetable is often very different from our own. Christ’s disciples thought they were in harm’s way when their boat was swamped with water while Christ was sleeping. Their interpretation of Christ sleeping was, “don’t you care if we drown?”[4] The disciples were never in harm’s way and it is indeed curious that Christ was sleeping. If often appears to us that God is sleeping while we are being swamped by the cares of the world. It is at those moments that we need to pray because our faith might indeed be failing. It is through prayer that we are drawn into the plan and purposes of God and consciously aligned with God’s plan.

There was a divine timetable for the earthly arrival of Christ[5] and his forerunner John the Baptist, yet with that said, prayer was used in accomplishing the events related to that timetable.

Luke 1:5-14 “In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years. 8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.”

This is a fascinating example of how prayer was used by God to bring about the birth of the greatest of Old Testament prophets[6]. What is also fascinating is that God had prophesied the appearance of John The Baptist hundreds of years prior to the birth.[7] Please note that both, God’s decree and human prayer work together in God’s economy. God foreordains whatsoever comes to pass and his people pray as part of bringing “about whatsoever comes to pass”. But there is something else that is wondrous about prayer which comes to forefront in this passage.

Living By Faith, Persevering In Hope
According to the Lk 1 passage above, it is generally understood that Zechariah’s prayers reflected his and his wife’s desire for a child since his wife Elisabeth was barren. It is one thing to pray for a child: it is another thing to receive an answer to prayer that not only would Elizabeth give birth to a child, the child would become the greatest of Old Testament prophets, receiving that particular approbation from Christ Himself. [8] Zechariah’s situation, his faithfulness, his prayers, and God’s response to those prayers would be recorded for us in sacred writ. Astounding is the fact that Zechariah had no idea how things would ultimately turn out, he was simply being faithful to God in prayer.

Please note that Zechariah and Elizabeth were “upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly” (v 6). No one can live a sinless life, but what Scripture makes clear is that they strived to live a consciously obedient life. They, both of them, were faithful to the Old Covenant system of worship. I am not suggesting that the Lord answers our prayers as a “quid pro quo”, but am saying that their lives and their faithfully obeying the system of faith they lived under was significant for the gospel writer to point out. Why is that important to understanding prayer?

Because a life of prayer and a life of obedience work together. Christians wrongly believe they can live a pleasing, sacrificial and obedient life without prayer because they simply do not understand the prayer is meeting with God. You cannot meet a holy, the True and Living God and not be changed in some way.

Entering the Most Holy Place[9]
Prayer is one of those amazing privileges of our redemption. The unfortunate fact of the matter is many Christians find prayer perfunctory, boring and fatalistic. Lord help us to see the truth of the matter. The reason many Christians probably see prayer this way is because they really have no acquaintance with the God they are praying to. The church has always suffered from ignorance[10] on all types of issues but I would assert that ignorance concerning prayer is near epidemic. The biblical fact of the matter is this: as Christians, we pray to a God that loves us more than we can conceptualize and delights in having us come to Him in prayer. My desire for the church of Jesus Christ is that we would grow in grace and knowledge in this area and truly know the True and Living God as one who can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.[11]
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Bill Mueller is a ruling elder in Miami, Florida.

[1] Psalm 139:16.

[2] Mt 6:9: Lk 18:1: Js 5:15-17.

[3] Psalm 139:1-10.

[4] Mk 4:38

[5] Gal 4:4

[6] Mt 11:11

[7] Mk 1:1-4: Mal 3:1.

[8] Mt 11:7-11.

[9] Heb 10:19

[10] Hos 4:6.

[11] Eph 3:20