Why do we pray?
Growing Pains
Recently my 9 month old daughter, Corabelle, got her first teeth. The bottom two in the front grew in first, followed by the front right on top. That tooth was rough going, Corabelle ran a fever of 100.9 while that tooth grew in. But while seeing her sick the next tooth really broke my heart. For almost a week while that fourth tooth was breaking through the skin Corabelle went silent. She would still cry, often and loud. She got rather good at screaming, but for days all the little "mama's" and "dada's," all the coos and babbles that we loved listening to, stopped.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light. Once you weren’t a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you hadn’t received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9–10 CEB.
Peter wrote to the believers in Asia Minor that they were a part of a chosen people, a royal priesthood. John Wesley went further and explained that this priesthood was open to all believers. That through Jesus Christ who died and was raised from the dead in order to offer us all eternal life, we each have a connection to God that makes us His children. (Eph 1:5, 1 John 3:2)
Speaking As Children of the Most High
Like a good parent, God loves to hear our voice. He loves when we depend on Him and when we call on Him in our times of struggle. God celebrates when we ask Him to lend us His strength to see us through difficulties. God also rejoices when we call on His name for no other reason than love of Him. Like a parent who just loves to hear soft spoken little "mamas" and "dadas," God desires to hear us speak to Him, and doing so draws us closer to God.
Sometimes we're reluctant to pray, out loud in public or even in our own private space; often for fear of doing it wrong. Doubts like "What am I supposed to say?" and "do I have to use thee and thou?" creep in and paralyze our ability and desire to pray. When Corabelle mispronounces something, or is unable to use grammar, I don't refuse to hear what she has to say because she doesn't say it right. I can't imagine you've ever done so with a child either. Rather, we listen all the more closely for what's really being said. God hears what our hearts are communicating, even when our mouth can't get the words our right.
God just Wants to Hear You
Prayer isn't about getting what we want, even when its for others, but rather its to draw us closer to God. When we do that we'll soon find that what we want aligns with what God wants, and when that happens we begin to see prayers answered.
But it starts with a simple talking to God; sort of like the prayer below.