Beginner Believer: Why Should We Pray if God is Sovereign

Why should we pray – and how do we start a habit of prayer? This episode is a quick introduction to your prayer practice, why it matters and what Scripture says about it.

Transcription

It’s all about relationship in Christianity. It’s not just let me just throw this at the universe and hope for the best. God wants relationship which is why you’re going alone to pray to the father. It’s not so you can empty your mind. It’s so you can fill your mind with the truth of God and the relationship that he offers. Hi, friends, and welcome back to Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer. I’m Phylicia, the founder of Every Woman A Theologian, and I’m so excited to be with you today as we talk about prayer. Why should we bother to pray if God is sovereign? I get some form of this question every single Monday on Instagram when I do ask anything questions, And I love talking about it because prayer is so essential to the Christian life, but many of us feel like it’s kind of a pointless practice if god is just going to do what he’s going to do.

At least that’s the perspective that has been shared with me. And I understand it. Why should we bother to pray if God knows everything that’s going to happen? Well, I’m gonna share my perspective on this and also walk through quite a few different scriptures that talk about prayer and the nature of prayer. And hopefully, by the end of this, you’ll have a little bit more information to help you in your own prayer life with the lord. This is part of the beginner believer series of Verity podcast, and we’re diving into different questions that people have submitted to me on how to walk out the Christian life when you’re a new believer or if you’ve been a believer for a long time. So without further ado, let’s look at some of these passages. We’re going to start in Romans 826. This passage says, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

I want to start with this because I want us to be sure to look at prayer as a product of the Holy Spirit’s work in us. See, when we pray, we are connecting with the heart of God and we are praying by the power and the intercession of the holy spirit, which means that even when you don’t know what to pray or you feel like you don’t even understand prayer completely, the holy spirit is interceding for you before God and is helping you to pray what you need. And so I just want to encourage you if you think that you need to be perfect in prayer or if you think that you need to do prayer a certain way, if you were taught that prayer needed to look a certain way or you just don’t have the words, to remember that the Holy Spirit intercedes. And when you don’t know what to pray for or if you don’t pray as you ought, he is interceding for you with groanings too deep for words. What does that mean? It means that he is able to put into words for you before God the things that you don’t have words for, the deep desires and pains of your heart. He is that kind of loving God who would intercede for those things even when you don’t have the words to articulate them. And I wanna start there because it shows you the heart of God towards you when it comes to prayer. Let’s go on to Philippians 46.

So this one in context is talking about anxiety. It’s talking about worry. What do we do with our concerns, our worries, which all of us have many of those? In fact, the longer I’ve been in ministry, the more children that I’ve had, the longer I’ve been married, and even when I was a single woman working and wondering what’s the next step for me, where am I gonna go next in my career, I had so many different worries and concerns that I needed to bring to the Lord. And here in Philippians, Paul writes, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. It goes on to say, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. There’s so much here that we could break down, but I’m just gonna go through it section by section. So he says, do not be anxious about anything. He’s making a contrast.

He’s saying instead of being anxious, instead of dwelling and living in anxiety, here’s what I’m offering you instead. In every single thing, there’s nothing too small for God. I want you to buy prayer and supplication, so your requests with thanksgiving, so with gratitude, let your request be made known to God. So instead of keeping your requests to yourself, your worries, your anxieties, keeping those in here, which is what anxiety does. It’s basically praying not to yourself, but almost within yourself. Right? You’re rehearsing these worries. What if this? What if this? This could happen within yourself. And it stays trapped inside there because it’s internalized and it’s like this little circle that’s going around and around inside.

And if you imagine, if you’re a visual person, like, unraveling that ball of yarn and, like, pulling that string out instead of it circling inside, pulling it out and handing it up to the Lord. That’s the image that helps me when I am praying. That I could let it circulate in here like this little tangled, you know, ball of yarn, but instead I’m pulling that thread out and I’m handing it to the lord. And he’s taking it and he’s unraveling it and straightening it out and making sense of it. And so instead of being anxious, he says, in everything, in all things, nothing too small, nothing too big, by prayer and supplication, give it over to god, which is probably going to be an ongoing process. There’s nothing in Philippians 4 that indicates it’s not an ongoing process. It’s not just a one time thing. It’s an ongoing thing because he says, do not be anxious about anything, which would include everything in life.

And then he says, in everything, let your requests more than one be made known to God. This is an ongoing thing where you’re consistently giving your anxieties over to the Lord in prayer so that he can take them from you and he can give you wisdom and guidance in return. There’s one interesting part of this. We’re often used to praying requests to supplication and prayer, but thanksgiving, what role does thanksgiving play? Now my friend, Anne has talked about this at length in her book 1,000 gifts, and I highly recommend it. But to summarize, Thanksgiving is one of the ways that we experience the grace of God. It’s how we actually get the perspective we need on the life that we’re living on the gifts that we’ve already been given is participating in Thanksgiving and gratitude. See, when I think that I haven’t been given anything good and I don’t count the things that I’ve been given, then I start looking for more and more negative patterns in my life. But when I do live in a state of Thanksgiving, as I give my request to God, I say, God, thank you so much for the fact that you provided for me in these ways.

Thank you so much that you have given me peace. Thank you so much that these friends supported me in this extremely heavy time. I can recognize the gifts of God even as I ask God to give me more gifts, more presence, more strength, whatever it is that I’m looking for. I’m able to acknowledge his faithfulness and recount his past faithfulness, which in turn gives me a present hope, and that present hope conquers anxiety. Does it mean you’ll never be tempted to anxiety again? Maybe, maybe not, but it does mean that you have a pattern of thanking God and turning everything over to him. And in return, he gives us the peace that protects and guards both your heart and your mind. So where all of that is roiling and all of that is turning over and over and over again, he replaces that with his peace. And every single day, he does that for us, and prayer is a part of that.

See, if we just read the Bible and we never pray, we have a lot of facts, a lot of truths that the holy spirit can and does use, but it’s not actually being formed in us. It’s formed through prayer. And so when we read scripture and we never turn to prayer, we are short changing the relational aspect of our faith. God wants you to pray because he wants to trade your worries, your anxieties for his peace. He wants to do that with you every single day. Let’s look at Matthew 6:6 through 7. This is Jesus talking. He’s describing the process of prayer.

So we’ve kind of talked about the empowerment to prayer, which is the spirit. We’ve talked about the practice of prayer with, you know, handing it over to the lord with gratitude. Now let’s talk about this process or this location. So Matthew 66 through 7, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Okay. What is he referring to here? What’s Jesus talking about when he says the Gentiles heap up many words? Well, he’s talking about the pagan religions.

The pagan religions of their day were made up of Greeks, Romans, who were using all of these fancy words to try to goad their gods into doing what they wanted or needed. It’s very fascinating because in many ways, the gnostic and Greek, you know, religion is a parallel to what we see today in the new age manifesting, for example. So many words to manifest what it is that you want. It’s self centered is based on your desires alone. It’s impersonal, and it’s a lot of empty words. Jesus is saying that’s not our model. I don’t want you over here just, you know, saying all these words as if you need to please me. He just wants you to come to your father in secret and to relationally engage with him.

It’s all about relationship in Christianity. It’s not just let me just throw this at the universe and hope for the best. God wants a relationship, which is why you’re going alone to pray to the father. It’s not so you can empty your mind. It’s so you can fill your mind with the truth of God and the relationship that he offers. And he says, your father who sees in secret will reward you. Your father who sees you coming to have that relationship, coming to engage with him, he rewards you with his presence. He rewards you with his voice, with his faithfulness.

And you only experience that if you show up to it. If you come there and you are willing to share your heart with God and you do not have to come up with a whole bunch of fancy words to do that, you can talk to him just like you would talk to a friend. You get to be honest because he already knows your heart. Okay. Let’s turn to Colossians 42. This one is short. It simply says continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. We already talked about thanksgiving, about gratitude, how important that is, But he says here, continue steadfastly in prayer.

Be watchful in it. I think that here, Paul is writing to the Colossians acknowledging that prayer is hard, that it’s actually easy to not be steadfast, to not continue, and to not be watchful. So let’s talk about those 2 things. Talk about being steadfast. Being steadfast means to be immovable. So you’re continuing to be steadfast. You are not moving from your position. You continue to pray.

So you’re still progressing forward. Continue progressing forward. Don’t stop, and you’re steadfast. You’re immovable. And that’s really difficult with prayer because we often get distracted or we think, oh, I read my Bible, but, you know, in moving on, I’ll just muscle my way through. No. This continuing steadfastly in prayer, that’s that connection. That’s abiding in Christ as John 15 says.

You want to continue to remain connected to God through prayer because that is how the Holy Spirit is continuing to speak to you and work within your heart throughout the day. Be watchful in it. This I think has to do with distraction. I am never more easily distracted than when I’m praying. Never more easily distracted. I can think of so many things to do when I am trying to pray. And this is actually one reason that I tend to write out my prayers, hand write my prayers because I am so easily distracted. And when I’m writing it out, it helps me to focus.

But even if you don’t write out your prayers, you have to be very aware of your triggers, of the things that will draw you in to distract you from being watchful in it, being aware. Now I think he’s also talking about being spiritually watchful or spiritually aware. What does God want you to pray for? And as you continue praying and growing in your spiritual life, you’ll begin to discern what God wants you to pray for specifically. So it might be a sin issue in your life that he wants to free you from. It might be an area, a friendship or a relationship that you suddenly think, man, I really need some work in this area. Maybe it’s another person who continues to be brought to mind. One time I had a dream about a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in a decade, and she just kept coming to mind randomly through this dream and then throughout the day. And I thought, you know what? I don’t know what’s going on, so I’m just gonna pray for her because I think that’s the obedience God is asking here.

Later on I reached out and said hey I don’t know what’s going on in your life but I’ve been praying for you and the thing that I’m specifically praying for is grief. I don’t know why that’s the word that came to mind as I was praying and I don’t know if it means anything, maybe nothing, but that’s what I’ve been praying for. Then I came to find out that they actually were walking through an incredible amount of grief in their life that I was not aware of. So that’s an example of how the Holy Spirit actually will guide you personally to support other people in the church as you are discerning how to be watchful in prayer. But we have to be willing to see these little subtle reminders, these things that he does as the voice of god and respond in obedience even if we feel a little bit crazy or maybe our denomination doesn’t teach on it or talk about it very much. As long as it is aligned with who god is, what scripture teaches, the heart of god to intercede for his people, to be, loving, truthful, kind based on the word, then what we are doing in listening to the Holy Spirit’s voice is within orthodoxy and it’s grounded in scripture, and it’s for the upbuilding of the church. It’s amazing to see how the church is transformed when people pray for one another and when they are watchful in prayer. Romans 1212 says, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Again, continue steadfastly, be constant in prayer. So this might make you ask, well, how do I be constant in prayer? I have a job to do. I have kids to take care of. I have things that are on my plate. What does this mean? I do believe that a morning prayer time is very important. It’s historically the most common time when saints of the faith, Christians prayed was immediately in the morning, sometimes at multiple times of the day. So in both the Bible and instances like Daniel, also in monasteries throughout the ages, we’ve seen these patterns of time. So specific hours when one would pray at, like, 6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM, 6 PM, 9 PM.

So at the 3 hour increments or breakfast, lunch, and dinner, morning, noon, and night. So having set times to pray is really a great way to be constant in prayer. However, it’s also an ongoing conversation. You can pray whenever, wherever, however. Yes. You pray in the closet and the your father who is in secret will reward you, but at the same time that your father sees in secret when you are praying at the kitchen table and when you are praying as you cook dinner and when you’re praying on your commute to work, he rewards you in every secret place that you pray. When it’s the secret place of your heart, the sanctuary of your heart, he hears it. He sees it.

And so ongoing prayer throughout the day is so special and so important. At the same time, I do encourage a dedicated prayer time and disciplined prayer time at some point during your day so that you can continue to grow this practice of focus. We live in an unfocused age, and this is one reason that many Christians don’t pray. We chalk it up to personality when really it’s a discipline issue. And so we have to be willing to do that as well. 1st John 514, and this is almost our last one. This is the confidence that we have towards god that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. So this one can be very confusing for people because they think, well, it says I have to ask according to his will, so I have to figure out God’s will.

And quite honestly, many Christians overthink this. They think I have to figure out this specific vague will that God has and then I only pray for those things. But scripture continually tells us that his will is our sanctification to become holy, and that is actually quite broad. So you pray and he reveals his will as you pray. You can ask anything. He hears you and his will will be made manifest. It will be revealed to you as you continue to converse with him and pray and ask him how he wants to lead you. And so sometimes you’re praying about something, a decision maybe, and he gives you a clear path.

Other times he might not give you a clear yes or no and maybe that means that you just decide and he will give you direction as you walk through that door. Our family has had that happen. Other times, it’s a very specific no. And oftentimes with those instances, it was already revealed in scripture but I just didn’t like the answer. And so once I prayed about it, he gave me a very specific no. This is not the way that we are going. So don’t worry about trying to find this secret will. God is not playing games with you.

He just wants you to converse with him and he will reveal his will as you continue to pray. He hears you. This is the confidence we have. He hears you. Now if you’re asking selfishly, if you’re treating prayer like God is a genie, you’re manifesting what you want, that would be an example of not praying according to his will. Like, oh, God, you know, I just I just want to prosper and be wealthy for my own gain. You know, that’s an example of maybe, you know, praying in a selfish way. Is it his will that you just prosper for nobody else’s benefit except yours? No, he wants you to be generous and hospitable, and he wants you to use the resources he gives you to bless others as well as yourself.

And so when we are praying, we are given God’s wisdom to know what I am praying according to his will and also his will is revealed as we pray. Okay. Last but not least, one of my favorites, 1st Thessalonians 5 16 through 18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. There it is. There’s the will of God for you. The will of God is that you rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances. So if you ever wonder when you’re praying, what’s the will of god, there’s your baseline right there.

And we add in the verse about sanctification. There’s 4 things. Be a person who’s rejoicing, recognizing the goodness God has given you. There is always goodness there. And our family has been through a lot, especially this year. And I can tell you that those whose eyes are open to see the goodness of God always see more of God’s goodness. Rejoice in the life that you have even as you are honest with God about your suffering. And then pray without ceasing.

Don’t stop praying. Don’t give up. A lot of people give up too soon. God has created prayer as the vehicle through which he wants to change the world. He wants you to pray because this is the way that he has chosen to use to transform the world and to transform you. And when we don’t pray, we never see what’s on the other side because we are wanting god to prove himself before we will pray, and that’s not how this works. It’s a walk by faith, a life by faith. That means you don’t see the other side when you’re praying, but those who pray see the other side.

So pray without ceasing. Don’t give up. And then lastly, give thanks in all circumstances. This goes back to recognizing God’s goodness. You’ll be able to rejoice always when you are giving thanks in all circumstances, when you’re able to see God’s goodness even in the hardest, hardest times. This year, our family has gone through much loss, both the loss of children via miscarriage, loss of finances, the loss of several other very significant things that were very hard for us. So in those instances, I turn and I look at the faithfulness of God in the past, and I thank God for those things that he has done. I also look at the goodness of God in the present, and I thank God for what he’s doing there.

Thank God for the people who’ve come through to support us and encourage us and walk with us. I thank god for the ways he showed himself loving in the midst of grief. I don’t judge god by whether or not he came through for me because he’s come through for me so many times in so many ways that I know that the things that we’ve walked through this year are not a reason to stop praying. They’re a reason to pray all the more so that I can see his goodness on the other side. I hope that encourages you to also pray without ceasing. Have faith that the god that you serve has your heart in mind and your best interest in mind. And stick with him to see what’s on the other side of praying faithfully. I hope this was an encouraging episode for you.

If you want to know more about how to pray, you can head over to the Every Woman A Theologian shop and grab our little $6 booklet, a beginner’s guide to prayer. We also have a $3 PDF ebook version, and that might be a great resource for you if you’re just starting out. Thank you as always for joining me and I’ll see you next time on Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer.

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