Question of the Week: PRAYER

Got a brain-cramping Bible question you’d like answered? Send it in to getupwithgod@gmail.com and I’ll do my very best to answer it.

Here’s this week’s question …

I’ve been a Christian for a long time, but I still find myself struggling with the whole concept of prayer. My questions are: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

More specifically:

• To whom should we pray? God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit? All of them at once? Jesus’ mom? Someone else?
• What should we pray? If God already knows how things turn out, what am I supposed to pray? If I don’t say the right things, will God zap me?
• Where should we pray? I know some Christians have freaky (at least to me) little prayer rooms. Do I need to clean out a closet and make one or else God won’t hear listen?
• When should we pray? Should I stick to rushed repetitive prayers at meals and bedtime like some Christians? Or should we stop everything like other religions and pray three times a day to make sure we get ‘em in?
• Why should we pray? If God truly controls the universe, why does he need my input?
• How should we pray? Assuming there are satisfactory answers to all of the above, then exactly HOW should we pray? Is there some magic formula?

Great questions. In fact, they’re so great that I think we’ll spend the entire week here on GUWG focusing on prayer.

Let’s start today with the WHY question: Why on earth should we pray? To me, if that one isn’t answerable, we might as well be atheists.

Here are GUWG’s official …

TOP TEN REASONS TO PRAY

10. Jesus prayed. (John 17)
9.   It works. (Matthew 21:21-22)
8.   God listens. (Psalms 5:1-3)
7.   God responds. (Matthew 7:7-11)
6.   It deepens our relationship with God. (Psalms 1-150)
5.   It brings us peace. (Philippians 4:6-7)
4.   It helps us avoid temptation. (Matthew 6:13)
3.   It gives us a chance to confess our sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)
2.   It shifts our focus to God, “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask.” (Ephesians 3:20)

And the number one reason to pray (in my humble opinion) …

1.   God tells us to. (1 Timothy 2:1)

I’ll attempt to answer the other questions as the week rolls on. In the meantime, pray pray pray pray pray. And then pray some more.

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