I am unsure what you might believe about prayer.  I’m hoping to help you expand your view of God.

Most Christians, unfortunately, think prayer is mostly for physical health problems.  The average “prayer meeting” has a reputation for being a place where you get depressed by everything that’s wrong with everyone.

While I do believe in praying for health requests, I don’t believe it should be the first or only thing Christians pray regarding.

A few thoughts I hope will help:

1. Prayer in the Bible is MOSTLY for spiritual things.

When we see people pray in the Bible, it is mostly to see God’s power.  It’s for wisdom.  It’s so people will grow in their faith.  It’s for evangelism to be effective.  It’s for God to be glorified.  Since this is only a blog article, I won’t go into depth about statistics, but the overwhelming majority of verses regarding prayer has to do with spiritual concerns.

2. Prayer is about God, not us.

When we pray, we should pray so as to lower ourselves and raise up God.  If you break your foot, pray like this: “Lord, if you won’t heal my foot, help me to learn and grow from this experience and rely on you for the strength to get through these weeks of recovery.”

Prayer shows reliance.  So many times in the Bible people called on God when they weren’t able to handle things themselves.  What an amazing view of prayer we’d have if we called on God and focused on Him.

3. Prayer changes things and teaches us perseverance.

It really does.  I believe God has knowledge of everything, but the Bible also tells us prayer changes things.  BOTH are true.  We can grow in our faith by seeing God answer prayer, so we should keep praying and praise Him when prayers are answered.

How many stories have you heard about someone making a turnaround when prayed for?  Tumors are miraculously gone.  People get radically saved.  All through prayer.  And sometimes, through long periods of prayer.  The best thing to learn about long periods of prayer is that God will not often answer our prayers on our time.  It causes us to trust Him more and more, and reminds us how much we’re NOT in control.

To conclude . . . 

Are you trying to be in control? Do you think you have everything handled?  Is your view of God small?  Begin to study the Bible regarding prayer and your view of God will enlarge.  So will your reliance on Him!