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Why Pray? To ask the question 'why pray' is a bit like asking the question 'why breath?' One is essential to physical life, the other to spiritual life. We pray to stay alive as Christians. We breath the oxygen of God's presence and love. To be more specific: We pray in order to get to know God I love going to Iceland, all those volcanoes and glaciers. But if I really wanted to get to know the country I would have to go and live there. Praying is living with God in a new country with new priorities. We pray to become acclimatized to the new culture of the kingdom of God. E.M.Bounds wrote, 'Prayer is the cotact of a living soul with God. In prayer, God stoops to kiss man and bless man'. Prayer bathes the soul in an atmosphere of the divine presence. We pray in order to share our lives with God If we are trying to put Him at the centre of our lives we have to keep the doors open for his constant arrival. We pray to express our love and thanks to God Prayer can easily be seen in terms of a duty. A relationship with God ought to have fewer of the characteristics of duty and more of the characteristics of a love affair. Prayer is also man's ultimate indication of trust in his heavenly Father. By talking to God we affirm our basic decision to depend on Him We pray as a way of loving people Because we love them we pray for them. The most inportant thing we can do for those we care for is to hold them in the loving presence of God. We pray to bring our own needs to God God said that he responds to our prayers. Charles Spurgeon once said, 'Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscles of omnipotence.' Nothing is too small for His concern. David Mouncer Published in the April/May 2004 edition of the Church Magazine
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