There are various reasons why believers pray.  We pray because we feel compelled to communicate with God by virtue of habit.  We pray because we feel anxious about our circumstances and prayer offers relief from our stress.  We pray because we are grateful for the works God is doing in our life through Christ and The Holy Spirit.  While the reasons or objectives of our prayers may be many, the mission is always the same.

We pray because it is how we express ourselves in faith to the Father.  Through the moments of silent or spoken prayer we are "wholly" focused upon touching the Divine with our petition or praise.  It is the mission of prayer to speak our faith to God.  We pray to the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit because we believe that God will hear and answer our prayers.  To approach prayer with any other mindset or mission is to abuse the practice of prayer.  

The Father desires your trust, your confidence in Him because our faith pleases Him.  We read the Word of God which instructs us,

"⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. ⁶ Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." Proverbs 3:5&6 King James Version.

Oddly, we never see the connection between this instruction and mature practice of prayer.  

Jesus instructs us in the Model Prayer often referred to as "The Lord's Prayer" "Give us this day our daily bread..." Hidden in plain sight in this line from the Model Prayer is God's expectation that you will trust Him DAILY.  God is instructing us to trust Him, TODAY, for TODAY!    It would be a true wonder of maturing discipleship if our daily answered prayers, inspired greater trust in God for our next day's needs. 

Faith is strengthened by exercise.  There are many days when I must repeat to myself, "I trust God."  This mantra[1] is often repeated in times when my faith is shaken, or doubt attempts to gain a foothold in my thoughts.  

Trust The Lord With Your Life.

God writes through the Apostle Peter an instructive which empowers us to live free of anxiety and worry.  He says,

"6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.”  1Peter 5:6&7 King James Version.

The profound power of this passage is that it requires Mature disciples to release control of their pride and self-confidence.  We are called to find our place under the care of God's Hand, we are called to place our trust in God's methods and not in our own mechanisms to accomplish the things we need without forfeiting our responsibility to act.

Trust God and Go ON!

Faith is not Faith unless doubt is present and possible.  Look at the verbs in the passage from Proverbs 3:5&6, 1.) Trust, 2.) Depend, 3.) Seek and 4.) Direct.  The use of the verbs in this passage ought to instruct us that Prayer is the preface to our action.  Yet our action must only be taken in prayerful and faithful consideration of the direction God provides us in His word and response to our prayers. 

Trust,

We pray because it is an expression of Trust and Faith in the one to whom we pray.

Depend,

We pray because we cannot depend upon our own way of seeing things because it has too often failed us. 

Seek,

We pray seeking because to pray without expectation of discovering His Will is an act of hypocrisy and foolishness.

Direct,

We pray because we expect to receive direction and are prepared to take action upon receiving clear direction from the one to whom we pray.  If we fail to act upon the direction of God, then are prone to wander in fear and we have  failed to please The Father.      

Read John 14:1-14 for next week.