Prayer and God’s Sovereignty (Part 2)

Yesterday, I introduced today’s subject: why are we to pray if God ordained all things before we were ever created? Today, we begin looking at nine reasons we are to pray alongside of the preciousness of God’s sovereignty.

1. God commands us to pray.

End of story! We could just look at a few Scriptures with this point and then close up shop, because it really doesn’t matter what else God says about prayer in the Bible if He simply commands us to pray. And the fact that God commands it should be enough. God expects us to obey Him and therefore, He commands and expects communion with Him through prayer. Praying is an act of obedience and if you are not praying as a discipline in your Christian life, then it’s simple: you live in sin.

Colossians 4:2 – “, (or “stay awake”) .” Everyone is vigilant or devoted to something. When you are devoted to something, you make it a priority; you spend time doing it. Paul is saying, “Make prayer a priority.” This means “be courageously persistent” in prayer. Hold fast to them. Never stop praying. It is a habit, a discipline, a fruit of the Christian life.

I Thessalonians 5:17 – “.” Be regular and persistent. This verse doesn’t mean that every second of our life – even when we are sleeping – we are to have our hands folded and eyes closed, because that is impossible knowing that there are many other disciplines we are to be investing in. It means that you never stop conversing with God and you are always ready to go to Him in prayer.

Our mindset and posture before Him is to be one of continual prayer and living before His throne and presence. Prayer is commanded to be persistent and regular. Jesus said to be persistent in prayer in Luke 5.

Those verses are not options or preferences; they are commands (e.g., “mathematical parallelism”). Obviously, there are other passages you can look to.

• Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray and instructs them to do so (Matt 6:9-13). He said, “ (a command) …”

• Paul also wrote to bring everything by prayer and supplication before God (I Thess 4:6).

Prayer is an act of obedience, and that should be enough. If prayer were so meaningless or pointless, why would God command us to do it? God doesn’t give us frivolous or worthless commands with no point. He commands us to do things because they are vital to our Christian growth and glorify Himself. God doesn’t command us to do things that don’t benefit us and glorify Himself. He doesn’t give us pointless activities.Martin Luther once wrote, “As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.”

2. Jesus is our example and He prayed.

We all are familiar with the catchy Christian cliché “What would Jesus do” or better “What did Jesus do?” He prayed. “” (Mark 1:34). Jesus’ life was consumed with experiences like this. Everywhere Jesus went to teach or heal or perform miracles, He walked. People were always surrounding Him to see what He would do next. Everyone had questions for Him; everyone wanted to get a glimpse of this Man who claimed to be the Son of God. Jesus was around people all the time.

But Jesus also knew the benefit of being alone and there were times where he escaped to be alone. Consider the next verse – “” (Mark 1:35). Jesus prayed.

Now, why did He pray? He knew the importance of refreshing Himself for ministry and life. He knew that it was vital to His own strength – so He spent time with the Father. And He knew the Father expected and commanded it. And this was the Son of God who already knew the end from the beginning!

It was the pattern of Jesus to pray. We read in Luke 5:16, “.” Jesus didn’t pray when He found time or when it was convenient to His busy ministry schedule or when He felt like it. He found time to pray and He did it often.

This is compelling. Consider this. This is Jesus who is equal to the Father. Jesus has divine power to create the world, heal diseases, walk on water, multiply bread and fish, turn water into wine, and read the hearts and minds of people around Him, and yet He knew He had to pray. He knew that prayer was not just an escape for Him but a special time of communion with the Father and a necessity for His life and following the Father’s will – an act of obedience. He needed prayer to rejuvenate. He knew He was powerless without it.

• Luke 3:21 – At the baptism of Jesus, we read, “.”

• Luke 6:12 – Before Jesus chose the 12 apostles, we read, “.”

• Luke 9:28 – On the Mount of Transfiguration, we read, “.

• Luke 11:1 – “.’” Remember the disciples would not have asked Jesus to teach them to pray unless they had seen, observed and witnessed Jesus personal commitment to pray. They knew they could learn to pray from Him because it was who He was – a man of prayer.

• Luke 22:41 – In the Garden of Gethsemane, we read, “.”

If Jesus had to pray as the Son of God, how much more do we as children of God need to pray? . And if anyone understood the sovereignty of God it would be Christ and He still prayed!

And consider this: Jesus still prays! Hebrews 7:25 says, “.” Not even the limitation of living in this world would keep Him from praying!

Tomorrow, we consider more reasons to pray!

Ibid., 48.

Wayne Grudem, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 377.

Ibid., 377.