Our Motivation to Pray
Thoughts for the Thanksgiving Season
Dear Church Family,
I wonder if your experience with prayer is like mine. I bring my life and requests before God and when he answers my response is often…surprise.
I trust that God hears and answers prayer but when it happens I have found myself saying, “Can you believe it?” I know that God has all power and authority and yet sometimes he shows up in exactly the way I have needed, and my unbidden thoughts are to consider it coincidence. Has this ever happened to you? I think this is the result of a misconception about the purpose of prayer. Certainly we are invited and encouraged to make our requests known to the Lord, and we should, but I wonder how often we believe that requests are the definition of prayer. When we make prayer only about our requests we base our relationship with God on the outcome of those requests. If He answers them in the way we hope then we will follow Him, but if He doesn’t we think there must be something lacking with Him or with us.
What if God’s intent for us in prayer is not about yes or no answers; what if it’s about knowing and resting? Oswald Chambers has some helpful insight to consider. He says, “The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer.” That is so convicting for me. What is it that we want when we pray? Do we want answers most or do we want God most? If you ever find it difficult to pray you are in good company.
I often find that is true in my own life. If that is true of us, could it be that our struggle is not about prayer but about our motivation to pray? How much would your relationship with God be affected this week if the main reason you sought Him through prayer was to know Him and be in His presence? Just to know Him more and rest in Him. Maybe we would all grow closer to the Lord this Thanksgiving season if we didn’t focus on all the stuff that He has or hasn’t given us, but if we really considered with joyful hearts that He has given us Himself.
Pastor Richie