Prayer Gets You God. Not His Stuff.

Yesterday I wrote about how 2 Chronicles 7:12-16 revealed the number one reason why we humans don't pray. It also tells us some reasons why we should.

Why we SHOULD pray: Reason #1--Prayer allows us to know God, and in return allows God to introduce us to ourselves.

Look at the passage:

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 

It surprised me that God doesn't say, "If they will pray and ask me for rain, or health, or harvest, then I will answer." NO! He says that if they will "pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then..."

Prayer is a means to a relationship.

The goal of prayer is not getting God to answer our requests. The main goal of prayer is getting to know God, seeking His face, attending to what He is like. When we do that, we also begin to see ourselves for who we really are and hopefully, we turn away from our broken selves and move toward God.

When college students start a relationship, there is one key indicator that communicates to them the other person considers the relationship serious...a relationship status update on Facebook. We've all seen our friends go from "single" to "in a relationship", and sometimes we even get the name of their new significant other so we can click around and find vital info about them. But imagine a relationship where someone was willing to claim you facebook, where they spent time with you in big groups (say, like at church), but anytime you tried to get them alone so you could get to know them better, they were suddenly busy. Anytime you made a point to hang out with them one-on-one, they either ignored you or avoided you.

The relationship would not be a good one.

Alot of us have this kind of relationship with God. We'll claim Him on Facebook. I've been in a relationship with God since I started my Facebook account. We'll go to Bible studies, Sunday Schools and Seminary to learn more about Him. We'll enjoy Him at church and in musical worship. But when it comes to spending good quality one-on-one time with Him; when it comes to actually praying-we are simply too busy, too apathetic, or too lazy. Knowing Him personally isn't that important to us.

Prayer facilitates a strong connected relationship with God. It is where we get to know Him. It is where we allow Him to know us (He already does know us fully-even better than we know ourselves, but something good happens in our hearts when we tell Him who we are and how we feel). It is where we grow close to Him and His heart. Prayer is where our hearts (His and mine) meet.

That is why we should pray. Not to get His stuff, or His answers, or His approval. But to get Him.

We should pray because we were created to be in a dynamic relationship with the Living God, which is more than just a stagnant status on our Facebook page or another meeting in our week.