Why We Pray What We Pray (From Our Daily Bread)

Beautiful traditions and a rich history were passed from generation to generation in the Black church. One of the pillars of faith is prayer.

By Rev. Marvin Williams

When I was growing up, I was in awe when I listened to my mother and other mothers in our church pray. Sometimes they would sit in silence and whisper words to the Father. Still other times, they would lay themselves down prostrate and weep prayers to God. I watched these saints raise their hands and stretch out their arms as they sang that familiar hymn by Dr. Watts:

Father, I stretch my hands to Thee. No other help I know.
If Thou withdraw Thy help from me, ah, whither shall I go?

I can still remember the way the room seemed to shake with divine power. God was present. Though I couldn’t see Him, I could feel His power when these saints worshiped in prayer. The God of the universe was on the premises, and they talked to and with Him like He was an old best friend sitting right next to them. These old saints would humbly say that they were so close to God that they could feel His breath on them. Listening to them pray with boldness, power, and passion created a longing in my heart to pray this way as well. I wanted what they had. I still do.

The truth is, most days I don’t think I come close to praying this way. I struggle to pray. I lose focus, get distracted, feel my life is too busy, and doubt God hears me. Sometimes I even get bored and fall asleep.

So I can find myself slogging through and sweating in my prayer life. I know from my childhood that prayer can be joyful and life-changing. And some days it is. But there are other days when it feels mundane and monotonous.

Yet the legacy of faith I experienced as a child still lives in me now. I still long to hear the Father tell me who He is, who I am, and where I am going. I still long to experience in prayer the joy only He can give.

And when I reflect more deeply on some of the reasons we pray, I am even more motivated to keep pressing on in prayer.

Why Do We Pray?

Why do we pray? Out of habit and duty? Do we pray just to get stuff from God?

While there’s nothing wrong with bringing our needs before God and asking Him to bless us, this is only a small part of the wonder of what we are invited into through the privilege of prayer.

God Invites Us into Relationship

One of the foundational reasons we pray is because God invites us into the joy of being with Him. Prayer is not a duty, but an invitation from our Father into fellowship with Him through Jesus Christ. Through adoration, thanksgiving, and intercession, we draw near to God and learn more of His will for our spiritual growth.

We can accept this invitation and approach the Father, not because we are so good or have all the right words, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice. In Him, a new and living way has opened (Hebrews 10:20). His loving sacrifice has given each of us a way to freely access the living God (John 3:16). Through Jesus, we can come to God with freedom and confidence. As His beloved children in Christ (Ephesians 5:1), through the Spirit we cry out to God as our Father, our Abba (Galatians 4:6). When we turn to Him, He has compassion on us, knowing how weak and vulnerable we are (Psalm 103:13–14). Like a good father, through His grace, God gives us things that we do not deserve, while through His mercy shielding us from those things we do deserve (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).

Through prayer, we nurture this tender relationship with our Father. By leaning into this relationship, we experience His love while expressing how much we love Him. In the presence of the living God, we are reminded who He is and who we are.

God Invites Us into His Power and Purposes

Through the gift of prayer, God not only invites us into an ever-deepening relationship with Him, but He also invites us to experience divine purpose and power through the Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Guide (John 14:26 KJV). As with the saints of old, God invites us to use prayer to accomplish much. He uses our prayers to fight Satan (Luke 22:31–32), restore others (James 5:16), impart wisdom (James 1:5), raise up laborers for the gospel (Matthew 9:38), find peace (Philippians 4:5–7), and heal (James 5:14–15).

When we understand that God is inviting us into something precious and powerful—an ever-deepening relationship with Him and access to His power—it’s wonderful to receive His invitation. When we see prayer this way, it becomes less of a routine and more a joyful anticipation of how our Father will move the world for His glory and our good.

Several years ago, my oldest son was diagnosed with amblyopia, a condition better known as “lazy eye,” in which the vision in one of the eyes is decreased because the eye and the brain are not working together properly. The eye itself looks normal, but it is not being used normally because the brain is favoring the other eye. The doctor said that his vision in one eye was reduced, and he would eventually go blind in that eye. My wife and I called the prayer team at our church, and they gathered around my son and prayed for him. We prayed because God invited us to draw near to the throne of grace that we might receive mercy and find grace in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). We prayed, cried, and trusted. We prayed because God invites us to pray; and when we do, our Father responds to the cries of His children—in the time and in the ways that are best. And in our moment of desperate need, we experienced His power and love and supernatural healing.

The older I get, the more I realize why the prayers of the saints of old in the Black Church werso powerful and effective. They didn’t just know about God; they knew God personally. The why of their prayers preceded the what of their prayers. They prayed, not out of duty, but from their desperate need for His presence and power. They prayed not to get stuff from God, but to get God. We can too.