What Is the Purpose of Prayer? Six Biblical Principles for Your Prayer Life

From a message by Jon Alsdorf
Prayer is often misunderstood as simply presenting our wish list to God. While God invites us to bring everything before Him, if we view prayer merely as an opportunity to share our wants, we'll likely experience frustration. God already knows our needs and has promised to meet them. The real purpose of prayer goes much deeper.

Why Prayer Isn't Just About Getting What We Want
Many people approach prayer like Dennis the Menace in that old cartoon, asking "does anybody want anything?" before heading off to pray. But this transactional view of prayer misses the point entirely. God has already promised to meet our needs, and He knows what we need before we even ask.

When we focus solely on our desires in prayer, we often pray passionately about things that feel urgent in the moment but may not be essential in the bigger picture. This leads to disappointment when God doesn't respond the way we hoped.

Six Biblical Purposes of Prayer
1. To Draw Nearer to Jesus
Prayer is first and foremost about our connection with God. Hebrews 4:16 invites us to "draw near to the throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Notice that we can approach God with confidence - not fear or hesitation. Through Jesus' sacrifice, our sins have been forgiven and removed "as far as the east is from the west." We don't come before God as condemned sinners, but as justified children covered by Christ's blood.

What God Provides When We Draw Near
When we approach God's throne of grace, He doesn't promise to fulfill all our wants. Instead, He provides:

• Mercy : Receiving what we don't deserve
• Grace : Strength to face difficult circumstances we'd rather avoid

Often we pray like Jesus did in the garden - "let this cup pass from me" - wanting God to remove difficult situations. Instead, God typically responds like He did to Paul's thorn in the flesh: "My grace is sufficient for you." He doesn't remove us from the situation; He walks with us through it.

2. To Receive Guidance from Jesus
Too often we approach prayer already leaning heavily into what we want to do, asking God to bless our plans rather than seeking His will. We've become skilled at justifying our desires and presenting compelling arguments for why God should agree with us.

The Problem with Following Your Heart
Graduation speeches often encourage people to "follow your heart," but this is terrible advice. Our hearts are not reliable sources of wisdom - they're sources of foolishness. Scripture tells us to guard our hearts because everything flows from them.

Instead of following our hearts, we should seek wisdom from God. James 1:5 promises that if we ask God for wisdom, "He gives generously to all without reproach." This is a prayer God always answers with "yes" - the question is whether we'll receive and follow the wisdom He provides.

3. To Become More Like Jesus
The more time we spend in prayer, the more we realize that prayer isn't about changing God's heart or mind - it's about God changing us. Prayer transforms our wisdom, character, and perspective.

Praying for Our Enemies
Jesus taught us to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:44-45). When we pray for our enemies, we become more like Jesus.

This doesn't mean commanding our feelings - God never does that. Rather, it's about choosing behaviors that reflect God's character. Even in times of conflict or war, we're called to pray for our enemies, remembering that there are believers even in hostile nations who need our prayers.

4. To Keep Watch with Jesus
"Keeping watch" is a biblical concept borrowed from military watchmen who stood guard looking for approaching enemies. Spiritually, we're called to keep watch for the enemy's work in our lives and families.

Jesus told His disciples to "watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41). Through prayer, we gain wisdom to see how the enemy tries to trip us up and receive strength to resist temptation.

There are some types of strength against temptation that only come through prayer. We can know Scripture thoroughly, but if we neglect prayer, we're going to war without armor.

5. To Prepare for Spiritual Battle Through Jesus
In Mark 9, the disciples encountered a demon they couldn't cast out. When they asked Jesus why, He replied, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." Interestingly, the text doesn't record Jesus praying in that moment - but throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus constantly withdrawing to pray.

Jesus was "prayed up" for whatever spiritual battles He would face. We would be foolish to march into any spiritual battle without much prayer. Prayer prepares us for the offensive work of advancing God's kingdom.

6. To Be Rewarded by Jesus
Each of the previous purposes is itself a reward - having access to draw near to Jesus should be reward enough. But Jesus promises even more in Matthew 6:6: "When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

This is a direct promise from Jesus. He stakes His character and reputation on this commitment to reward those who pray.

Understanding God's Actual Promises About Prayer
Many people become frustrated with prayer because they operate on wrong assumptions about what God has promised. When we assume God made promises He didn't make and live expecting those things, disappointment follows.

But when we understand what God has actually said about prayer and ask Him to do what He's already promised to do, we have a very different experience. God hears us, cares for us, and keeps His promises.

Life Application
This week, examine what might be keeping you from a deeper prayer life. Is it a false belief that needs to be corrected by Scripture? Is it fear planted by the enemy that you're not welcome in God's presence?

Consider incorporating all six purposes into your daily prayer time: drawing near to Jesus, seeking His guidance, allowing Him to transform your character, keeping watch against temptation, preparing for spiritual battles, and trusting Him for His promised rewards.

Questions for Reflection:

• Which of these six purposes of prayer is most neglected in your current prayer life?
• What false beliefs about prayer might be hindering your relationship with God?
• How can you practically incorporate "keeping watch" through prayer in your daily routine?
• Are there enemies (personal or otherwise) that God is calling you to pray for this week?