Prayer’s Purpose

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5 (NKJV)

Prayer is not a magic wand.
Prayer is not a genie in a bottle.
Prayer is not a lottery ticket.
Prayer is not a fairy godmother.
Prayer is not a roulette wheel.
Prayer is a spiritual grounding. Prayer is a weapon of protest. It’s the protest you put up against your flesh. When your flesh says, “I want to do this,” prayer raises the protest and says, “I’m going to trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding.”

Prayer is a strong act of human defiance against self, and a strong act of human reliance on God. When you pray, you’re not attempting to control God. You are grounding your thoughts in the will of God and you’re making the powerful protest statement: “No matter how my life unfolds, I’m going to interpret it through lenses that are spiritual. I have other choices, but because I belong to Jesus, I’m going to seek God’s direction. I could seek retribution. I could get revenge. I could go the way of the flesh. I could let my mind wander. I could listen to the advice of others. I could go crazy like the toxicity of this vitriolic culture. But I’m not going to do all of that. I’m going to talk to Jesus about it so that every decision I make is grounded in the Lord’s will and clothed in the Spirit.”