So many times, prayer seems to be understood by people as merely asking things of God at the dinner table and it ends there. And while supplication is absolutely an essential part of prayer, so much of it is really submitting your will to the already sovereign will of God so as to be conformed to Christ, conformed to His likeness in every way. The goal of prayer is to become like-minded with Christ. Prayer is about communing with Christ, experiencing His presence by the Spirit, being cleansed of your ever present Sin by His blood, and even then, the greatest thing about prayer is the restoration and worship of God, experiencing and encountering His glory. Prayer is a necessary part of walking with Christ and yet how seldom do we (I) spend the time we (I) need to in prayer. Why don’t we go to Him to be satisfied? Because we believe a lie, living as atheists to some degree, and find things in this world that we see with our eyes, experience with our senses, as more pleasurable than what Christ can give, namely Himself in communion with Him. He is All-Satisfying. This means that the satisfaction to your soul He offers through repentance and faith in His blood, is greater than all the wealth, investments, lake houses, careers, sex, popularity, relationships, that the world can offer. Ultimately, we are seeking the satisfaction of our souls, but only Christ can go where nothing else can, even a spouse.

We encounter God in His majesty when we view and put ourselves in our proper place in prayer, namely that we are wretched sinners before His just and holy throne. But we don’t stop there before God, because that is hopeless and causes despair (as it should in one sense). But we then look to see what Christ saved us from in our wretchedness (namely His wrath) and find mercy in through faith in His blood, our High-Priest, sacrificial lamb, and advocate on our behalf before the Father. We acknowledge all the ways in which we fall short, being specific, and we ask for forgiveness through the merits (active obedience) and work (on the cross) of Christ, knowing full well that He is willing and ready to restore us in order that we will be changed increasingly into His likeness. This is walking in the light as He is in the light. Prayer is an essential part of growing in your faith. If you do not pray you will not grow. And one of the amazing things about prayer is the Sovereignity of God in having a plan from eternity past for how all of history would go, including all of the aspects of your life. How could that inspire me to pray, you may ask? Because God, in His sovereignty granted that we participate actively in His plan that we cannot know! He sees all, purposes all in righteousness, but we are not all-seeing and all-knowing. In prayer we submit ourselves to Him, encounter Him, and ask of Him what we need to grow increasingly into His likeness. All things work for good for those who love Him. How? He has enacted a plan that will not fail, secured in the cross of Christ! This is our hope in prayer, that God is sovereign and is for us!