3 Purposes of Prayer

3 Purposes of Prayer

Matthew 6:5-13

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

So do not be like them; for your Father know what you need before you ask Him

Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]

For most of sermons and Bible Studies I have attended some of the teachers and preachers start their question in the topic of prayer like this, “What does Prayer mean for you?” Unsurprisingly, for some will respond, “It is a way that we communicate with God.” Yes a prayer is a way that we communicate with God, communicate with God for what? We should be specific with this.

The passage from the Bible about prayer we read about became a widely recited prayer in some churches and denominations. We read it then that Jesus is telling His disciples to ‘pray like this.’ Does Jesus really mean that we are going to pray the same prayer He had to teach the disciples or He is just giving us an outline, a method on how we are going to pray? If we are going to observe the gospels, the letters and epistle, we can find out that this prayer is not repeated by early Christians nor it is recited by the early church and apostles.

So why am I saying this? Because there’s a lot of prayer uttered by Christians that do not comply to the standard that God set to His Word – the Bible.

John MacArthur put it this way, “there is plenty of praying going on that is a pretense, plenty praying that doesn’t recognize the basic biblical, divine standards for true prayer.”

Do you mean there is a Biblical standard of prayer? Yes, there is. It is the prayer that is asked according to the will of God. 1 John 5:14, “This is confidence which we have before Him that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” [NASB].

Then, how can I know if I am praying according to the will of God. Go and grab your Bible, study it. What I mean is, we can just only ask God for His will when we know His will. That can only be found through studying His Word. In addition, we can conclude that the secret for a Biblical prayer comes from understanding the Word of God.

And by understanding the Word of God, a really observant inquirer of the Word can find the purposes of prayer.

1. To Hallow God’s Name.

To word hallow means “sanctify or set apart as holy. To respect or honor greatly; revere.” When we say “Hallowed by Your name,” we understand the need that we are to treat God as holy. That His named is incomparable to anyone else. That His Name or He is unique.

In the structure of our prayer as Jesus illustrated, some take this first part of the prayer’s outline as Adoration. We adore, exalt and revere God by treating Him with honor, respect and that He alone is Holy.

2. For God’s Kingdom Come.

The term “Kingdom of God,” talks about God’s reign or rule. The parables in the New Testament teaches us two kinds of Kingdoms (as I narrow them down for better understanding) which pertains to the Kingdom of God – then (now) and in the future. The ‘Then’ Kingdom which I pertain is the Kingdom which present in the time of Jesus up to present. The Argument of the New Testament Scholars in the past 2 centuries had come up with the conclusion calling the ‘Then and Now’ Kingdom as the ‘Realized Kingdom.’ It is a spiritual kingdom occurs in the heart of the believer. And secondly, they call the future kingdom of God as the Eschatological Kingdom which will occur in Christ’s eternal reign.

This prayer for God’s Kingdom to come doesn’t permit us to pray that Jesus will now come because whether we pray for eschatological Kingdom or not it will surely happened because it is fixed to God’s plan. What we are going to pray is God’s realized Kingdom will come to the heart of everyone we know. 

3. To do His will.

Before Jesus was crucified, He was in a great agony and suffering about the trial He will face soon. He understands this great pain He has. This pain had made Him to pray to the Father, “He went again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” Matthew 26:42 [NASB].

Satan is trying to hinder the purposes of our prayers by putting doubts and bringing us into business about the welfare of this world. Knowing these three primary purposes of prayer may help us to wrestle in prayer. Our battle is not against flesh and blood but it is spiritual. God, first and foremost gave us prayer along with the His Word to face everyday challenges. 

In our prayer, may we establish proper reverence in the name of God, and praying to Him according to His will that His Kingdom come and we’ll be able to do His will no matter how hard it is. May fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith and was tested by all means yet He stood strong for our Salvation doing the will of God. 

May we all come to pray unselfishly first for the will of God to be done.  And if we are going to pray for these 3, surely God will give us the necessities we need which we are going to look for to the next article.