What is Prayer and Why is it Important?

What is prayer?

Simply put, prayer is communication with God. We have the honor and privilege to pray directly to God through Christ Jesus, our Savior and our advocate, and the second member of the Trinity (God the Father, Christ Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit).

We don’t need to pray through a priest, saints, Mary, or any other human being. We have direct access, through prayer, to the God of the universe! This is mind-blowing when you think of it! Although the Bible never actually gives a specific definition of prayer, there are models of prayer and communication with God displayed throughout Scripture.

Examples of prayer in Scripture

The Lord’s Prayer

Probably the most well-known example of prayer in scripture is The Lord’s Prayer:

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” – Matthew 6:9-14, NIV

This passage gives us a model for prayer. Notice a few themes here. First, there are multiple sections exalting God and speaking truth about who God is. We also see a place for asking God for what we need.

Next, we see conviction, asking God for forgiveness, and the ability to extend grace to forgive others. Lastly, we see prayers of protection from sin and suffering. The Lord’s prayer is a beautiful example of the many things we can  and desperately need to communicate with God about in prayer.

Habakkuk

Habakkuk is a small three-chapter book toward the end of the Old Testament. In my opinion, even though short, this book packs a punch, though it is not talked about nearly as much as it should be. The whole book of Habakkuk is a back-and-forth communication between Habakkuk and God.

Habakkuk is confused and frustrated about God’s will and honestly cries out (complains even) to God and brings his feelings to Him. God patiently responds and provides Habakkuk with perspective on his complaints. This illustrates another reason why prayer is so important: it gives us a new and different perspective and helps shift our gaze to things we need to see.

The book of Habakkuk ends with a beautiful prayer from Habakkuk to the Lord, after his perspective has been shifted during the process of communicating with God about his feelings. The first part of his prayer is Habakkuk fearing the Lord and understanding his majesty and how great and big and powerful the Lord is. He then ends the prayer with rejoicing in the Lord in a way that reflects the way David writes in the Psalms.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. – Habakkuk 3:17-19, ESV

Hannah

In the book of 1 Samuel, we see a woman in great emotional affliction and distress over her inability to have children. We get the sense that her grief and anxiety are great by the fact that she hadn’t been able to eat. When she went to tell all this to God (in prayer), she was so upset that Eli, who was looking on, thought she was drunk.

But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. – 1 Samuel 1:15–18, ESV

Hannah came with pure honesty and emotion to the Lord in prayer and it was so impactful to her that she left her time in prayer with the ability to eat again and her face was at peace and no longer furrowed with sadness! How powerful is this?!

The Psalms

The book of Psalms is one of my favorite books when it comes to prayer. I often use the Psalms in counseling as a model for how we can communicate with God that validates where we are at and is productive because it reminds us that we aren’t alone wherever we are. We have a sympathetic Father, and we can work these things out before the Lord by communicating with Him about them.

The Psalms show a model for bringing things to the Lord in complete honesty and then reminding ourselves about Truth – who God is, what He has done, who He says we are as His children, and what His promises to us are. I love the back-and-forth raw struggle the Psalms often exhibit.

Psalm 42 is an excellent example of this. Read this excerpt from Psalm 42 below and notice how honest David is about his emotional state and then the way he speaks truth over himself immediately. He repeats this multiple times throughout this and most other Psalms:

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. – Psalm 42:5–11, ESV

Why is prayer important?

Commenting on the importance of prayer could take up a whole book! However, gleaning from what we have already unpacked in the different examples of prayer in Scripture, we can summarize that prayer is important because it connects us to God our Father, and our Creator.

If we are going to get to know God and deepen our connection and relationship with Him, we need to communicate with Him regularly, not as an item on a to-do list, but in recognition that our minds need to be constantly transformed. As Romans 12:2 (ESV) tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

When we bring things to God, when we communicate with Him and listen for His guidance, we leave changed. We leave comforted, we leave convicted, we leave with hope, we leave knowing we are not alone, we leave with gratitude, and we leave with a transformed mind and renewed perspective. Prayer changes things, yes, and it also changes us!

Prayer in counseling

I love bringing prayer into the counseling process. Whenever my clients are open to it, I love praying with them and for them. I consistently see God speaking to my clients’ hearts when I pray what God has placed upon my heart. God uses prayer to remind his children of truths they need to hear because He knows what they are carrying and going through.

It also shows how active God is in the counseling process. Prayer is a way to intentionally acknowledge the presence of God, acknowledge His presence, and ask for wisdom and guidance in all that we talk about and process during the session.

Seeing a counselor who shares your faith and brings prayer into the counseling session has been a game-changer for many of my clients. If you are ready to take a step to see a Christian counselor or learn more about prayer, contact Seattle Christian Counseling today!