Why Prayer Should Be Practiced

Perhaps you used to pray when you were a small child, or you started to pray as a young Christian, but it seemed as though God always answered your prayers with a resounding “No!” Frustrated by unanswered prayer, you decided to stop praying. In doing so, you have unwittingly fallen into the sin of prayerlessness. Jesus said, “Men always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). And Paul wrote that we are to “pray without ceasing. . .for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:17–18).

On the other hand, maybe you pray regularly, but your prayers never seem to get a response. It seems that all you receive is an icy silence. Perhaps you can relate to Job, who said in the midst of his trials, “Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both” (Job 9:33). Job was saying that there was no one who could lay his hand upon both God and man at the same time.

But Jesus is our mediator. Being God, He knows God’s desires; yet having walked on this earth as a man, He understands our weaknesses and frailties. For that reason, we can be assured that we pray to a God who does not turn a deaf ear to our prayers. Instead, He desires to communicate with us in this way