Confidence in PrayerSýnishorn

Prayer Is Worship

Steven Charnock, a Puritan cleric, said, “We may be truly said to worship God, though we lack perfection; but we cannot be said to worship Him if we lack sincerity.” You can worship God with imperfection, but you can’t worship God without sincerity. And what Charnock said of worship must be said of prayer, because prayer is worship. Our prayers are not perfect, but they’re not prayers if they aren’t sincere. If we’re mouthing words and putting thoughts together but haven’t stopped to realize we’re talking with God, acknowledging His greatness and presence as we begin, we’re not praying.

What is prayer for? It’s a means God has chosen to work through, the opportunity God has given us to participate in what He has determined to do. Prayer is never meant to bend the will of God to our desires. It’s not to get God to do what we want Him to-that’s not prayer.

If we talk about bending the will, our will must be bent to His. Prayer is about getting to where my mind and my heart want nothing more than to do His will—for His will to be done, whatever that means for my life, however my perspectives, attitudes, or words have to change. Prayer happens when I submit my will to His.

I realize that I can’t make God do anything. He has determined what He will do, and I want to pray in accordance with that. The purpose of prayer is not to change God’s will but to pray by His will.

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (1 John 5:13–14).

Who’s we in verse 14? Those who know they have eternal life. In verse 14, the people who have the confidence spoken of, are the people who belong to verse 13. God can hear everything. He responds to whatever He chooses to. God gave promises concerning the prayers of His people, and that’s why we, those who’ve been redeemed, can have this confidence that John speaks of. The “we" he writes of here are people who belong to Christ—the people who worship through prayer.