It’s hard to remember what the point is of praying at times. I’ve mentioned this recently, the struggle we face against our dark and sinful hearts that are completely logical. What’s the point in asking for something when if God wants you to have it, he’ll give it to you anyway? What’s the point in asking for things for other people when he’ll do what he wants whether or not we’re praying about it? Being raised in a christian household can really dull our senses to what the intentions behind our actions should be, and for new believers the overwhelming power of God and his plan can make it seem fruitless to bother with anything but a redemption prayer. I’ve felt overwhelmed at times with the logic of these arguments, but I hate accepting what I don’t like and I don’t like these arguments. So while I was trying to think of good reasons for prayer I decided to make it personal.I decided not to write about why we pray as a whole, but why I pray.

I believe God wants to hear from me, and prayer is part of our conversation.

Each person who has given themselves over to Christ Jesus has entered into a relationship with him, and when I’m in a relationship with anyone I like to keep in touch. I like to talk to them, to tell them about what’s going on, to listen to how they’re doing and what’s on their mind. Whether or not the Holy Spirit searches our souls to the core and God knows the desire of every heart and all that jazz, I still think that God would rather that I come and talk to him, get things out there and tell him about what’s on my mind, than not.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. – Hebrews 4:15-16

It’s so comforting to have a talk with someone who has been through everything that everyone else has and yet has walked with no sin. And the best part is that he wants to help me do the same, walk in a way that is pleasing to him down a path he has planned for me. Aside from holding up my end of the continuing conversation that is our relationship, it’s a way of being humble before Christ. By coming to him with my every sinful thought through the day and giving over to him each little anxiety I sometimes find myself treating others with more grace and patience, and being less defensive about my own wrongdoings.

I believe that God has a plan, and sometimes his plan includes me praying.

There are far too many complications in life when it comes to God’s plan, but I do know that sometimes it just includes one person asking for something and it’s like the signal that sends an entire army to attack.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. – 1 John 5:14-15

“According to his will”… so if we ask for something that he already wants to give us but hasn’t because we didn’t ask for it, that’s a big flaw in the theory of “God gives us what he wants when he wants”. And it’s not like we can’t ask for something ridiculous with no expectations; the word is full of stories in which regular people ask for miracles and are blown away by works of God, all because of prayer.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. – James 5:16-18

I feel way better after praying.

Jesus said it perfectly in Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” My flesh, this body and this human nature, loves what is easy and what is wrong. It loves sinning. Sinning tastes really good, feels really good, looks really good. But it leads to a life I don’t want, and I am not strong enough on my own to back away from everything. When I am weak, I know that the only strength I will find is in the word and in prayer, because talking to Jesus makes me feel a little more stable and secure. Reading the word reminds me that my identity is not one that I make for myself but one found in him.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7

I am more than happy that the peace of God is over my head, figuratively and literally speaking. I would much rather rest in his peace and know that it’s bigger and greater than I can comprehend than know more than I do. The difference between when I pray and when I don’t is like this: If I’m staying at my parent’s house in Maine and my dad isn’t home, I don’t sleep well. I don’t feel as safe. I check the locks repeatedly and stress over nothing. But when he is home, I don’t worry about anything like that. I know that he keeps the house secure and that he would never let anything happen to us. So when prayer gives me a peace that guards my heart and mind in Christ Jesus, it’s like knowing for sure that dad is home and taken care of the safety of the house. Although I don’t think that God would snipe the best tv in the house to watch sports.

A friend asked me once whether it was really worth praying.  She’s a christian, and had been praying for a softening of heart towards someone but not fully understanding what it meant to ask God to soften a heart.  She made her case of doubt, questioning because if God knows what we’ll do and the path we will take and there’s not really free will and all that theological crap that we can’t quite understand, what’s the point in praying for God do change a heart?  Is it even possible?
During the conversation I brought up the story of Moses and how God had hardened the heart of pharoh, and she seemed to get a good revelation from that recap.  But now, weeks later, I find myself still looking in the bible for the times when God changes people’s hearts drastically.  Since I’ve been having a weird week or two, feeling a bit lonesome and bored and generally just sorry for myself, I’ve been trying to read through the old testament.  Really remind myself that life could be worse.  And while I might just still feel that I have a point to prove, I’ve also found something that I think is much more interesting in the process.
My first example is from the story of Moses, of course:

But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.  – Exodus 7:3-4

God, in his awesome way, changed Pharaoh’s heart so that he could prove his power to the nation of Egypt, thus delivering his people.
Second, I found a story where God changed someone’s heart during the Israelite’s little jaunt through the desert for 40 years.  On their way back to the promised land they had to pass through many regions, like Heshbon, and they would ask to be let through and pay their own way.  But randomly God decided that it was time to start letting everyone know that his kids were legit:

But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has now done.  – Deuteronomy 2:30

And again, God changed the heart of a king to prove that he could do anything.  But not every story was about God proving his power in that way.  Later, Ezra got a letter from his king giving him permission to go on a mission to rebuild the temple.

Praise be to the LORD, the God of our ancestors, who has put it into the king’s heart to bring honor to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem in this way and who has extended his good favor to me before the king and his advisers and all the king’s powerful officials. Because the hand of the LORD my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me. – Ezra 7:27-28

This didn’t involve a battle, it’s more like God gave Ezra a boost of confidence in his ability to go on this Holy Crusade by having him find favor with the king.  As it says, because he felt the favor and presense of God Ezra found a courage and strength he didn’t know he had.
So that’s nice, isn’t it?  God can change hearts!  I can hear you all rolling your eyes, begging me to tell you something you don’t know, but I don’t know if I know anything you don’t so just hold your horses and enjoy what I write.  I know that it’s all been said before, but I enjoy sharing my revelations via this thing.
Here’s where I stumbled upon something good: I was considering looking for God changing hearts of people in the new testament, but I realized that it would have been Jesus doing it and not God… and then I couldn’t think of a way that Jesus had done the same sort of thing, overpowering and changing people’s hearts like God did.  So Christ must have been showing us a different side of the everlasting and awesome personality of God.  Then I remembered something I’d read back in the old testament:

And God said to Moses, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by My name the Lord [Yahweh–the redemptive name of God] I did not make Myself known to them [in acts and great miracles].”  – Exodus 6:2-3 (Amplified Bible)

God’s way is above ours, obviously, but from what I can tell by the pattern he’s got a good thing going.  First he comes in as God Almighty, the powerful, the jealous, the creator and ruler of man.  He shows everyone who is really in charge by giving them hard lessons to learn.  The first testament has a lot of that sort of thing, God proving himself through acts and deeds and heart changes that lead to further proof that he is the most powerful God ever, above and beyond our ideas and thoughts and way better than any stupid idols we make for ourselves.
Then, when his people have fallen down and can’t pick themselves up again, he reveals himself to be the Lord, as our redeemer, our savior and champion, the father who won’t forget about his children or let them fall by the wayside.  He illuminates the lives of his children with his kind, unfailing love, and using his power again shows that what we knew he was capable of isn’t even close to the incredible things he will do for us.  He loved his children so much that he changed the heart of Pharaoh, used signs and wonders and miracles to get his children released, and walked them on bare land through a sea.  Later, he showed his children that yet again by revealing that he had a game plan, that we wouldn’t get sucked in by sin and darkness, that he could make the biggest deal in the history of religious corporate sabotage.  He broke his own heart and killed his own son, just so that we would be freed from the slavery we entered into from the first bite of that apple.
He chooses to reveal himself according to what will get his will done on earth, according to what will propel us in the direction of the plans he’s set before us.  We cannot comprehend everything that God is (A Divine Trinity Of Awesome is my favorite way to put it) but that’s not something to worry about.  He will always show us who he is, whether it’s the powerful God or redeeming King, according to what we need to see at the time.