What are the purposes of prayer?

[TonyChanYT]

Disclaimer: This OP is not about intercessory prayer.

We do not pray in order to change God's mind. Jesus prayed 3 times in Matthew 26:

36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” ...
44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

Jesus' prayers did not change the outcome.

Paul prayed 3 times in 2 Corinthians 12:

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Again, the outcome was not changed.

This world is a testing ground. Praying is a way to build a personal relationship with God through our prayer life. We can grow spiritually through positively and negatively answered prayers. We learn about ourselves and God through prayers.

Paradoxically, the 2nd purpose of prayer is to teach us persistence, Ephesians 6:

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

The 3rd purpose of prayer has to do with spiritual warfare/reality. When we pray, we are involved in the happenings in the spiritual reality. Satan and his demons are the opposing force. We join God's force with the good angels.

We are commanded to pray. It is one way for us to build a relationship with the Father.

 

[Bob Estey]

We do not pray in order to change God's mind. Jesus prayed 3 times in Matthew 26:


Jesus' prayers did not change the outcome.

Paul prayed 3 times in 2 Corinthians 12:


Again, the outcome was not changed.

This world is a testing ground. Praying is a way to build a personal relationship with God through our prayer life. We can grow spiritually through positively and negatively answered prayers. We learn about ourselves and God through prayers.

Paradoxically, the 2nd purpose of prayer is to teach us persistence, Ephesians 6:


The 3rd purpose of prayer has to do with spiritual warfare/reality. When we pray, we are involved in the happenings in the spiritual reality. Satan and his demons are the opposing force. We join God's force with the good angels.

We are commanded to pray. It is one way for us to build a relationship with the Father.

What are the purposes of prayer? Do you want someone showing you the path to eternal content and safety? Do you want a loyal friend? ​

 

[amadeus]

@TonyChanYT
Did your OP include praying for others or intercessory prayer?

Asking that a person be delivered from a disabling or distracting or painful addiction would be, it seems, a good thing, but our prayers for another person may only cause God to open that person's heart... not make that person's decisions. To pray for a person's salvation would, I believe, be similar.

God will not force His will on anyone. Regarding salvation what God might do as a result of the prayer of a righteous person is let someone see that there is a better Way to live his life. The ultimate choice to go God's Way or not remains with the person. Because of our prayer it may now be an well informed choice. If he is damned in the end, he would really have understood that that was his own choice.

We never, I believe, lose our ability to make our own decisions. Even God will cannot change that while we still have time left. God gave us that choice, and it will remain ours until there is no more time for us.

What happens when due to our prayer a person understands that there really a better Way, he is able to make an informed choice. Then what happens then is directly dependent on what he has done with what he has been given. [See Luke 12:48.] We are given time, and abilities [or not], and education [or not] and money [or not], etc.

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16

It availeth much but again what is the much? Due to our prayer for a person God may make the person see what his choices really are, but even when he sees the truth the decision to follow God or not remains his. Many people from the beginning while seeing the truth have still gone their own way instead of God's Way. Essentially people do not change... unless they as individuals choose to follow God.

So don't stop praying for your mother, father, sister, brother, or friend; but remember when you have really prayed a fervent righteous prayer and have not seen the results you might like to see, do not put the blame on God. His purpose is not equal to our purpose... unless and until our way are always exactly equal to His Way.

 

[TonyChanYT]

Did your OP include praying for others or intercessory prayer?

Right. Thanks for the reminder. I've added a disclaimer to my OP