February 25

What are the purposes of prayer? We can enumerate a few: inner peace, release from concern, obedience to the Word that admonishes us to pray, and, of course, sweet communion with God. All these sound rather altruistic and our attainment of all them should please God. But is that what HE said? Actually, not entirely.

What Jesus actually said can be found in Matthew 6:6: “When you pray, go alone into your closet and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father, Who sees in secret shall reward you openly.” Yes, we should focus on the greater good when we pray—and peace and release from fear and obedience and fellowship are all part of that—but beyond that, He desires to reward us!

Part of the reward is the peace we receive as we fellowship with Him, but beyond that, there are prayer goals that we know are part of His stated will. He has told us that it is His desire to heal the sick through our prayers. He has made it clear that He wants to use our supplications to transform lives steeped in spiritual darkness into those illumined by the light of Christ’s salvation.

He has said it is His desire to “come in to us and sup with us…” Revelation 3:20, and we know that we invite Him in when we have placed our lives at His feet and open our hearts fully to not only His salvation but His presence in our hearts. When we pray, we continue the commitment we have entered with Him. When we pray, we allow that commitment to be the cornerstone of our lives.