Why should we pray?

Question

When we were volunteering to teach children in a sunday school in our temple, we read a religious story and invited questions from children. A nine year old girl raised this question as to why we should pray?
We did not want to give her a wrong answer, or give her an answer which she could not understand. We also wish to give her a complete answer without leading her to ask further questions to understand our answer. I posed the question to the parents and adults in the congregation, I posed the same question to the teachers and preachers of religion and all their answers were either disconnected to the question or too complicated. I am seeking for a short, precise, complete and simple answer which a 9 year old child could understand.

Answer 1

We shouldn't. It's pointless. According to Christianity, God already has a plan and I doubt he'll change it for any one of us and our measly prayers.

Answer 2

Prayer is completely illogical, and that is saying something even within the context of general religious beliefs.

If god is really omniscient then does it not know what you need or want? Why should you have to formally voice or think the words?

The other side of it then is why does god not actually answer prayer? He claims, through Jesus, in several places that ALL prayer will be answered if you believe and have faith even "as a mustard seed" (as an aside, the bible claims the seed of the mustard is the smallest of all seeds....it isn't. Why didn't god or jesus know that??)

Xians will respond,"but he does...sometimes yes, sometimes no, and sometimes wait" But that is a non-answer. I can get the same response by praying to a brick.

Just try that experiment yourself....pray for something in all sincerity and faith to god. Make it for someone else, so that it isn't a selfish prayer. Wait a year... what do you think will happen? Either the prayer will be answered, or nothing will happen. If the prayer is answered, you will give god the credit and believe in him and worship him even more. If it isn't, then it is because god said "no" or god wants you to wait longer. Pretty good odds for god.

Now pray to the brick, wait a year, what do you think will happen.? Either the prayer will be answered, or nothing will happen. I predict the same rate of being answered in the affirmative and nothing happening as when you prayed to god. That is, random chance is what actually answers prayer. Now if the prayer comes true, are you going to worship the brick? Of course not, that is ridiculous. But why is giving the credit to an unseen sky fairie any less ridiculous? "Answered" prayer is nothing more than confirmation bias.

Prayer is superstition, that is all. God is imaginary. These arguments and thought experiments are dealt with in much better detail at the links, and I suggest you go through them rather then just dismiss it as "atheist propaganda"

Answer 3

If your understanding of your "faith" is so limited that you can't answer a question this basic, in terms simple enough to be understood by a 9-year-old, you really have no business playing with the child's mind.

Do her a favor, tell her that you have no answer, tell her never to believe that there is anything greater than herself and send her home so she can have a chance of growing up without the burdens of ignorance and superstition.

Answer 4

This is how i answered one 10 year old that asked me the same question:

We pray because it is the most direct way that we as human beings have to communicate with our God. Prayer gives us clarity and peace in our daily lives in a world that we sometimes don't understand.

Answer 5

Here's what the 9 year-old should have asked:

"Why should we pray when god set out our path for us before we were born? Can we change god's mind?"

Answer 6

We are to pray without ceasing. Always be in contact with the Supreme Lord. We are in the material world which is full misery and danger. IF one does not always pray they will be in some sort of misery or danger. The best way is to always be thinking of His Name fame glories. And if we are in danger take shelter of His Name (Krishna, Allah, Jehovah, Rama, Vishnu etc.) One God many names. This is walking in the world but not being of it.

Answer 7

Prayer is a practise of realizing our mortality and weakness. Only when we accept our weakness can be enjoy our success.

True Love, Beauty, Joy, and Peace come from beyond the mind. It comes from the ONE whom we humans refer to as GOD, and through prayer we can access it.

Answer 8

Why pray? Why pray when God is already in perfect control of everything? Why pray when God knows what we are going to ask before we ask it?

(1) Prayer is a form of serving God (Luke 2:36-38). We pray because God commands us to pray (Philippians 4:6-7).

(2) Prayer is exemplified for us by Christ and the early church (Mark 1:35; Acts 1:14; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31; 6:4; 13:1-3). If Jesus thought it was worthwhile to pray, we should also.

(3) God intends for prayer to be the means of obtaining His solutions in a number of situations:

a) Preparation for major decisions (Luke 6:12-13)

b) Overcoming demonic barriers in lives (Matthew 17:14-21)

c) The gathering of workers for the spiritual harvest (Luke 10:2)

d) The gaining of strength to overcome temptation (Matthew 26:41)

e) The means of strengthening others spiritually (Ephesians 6:18-19)

(4) We have God's promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we don't receive specifically what we asked for (Matthew 6:6; Romans 8:26-27).

(5) He has promised that when we ask for things that are in accordance with His will, He will give us what we ask for (1 John 5:14-15).

Sometimes He delays His answers according to His wisdom and for our benefit. In these situations, we are to be diligent and persistent in prayer (Matthew 7:7; Luke 18:1-8). Prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God's will done on earth. God’s wisdom far exceeds our own.

In situations for which we do not know specifically what God's will is, prayer is a means of discerning God’s will. If Peter had not asked for Jesus to call for him to come out of the boat and onto the water, he would have missed that opportunity (Matthew 14:28-29). If the Syrian woman with the demon-influenced daughter had not prayed to Christ, her daughter would not have been made whole (Mark 7:26-30). If the blind man outside of Jericho would not have called out to Christ, he would have still been blind (Luke 18:35-43). God has said that often we go without because we do not ask (James 4:2). In one sense, prayer is like sharing the gospel with people. We do not know who will respond to the message of the gospel until we share it. It is the same with prayer: we will never see the results of answered prayer until we pray.

A lack of prayer demonstrates the a lack of faith and a lack of trust in God’s Word. We pray to demonstrate our faith in God, that He will do as He has promised in His Word, and will bless our lives abundantly more than we could ask or hope for (Ephesians 3:20). Prayer is our primary means of seeing God work in others' lives. Because it is our means of "plugging into" God's power, it is our means of defeating a foe and his army (Satan and his army) that we are powerless to overcome by ourselves. Therefore, may God find us often before His throne, for we have a High Priest in heaven who can identify with all that we go through (Hebrews 4:15-16). We have His promise that the fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much (James 5:16-18). May God glorify His name in our lives as we believe in Him enough to come to Him often in prayer.

Answer 9

Prayer is talking with God. God wants to have a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. We are talking with God Almighty and He hears us - that is so fascinating, right?