The Purpose Of Prayer

Prayer can certainly precede significant displays of divine power (James 5:13-18), but this is not always the case.  Despite the instances in Scripture where prayers lead to miraculous outcomes, the primary, everyday purpose of prayer has nothing to do with elaborate displays of supernaturalism.  To expect such a thing from prayer in general is an unhealthy and irrational thing.  On the contrary, prayer can play a valuable role in facilitating spiritual growth on an individual level.

Just like speaking with one's human companions can produce great personal growth and the growth of the relationship between oneself and one's friends, prayer is useful for triggering individual growth and relational growth with respect to God.  Not all prayer is accompanied or succeeded by a renovation of one's life circumstances, but all prayer has the capacity to be useful for the development of character.

One of the greatest purposes of prayer is the goal of acknowledging and deepening one's own relationship with God.  Indeed, its most important functions in our lives can be those of shaping our character and developing our spirituality.  If a Christian prays for a nonsinful wish to come about, could the prayer be realized in a plainly supernatural way?  Of course.  Is there any reason to expect a supernatural result to one's prayers?  Not at all.

Even if God answered a prayer for a dramatic outcome (say, for the healing of a disease), there is no way of knowing whether or not God, some other factor, or both directly brought about the eventual state of things.  In cases of answered prayer, knowing the exact causal factors for the results is not necessary when it comes to cultivating a deeper relationship with God.  Though there is always the possibility of God answering prayers for nonsinful things, hoping for such things to be brought about does not have to be the main desire motivating prayer.

I do not pray about my circumstances because I expect God to directly transform them in an obvious way--though he could.  I simply have no logical or experiential basis for an expectation like this.  In fact, such an expectation could prove very damaging, for it does not correspond to how God actually tends to behave.  Expecting this without basis could produce great misery, frustration, and even dissatisfaction with God.  Instead, I pray simply because I care about my relationship with God, just as I converse with my friends because I care about my relationships with them.