In order to answer this, we need to ask a very simple question: What is prayer? PRAYER is “communication with God.” It should come natural to the believer in Christ to talk to our heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus and this is what prayer is in its most basic form. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing,” and thus we should be ready to pray at any time. It’s not that we will be praying non-stop, but we should be in the attitude of prayer every minute of the day. Another question to help determine how often we should pray is: Why do we pray? We have just seen that in general prayer is simply “talking to God.” But “why do we talk to God?” Let’s explore several reasons for going to God in prayer.

1) We pray for WISDOM. James 1:5 tells us, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” From this we learn that “whenever we need wisdom,” WE SHOULD PRAY! I firmly believe we should start every day praying for WISDOM FOR THE DAY. David is a good example of this, for he said in Psalm 5:3, “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” But it shouldn’t stop there, for we need wisdom for making decisions throughout the day.

2) We pray for NEEDS TO BE MET. Matthew 7:7 reads, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Earlier, in Matthew 6:31-32 we are told, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” We learn in these two passages that God the Father knows our needs so we are not to be worried about them, but we are to ask our heavenly Father to meet those needs and He will surely give us what we need.

3) We pray to THANK GOD. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” The “spirit of thanksgiving” should characterize us, for we have so much to be thankful for. I often find myself praying the words found in 2 Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” Of course this is speaking of the greatest gift of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should never tire of giving God thanks for Him. His blessings to us began with Christ, and through Him we have so much more. Romans 8:32 speaks to this, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things.” We are SO BLESSED, dear brothers and sisters, and we should learn to “count our blessings,” and GIVE THANKS FOR THEM. Even when we are praying to God to meet our needs we should not forget to GIVE THANKS. Philippians 4:6 says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (NKJV).

4) We pray to PRAISE GOD. Hebrews 13:15 states, “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Believers should be known for praising God, and our verse says we should be offering Him praise “continually.” Psalm 113:3 echoes this sentiment, “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD’S name is to be praised.”

I trust these thoughts will help us to see that there is NO LIMIT to the times we should pray in a day. The more we feel the need for wisdom and other needs, and the more we dwell on our blessings and on God Himself, the MORE WE WILL PRAY!  (186.2)  (DO)