What Is the Point of Prayer?

If prayer is mainly a way to get what you want from God, then a lot of your prayers probably look unanswered. The point of prayer is bigger than that. Prayer realigns you with God and invites His Spirit to change you. It brings His kingdom into the way you live and treat people.

What did Jesus mean by "ask, seek, and knock"?

Jesus meant that anyone can come to God and be heard. That promise sounds familiar to us, but to its first hearers it was startling.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:7 to 8

In the first century, the sick, the elderly, and the poor were openly treated as outcasts. Access to God seemed to belong to kings and priests. Jesus tells ordinary people that God is available to anyone who simply asks. On Beyond Sunday, Pastor Sean Sloan's guest Kirk Matthews calls this deeply countercultural. It only sounds ordinary to us because Christian teaching has shaped so much of the world we live in.

That is why it helps to read the Bible in its own world before applying it to yours. You don't have to be a scholar. You only have to look outside your own setting long enough to hear what Jesus' listeners heard.

What should you ask God for first?

Start by asking for wisdom and an honest look at yourself. The setting of the passage points that way. Right before the promise about asking, Jesus tells us not to judge. We are to take the plank out of our own eye before pointing out the speck in someone else's. Right after it, He sums up the Law with the golden rule: do to others what you would have them do to you.

Most of us would rather fix everybody else. Prayer turns the focus back to the prayer David prayed.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23 to 24

James, the brother of Jesus, echoes the same promise.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

James 1:5

As Pastor Sean puts it, the kingdom of God isn't about fixing everybody. It's about serving everybody. Asking God to search you is how that starts.

Is "ask and you will receive" a promise to get what you want?

No. A consumer culture reads this verse as a promise about what God can do for me. The prosperity gospel is the teaching that if you ask, God will grant whatever you think you want, and it uses this verse in its weakest form. The richer reading is that God's presence is the gift. His Spirit filling your heart is worth more than anything you could hold in your hands.

Prayer also redirects your requests. Over time, you start asking for what God wants you to have and don't yet possess. That means wisdom, discernment, and a deeper knowledge of His Word.

And you do have to ask. Many of us expect God to show up in situations where we have never invited Him. Kirk said it plainly: you can't expect to hear from God if you never speak to Him in the first place.

Why doesn't God always give you what you ask for?

Sometimes God doesn't give you what you ask for because He has something better. Jesus compares God to a parent. No father hands his child a stone when the child asks for bread.

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:11

Pastor Sean turns the picture around. What if the thing you are asking for is the stone, or the snake? A good Father will not hand it to you. James says we sometimes ask with wrong motives (James 4:3). God is better to you than you would be to yourself, and He stays faithful even when you are not.

Many of us pray, "God, give people what they deserve." Thank God He doesn't give us what we deserve. Jesus took that on Himself.

So what is the point of prayer?

The point of prayer is communion with God that changes you. Kirk called prayer "the realignment to take you where God wants you to be." It is not a hack for getting everything you want. It is time in the presence of the Holy Spirit and an invitation for His kingdom to live in you.

The kingdom of God is God's rule in a person's heart and life, and it was Jesus' favorite subject. It starts on the inside and shows up on the outside, in how you treat your neighbor. That is why the passage ends with the golden rule.

The weekend message pointed back to a promise God gave through the prophet Jeremiah.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

Prayer often doesn't change your situation right away. It changes you, so you meet your situation, and the people in it, differently.

Common questions

What does "ask, seek, knock" mean in Matthew 7?

Jesus invites anyone to come to God and promises that those who ask, seek, and knock will receive. In context, it is first an invitation to seek God Himself, along with wisdom and a changed heart, more than a promise of possessions.

Why doesn't God give me what I pray for?

Sometimes we ask with wrong motives, as James 4:3 says, and sometimes God has something better. Like a good father, He will not hand His children something harmful even when they ask for it.

Is prayer just asking God for things?

No. Asking is part of prayer, but prayer is mainly communion with God. It realigns your desires with His and invites His kingdom to shape how you live.

Does prayer change my circumstances?

Sometimes it does. More often, prayer changes you, so you face your circumstances and the people in them differently.

Read the blog postAsk, Seek, Knock: What Jesus Teaches About Prayer in Matthew 7God already knows what you need, and He still invites you to pray. Pastor Marty Sloan explains how Matthew 7 calls you to ask boldly, seek God Himself, and keep knocking.Read the post