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Her er lidt om bøn. Til inspiration eller debat :



A. Why Does God Want Us to Pray?

Prayer is not made so that God can find out what we need, because Jesus

tells us, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matt.

6:8). God wants us to pray because prayer expresses our trust in God and

is a means whereby our trust in him can increase. In fact, perhaps the
primary

emphasis of the Bible's teaching on prayer is that we are to pray with

faith, which means trust or dependence on God. God as our Creator

delights in being trusted by us as his creatures, for an attitude of
dependence

is most appropriate to the Creator/creature relationship. Praying in

humble dependence also indicates that we are genuinely convinced of God's

wisdom, love, goodness, and power-indeed of all of the attributes that

make up his excellent character. When we truly pray, we as persons, in the

wholeness of our character, are relating to God as a person, in the
wholeness

of his character. Thus, all that we think or feel about God comes to

expression in our prayer. It is only natural that God would delight in such

activity and place much emphasis on it in his relationship with us.

The first words of the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father who art in heaven"

(Matt. 6:9), acknowledge our dependence on God as a loving and wise

461

Father and also recognize that he rules over all from his heavenly throne.

Scripture many times emphasizes our need to trust God as we pray. For

example, Jesus compares our praying to a son asking his father for a fish or

an egg (Luke 11:9-12) and then concludes, "If you then, who are evil,

know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the

heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:13).

As children look to their fathers to provide for them, so God expects us to

look to him in prayer. Since God is our Father, we should ask in faith.
Jesus

says, "Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith"
(Matt.

21:22; cf. Mark 11:24; James 1:6-8; 5:14-15).

But God does not only want us to trust him. He also wants us to love him

and have fellowship with him. This, then, is a second reason why God wants

us to pray: Prayer brings us into deeper fellowship with God, and he loves

us and delights in our fellowship with him.

A third reason God wants us to pray is that in prayer God allows us as

creatures to be involved in activities that are eternally important. When we

pray, the work of the kingdom is advanced. In this way, prayer gives us

opportunity to be involved in a significant way in the work of the kingdom

and thus gives expression to our greatness as creatures made in God's image.

(Grudem, systematic theology. P 461-462)

mvh jørgen.