Jesus Accomplished Everything at the Cross: Why Do We Still Need to Pray?

We often ask ourselves: if God exists, why do certain things happen to us? If God is truly good as we say He is, why does He allow certain challenges and sufferings? These are completely human, logical, and legitimate questions, and I would be lying if I said I had never asked myself these questions in my own life.

Before trying to answer them, let us put things into perspective.

In the Beginning…

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He also created the first human beings: Adam and Eve. At that time, the connection between God and humanity was perfect. To use more modern terms, there was no signal interference, no disrupted connection. Humanity lived in direct relationship with its Creator.

However, a major event was about to take place. The devil tempted Eve by convincing her to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that was in the Garden of Eden, even though God had explicitly instructed humanity not to eat from it.

From that moment, from that sin and that disobedience, the relationship between God and humanity would never be the same.

Sin entered humanity and created a separation between God and mankind. But God, who is the very definition of love and who is our Father, did not abandon humanity to its fate.

In His love, He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, for our redemption, that is, for the forgiveness of our sins and our reconciliation with Him.

Jesus Christ came to earth, fulfilled His mission, proclaimed the Good News, died on the cross, rose three days later, and eventually returned to the Father through His ascension.

And this is precisely where we can ask ourselves a question.

If Jesus truly redeemed us, why is there still so much evil, suffering, and difficulty in the world?

Jesus Accomplished Everything… So Why Does Evil Still Exist?

We live in a world that remains marked by sin and in which evil is still present. The Bible says that “the whole world is under the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).

This obviously does not mean that God has lost control of His creation. Rather, it means that we still live in a world marked by the consequences of the Fall, where evil continues to operate.

The cross, therefore, did not mean the immediate disappearance of every consequence of sin from the world.

It means something even deeper: Jesus accomplished the work necessary for our redemption.

That is why, just before His death, He said:

“It is finished.”
John 19:30

It is finished.

Our salvation no longer depends on another sacrifice. We do not need to complete what Jesus supposedly left unfinished. The cross is sufficient.

But then another question naturally arises: if everything is finished, why do we still need to pray?

God Has Prepared Works for Each One of Us

God created every human being with intention. We were not simply placed on this earth without direction or purpose. The Bible shows us that God has prepared works for us.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10, S21

There are therefore things that God has prepared for our lives.

We find this same idea in Jeremiah 29:11:

“Here’s what Yahweh says to you: ‘I know all about the marvelous destiny I have in store for you, a future planned out in detail. My intention is not to harm you but to surround you with peace and prosperity and to give you a beautiful future, glistening with hope. When you call on me and come to me in prayer, I will listen to your every word. If you reach out to me, you will find me when you search for me with all your heart.’”
Jeremiah 29:11–13, TPT

This passage is particularly interesting because it establishes a connection between God's plans for our lives and prayer.

God knows His plan. God knows our destiny. God knows what He has prepared.

And yet, He invites us to pray.

Why?

“Let Your Will Be Done”

When Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray, He tells them:

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:10, S21

In the PDV2017 version, the same verse is expressed this way:

“Bring Your kingdom. Make Your will happen on earth as it happens in heaven.”

This verse helps us understand something essential: the fact that God has a will and plans for us does not mean that we are supposed to remain passive.

Jesus specifically teaches us to pray for His will to be accomplished on earth just as it is already established in heaven.

Prayer therefore creates a form of alignment between our lives and the will of God.

We do not pray to inform God about what He should do. Nor do we pray to complete the work of Jesus on the cross.

We pray so that our lives may be aligned with what God wants to accomplish.

And this is a fundamental distinction.

Prayer May Not Be What We Think It Is

Let us look at prayer from another perspective.

Naturally, as human beings, we sometimes have a psychological tendency to resist when we are given an instruction, sometimes even without any real rational reason.

When we are told not to do something, we may find ourselves tempted to do precisely that thing. And when we are told that we absolutely must do something, we can sometimes feel like doing exactly the opposite.

I have always personally thought that storytelling has a lot to do with this. The way things are presented to us greatly influences the way we perceive them.

And I think this can also apply to the way we view prayer.

Prayer has often been perceived and presented as a burden, as something we have to do out of obligation if we want to escape certain situations or obtain certain things from God.

But what if we completely changed the way we looked at it?

What if prayer was not primarily an obligation, but an invitation?

God Invites Us Into a Relationship With Him

Imagine a relationship between a parent and a child.

Parents love their children and, normally, children also love their parents. When we love someone, we naturally want to spend time with that person. We want to tell them about what happened during our day, to share our joys, our worries, our plans, and our difficulties. We want to know what they think and hear what they have to say to us.

The Father I am talking about here is God.

He loves us with an unfailing and unchanging love, regardless of the mistakes we may have made up to this point.

And God does not simply want to give us things. He wants to build an intimate relationship with us.

He wants us to be able to talk to Him about the smallest details of our lives, our plans, our challenges, our struggles, and also about the people around us. He wants us to be able to tell Him how we feel and what we are going through.

But above all, He also wants us to learn to listen to Him.

Because prayer is not simply the moment when we talk to God. It is also a moment when we make ourselves available to hear what He wants to tell us and understand what He expects from us.

Sometimes We Want God's Plans Without Wanting His Will

And perhaps this is where one of the biggest problems lies.

We often want God to bless our plans, but we do not always take the time to ask Him whether those plans actually align with His will.

We can easily fall into a relationship with God where we seek Him only to obtain something from Him: a job, a relationship, money, healing, an opportunity, a solution to a problem, or an answer to a situation that concerns us.

But God does not simply call us to seek His hands. He calls us to seek His heart.

There is a difference between saying, “Lord, bless my project,” and saying, “Lord, first show me whether this project is in accordance with Your will.”

The first prayer can come from our own will.

The second requires us to submit to His.

And that is precisely what Jesus teaches us when He asks us to pray: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

So, What Does “It Is Finished” Really Mean?

When Jesus speaks these words on the cross, He is not saying that we no longer have anything to do in our relationship with God.

He is saying that His work is finished.

We do not need to complete His sacrifice. We do not need to earn our salvation through our own works. We do not need to add anything to what Jesus has already accomplished.

But we are called to live from that finished work.

We are called to walk with God, obey Him, seek His will, and accomplish the works He has prepared for us.

Prayer therefore does not complete the cross.

Prayer enables us to live in the reality of what the cross has accomplished.

At the cross, Jesus accomplished His work.

In prayer, we learn to walk with the One who accomplished that work.

At the cross, Jesus won the victory.

In prayer, we seek His direction to know how to live this new life He has given us.

At the cross, Jesus declared: “It is finished.”

And in prayer, we can respond: “Father, let Your kingdom come and let Your will be done in my life as it is in heaven.”

What If Prayer Was Simply an Invitation?

Now that you understand that prayer is not there to complete what Jesus accomplished on the cross, but is an invitation from God to enter more deeply into His presence and His will, what will you do with that invitation?

Maybe until today, you saw prayer as an obligation. Maybe you thought you had to pray long enough to convince God to do something for you. Maybe you simply did not know where to begin.

But you can look at prayer differently today.

You can come before God with your questions, your doubts, your plans, your dreams, your struggles, and your concerns. You can talk to Him about what you are going through, but you can also take the time to listen to Him and ask: “Lord, what is Your will for my life?”

Because God does not simply call you to receive something from Him.

He calls you to walk with Him.

Jesus accomplished everything at the cross.

But our relationship with God is lived out every day.

So take the time to come before your Father, talk to Him, listen to Him, and seek His will. Not simply because you are supposed to pray, but because the God who created you desires to have a relationship with you.

And perhaps, in the end, the greatest answer to some of our prayers will not always be something God gives us, but simply something we rediscover: His presence.

May God bless your week!

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If you would like to go deeper on this topic, here is a message that taught me a lot :

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