Regarding Prayer

I'm going to attempt to describe prayer here in a way that non-practitioners can understand it. Unfortunately, I know before I begin I cannot really succeed.

I cannot succeed for two reasons: First, my own understanding of prayer is still very rudimentary. I have many difficult questions about it. Second, no written account of prayer can convey what it really is like, just as reading one of my son's books on juggling could never make me a juggler like him. Prayer is, to paraphrase Richard Foster, original research into one's own personal relationship with God. A secondhand grasp of prayer is no grasp at all.

Yet I think I may be able to lend some light on this topic. A little progress is better than none.

Three words come to mind regarding prayer: seeking, submission, and love. All of these are wrapped up in a personal relationship with a loving God.

Prayer is seeking. This is essential to understanding the lavish prayer promises of the New Testament:

"Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

"Whatever you ask in my [Jesus'] name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it."

"And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him."

"[T]ruly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

Do I believe these promises are true? Absolutely, without a doubt. Do I believe then that I can command mountains to move? No. Not unless God wills it. God promises to answer prayer prayed according to his will. He does not set himself up as a magic genie granting wishes.

But this, you will surely say, wipes out all confidence in prayer! For how can we know what God wills? How can we avoid a fatalist conclusion, that whatever will happen will happen, regardless of prayer? The answer lies in seeking God. We know and understand him primarily through his Word to us; there we can find general guidance. We can pray with absolute confidence for whatever is clearly set forth as his will in his Word. So I can pray for God to provide my daily bread, to deliver me from evil, to fill me with his Holy Spirit, to draw me and others close to him. These general prayers are important, and surely God answers. We know this not because we run a confirmatory experiment, comparing those who are prayed for to those who are not. We know it because we know God is faithful.

Yet there are other prayers we would pray. I wish health for my family members and close friends. I know that not every person is guaranteed excellent health, so I go to God seeking to hear from him; wrestling with him, in a way--telling him my wishes and desires, letting him hear from me, letting him respond as he will.

There have been times when, praying in that way, I have received strong personal guidance from God. I prayed for my brother to put his faith in Christ, and God gave me a strong assurance that his answer would be "yes" to that. From that point on--more than 20 years ago--I prayed with absolute faith that Bob would give his life over to Jesus Christ. It finally happened about five years ago. That is but one example of many. Other times, I can only lay out my requests before God and let him take them where he will. These prayers are often answered as well. If you were to see the list of what kind of home we prayed for when we moved to our current community, and compare it to the house we are in, you would be amazed. More amazing yet is that God opened up a home for us on a certain cul-de-sac, right in the exact location we had prayed for, just days after we began praying that way. Again, I could multiply examples for you, from as recently as the past few days.

But God is not obliged to say yes to any particular prayer, except that to which he has already clearly committed himself in his Word. Prayer is submission. I go to God with nothing to offer him, nothing I can require of him, and no wisdom with which to give him counsel. I can tell him what I want, and watch and listen for his answer. His answer is what it is. My role--my glory--is to let him glorify himself by being my God, my master, my Lord. Therefore prayer can be very dangerous, for part of its purpose, which is essential in relating closely to a master, is to change me.

This is one of the problems some find with Christianity: it is a religion of yielding to one greater than ourselves. Pride is excluded; humility is lifted up. The best defense of this position is that it is right. There is a God, and God is greater in every way than we are, so to submit and worship him is only fitting and proper.

And the relationship he initiates this way is one of love. Love always involves connection or communication, and prayer is the most intimate connection we can have with God on earth. Prayer is not sitting on Santa Claus's lap and handing him a wish-list. Prayer is sitting on a good and loving Father's lap and enjoying time with him. He has told us--what an amazing thing!--that we are his friends; so in some sense I'm sure he enjoys our time on his lap, too! I confess that is mysterious to me; it's one of the things about prayer I do not understand.

I think that seeking and submission are ways that God brings us close to him in that loving relationship. If the answers were quick and obvious, we would mistreat them. We would follow the easy path of simple answers; we would not pursue the richer, more mysterious and deep way of developing a love relationship with God. He keeps us coming back to him for all our needs, including our need of understanding. The real point of prayer, as of all life, is that we would know God, worship God, obey God, love God.

We do not stay always on his lap. God sends us from there to do the meaningful and often difficult work we do in his name. We do it in his power and with the confidence of his love and presence.

Will any of this make sense apart from actually practicing prayer? I have my doubts. I have a suggestion, too: that you give it a hearty attempt for yourself. It may not be clear how you begin. I would suggest reading a Psalm, like Psalm 25 or 34, and just "talk to God" with it. You don't have to speak aloud, though it might help you keep your mind from wandering (we all struggle with that!). Or you could read the Lord's Prayer and pause after each line to consider what it means, and how it matters in your life today. Tell God about it. Take a few moments of quiet in the process, allowing the Scripture to speak to you. Tell God even what you think of him, what questions you have, what's bothering you. Be ready to submit to what he does or impresses you with in response.

Many have doubts about the reality of God. I encourage you to do your own "original research."

Posted: Mon - March 26, 2007 at 02:04 PM |

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson getCategoryName("<$CategoryUUID$>");

Regarding Prayer

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson