The Disciplined Life: Prayer 1
Note: The views expressed on this blog post (and others on the website) are the author's own.
“And as we see Him pray, and remember that there is none who can pray like Him, and none who can teach like Him, we feel the petition of the disciples, ‘Lord, teach us to pray,’ is just what we need.”
Prayer is perhaps the most primary duty we have as Christians and, yet, it is the one of the most challenging of the disciplines.
There have been moments in my own life where prayer has seemed rudimentary and I've wanted it to be more. After all, prayer is communion with God the Almighty. Shouldn't there be waves of joy? Fires of passion? Oceans with no measurable depth on how much can be discovered through times of prayer with God?
There are moments like that, but on an everyday level, prayer is my admission of who God is and my dependency on Him. Prayer is not about trying to manipulate God like a "genie in a bottle" scenario, hoping He grants my every plea and whim. Prayer is much bigger than that.
It is why out of all the things the disciples asked Jesus to teach them, they asked him to teach on prayer (Luke 11:1.) They had seen and heard about him feed the five thousand already. They had seen and heard about him raise a widow's son. They had seen and heard about him calming a violent storm. They had even seen and heard him teach parables of paradoxical nature.
And they still don't ask him to teach them how to do any of those things: they ask him to teach them how to pray.
So why do we pray?
The first and foremost reason we pray is because God commands it of His followers through the likes of the psalmists (Ps 105:4), prophets (Isa. 55:6; Amos 5:4), apostles and early church leaders (Eph 6:17; Col 4:2), and Jesus himself (Mt 26:41; Luke 18:1; John 16:24). It was simply a given.
Early followers and people of old had this as part of their foundation. Even Jesus didn't assume that people would "pray when they felt like it." In Matthew 6:5, he says "And when you pray..."
So, if Jesus taught that prayer was essential and went so far as to give a model for it, wouldn't you consider that prayer is certainly a big deal to God?
While he took part in his earthly ministry, Jesus took regular time to go away to talk with God. Jesus modeled that prayer needed to be a regular occurrence in one's life and that it was important. If you go through a reading of the Gospels accounts, you might notice that some of the biggest decisions Jesus made were either preceded or proceeded by prayer with the Father. That is how big of a deal it was to him.
We also pray because it's necessary in understanding God's plans for our lives, receiving His blessings and experiencing the promises He wants to fulfill in us. We sometimes flounder in seeking God because we like to think that we are in control of our own plans in our lives, or that we don't have the zeal and passion to seek God like we should. C.S. Lewis would cite our "desires not too strong, but too weak."
Jesus gave us the example of being persistent in prayer when He promised the Holy Spirit would come (Lk 11:5-13; Acts 1:4). We cannot write our prayers off as "one and done" when we desire to express our hearts to the One who made them.
It is a crude metaphor, but think of prayer like writing love letters. When we were dating and doing the long distance thing, Brooke and I would write actual letters to one another. We'd even go so far as to grace the letters with cologne and perfume when we sent them.
Sure, we would chat via text/Facetime/social media, but every time I sent a letter, I would always check the mailbox in anticipation for a letter of my own. It was that much more special.
When we pray, we may not get answers right away, but that doesn't mean we give up hope. We wait and we go to the mailbox each day. Because God is good and loves us, He won't let our prayers go unanswered forever (Ps. 55:22.)
We pray because God has made us to be His co-workers in an effort to lead people into a personal relationship with Him. We might ask, "Do our prayers matter? Do they change anything?" Paul seemed to think so.
“9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”
As you help us by your prayers! Paul, one to never mince words in his letters and preachings, commends the church in Corinth that their prayers do matter.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, encouraged those he wrote to that prayer is needed in regard to physical healing, citing an Old Testament story of Elijah, an ordinary guy turned prophet, who prayed audaciously.
Whether or not you believe prayer is effectual, you can still agree that prayer is necessary as it pertains to being a follower of God. If we want to grow as followers, we will need to learn to be effective in recognizing and overcoming hindrances to our prayer life.
Lord, teach us to pray!
