The Powerlessness of Prayer
A browse through the shelves of a Christian bookshop would reveal that many of us are seeking help with our prayer life. I’m half expecting the next catalogue to show the new releases, “1001 Steps to Quick and Easy Prayer”, “The Power of a Praying Arts Student” and “The Prayer of Jabez for Bed-wetters.”
Most people I talk to feel guilty about their prayer life. We feel that we don’t pray often enough, or for long enough, or sincerely enough. Often we feel like we’re just going through the motions.
It may be that you’re hesitant to read an article on prayer because of your guilt. Let me assure you, my aim is not to hit you with the big prayer stick, as if that ever worked.
And I’m not presenting myself as the mighty prayer warrior here to tell you the inner secrets and techniques of an effective prayer life. Quite frankly, my prayer life sucks. I seem to be much more motivated to study and ponder the theological bases and implications of prayer than to actually sit down and get stuck into praying. Please pray for me!
Of course, when we talk about prayer, we need to distinguish Christian prayer from other forms of prayer. Christian prayer is not meditation, communing with nature, or listening to God. Christian prayer is distinct from prayer wheels, prayer walls, and the lighting of candles. The Bible describes prayer as simply talking to God, whether out loud with an audible voice, or quietly in your own heart and mind.
THE TRINITY AND PRAYER
Galatians 4:6: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (ESV)
Christian prayer is trinitarian. We pray to God the Father, as Jesus taught us in the Old King James Version, “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
We pray through God the Son, as it is by the blood of Jesus that we have access into the throne room of heaven to present our requests to the Father.
We pray by God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who dwells in us, enabling us to call on our Father and helping us to pray as we ought.
THE OUTRAGEOUSNESS OF PRAYER
Hebrews 4:16: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (ESV)
Imagine the President of the United States, arguably the most powerful man in the world, sitting in the Oval Office, with access to the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. This is his throne room.
Now imagine his four-year-old daughter skipping in to the office, past the Secret Service guys with the sunglasses, hopping up on the President’s lap and asking, “Can I have a puppy?”
This is how outrageous Christian prayer is. We are encouraged, actually commanded, to enter the heavenly throne room of the Creator, Sustainer, King and Judge of the Universe, and to ask him for anything we want. And he promises to hear our prayers, to answer them and to give us every good thing.
When I had a blood test a couple of weeks ago the nurse asked me what I was doing for the rest of the day, so I explained to her that I was going to a prayer meeting for African missionaries. She didn’t have a lot to say after that. I wonder what was going through her mind. “You talk to your God and expect him to listen to you, to take notice of you, to answer you?” It’s outrageous, isn’t it?
THE PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER
2 Thessalonians 3:1: “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you,” (ESV)
Prayer is our participation in God’s work. God doesn’t need our prayers for his work in this world to go ahead, but he graciously allows us to be participants in his world through, among other things, prayer.
When Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray on the Sermon on the Mount, he tells them not to pray in a showy way, or by heaping up empty words, because God already knows what we need before we ask him. When we pray we aren’t telling God anything he doesn’t know, and we’re not pleading with him to do something he is unwilling to do unless we get it just right. He knows.
Yet, we are encouraged, exhorted, and commanded to pray. Our Father graciously uses our prayers to bring about his purposes in the world.
THE POWERLESSNESS OF PRAYER
Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (ESV)
Paul here contrasts anxiety and prayer. When we believe that we should be in control of every aspect of our lives but things aren’t working out, we get anxious. When we acknowledge that, in fact, we are not in control but God is, then we pray.
Prayer is the expression of faith, trust, reliance, dependence on the sovereign God of the universe. We express our absolute powerlessness before God by praying for him to act.
I’ve always found it interesting, in those crazy bible study discussions of election and predestination, to ask those who don’t accept predestination why we ask God to save people if we don’t believe he is sovereign over our salvation.
Please do join us in prayer. ECU Prayer Meetings run in the chaplaincy on Tuesdays at 8:30 and 3:30 for an hour. In week 4 we are holding a Prayer Breakfast in the Sports Lounge of URAC from 8-9:30.
[Stephen Bell]
<< A Six-pack of Staffworkers | Return to the Index | Crunching The Da Vinci Code >>