Prayer and the Will of God -- Part One

The men have just finished discussing the Reformation Triangle for spiritual formation in our Men’s Theology book, A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation by Matthew Bingham. I’ll spare you the details (ask a man in the church for them if you like) but the triangle includes Scripture, meditation, and prayer. The topic of prayer has been on my mind for some time and our discussion of Tuesday night got me thinking that I should write about it. [I will do a podcast on this topic soon in response to some very good questions.]

In this blog I hope to present a very brief understanding of prayer. In the next one, I will draw some conclusions.

If you were to ask 10 pastors what steps you should take when making a significant decision, whatever you qualify as significant, I can almost guarantee that 10 out of the 10 would recommend that you pray about it. Praying about something is the blanket answer to every Christian problem or issue because it is the biblical answer. If you don’t know what to do in a particular situation, well, you should pray about it.

But what should we pray for and what should we expect to happen when we pray? Does prayer unlock some secret vault of information in the divine mind that I can now have access, thereby allowing me to make a more informed decision? Can I hear God when I pray? If I ask God for things will he respond to me by telling me (in whatever way) that I should do this or that or something else? What is prayer anyway!?!

We know that we need to pray. Jesus tells us that we need to pray for those who persecute us (Matt 5:44), he tells us how to pray (Matt 6), he gives us examples of the importance of prayer in his own life (Matt 14:23) and he declared that his house (the temple) is to be a “house of prayer” (Matt 21:13). Outside of the Gospels, the New Testament is replete with instructions concerning prayer – we are told to be devoted to prayer (Rom 12:12; Eph 6:18; Phil 4:6; Col 4:2; 1 Thess 5:17; 1 Tim 2:1), prayer is seen as a difference maker in ministry (2 Cor 1:11; 9:14; 13:7, 9), we are even told that when we don’t know what to pray for the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf (Rom 8:26), and we cannot deny the importance of prayer in the life of Paul as he repeatedly prays for the churches to which he writes. Significant New Testament passages on prayer are the following – Romans 8 26ff; Ephesians 1:15-23; Colossians 1:9-14 and 1 Timothy 2:1-10.

This not the place for a thorough outworking of a theology of prayer, but I do want to take the time to outline what prayer is so that we can better understand two very important things as they relate to our Christian lives – what is prayer?; what can I expect to happen when I pray? – and then to draw some conclusions. But, let me remind you again, don’t simply take my word on this stuff, I would encourage you to do a study of the above passages, as well as the many other ones in Scripture that discuss prayer. I strongly promote Bereanism.

Let’s begin by seeking to understand the biblical perspective of prayer. Broadly speaking

prayer is “every religious act by which we take upon ourselves directly to speak to [God]”

(Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit, 654). More specifically we can say that prayer expresses our trust in God and is a means whereby our trust in him can increase (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 376). Prayer is the supreme demonstration of faith. When Jesus taught us to pray he showed us that we must first admit our willingness to submit ourselves to God and to the way in which he was/is/will be operating things from heaven (Matt 6) and only within that recognition do we then ask for things. The Lord’s prayer highlights for us the key aspect of the nature of prayer -- our focus needs to be on God himself whose glory must be our first and deepest concern (France, Matthew). In this way prayer is for our spiritual blessing, a means by which we grow in our relationship with God (Pink, The Sovereignty of God, 114).

Prayer does not fundamentally involve me asking for stuff, although we are told to do this (Matt 6:11, cf. v. 8; Jas 4:2), it is essentially a demonstration of dependence on God and a willingness to submit to him in all facets of my life thereby deepening my fellowship with him. In sum, “[p]rayer is a means that God has provided for us to be involved in establishing his rule in the world. It is also a way in which we grow in our personal knowledge of God and our love for him. As we learn to desire above all else the coming of God’s kingdom and the doing of his will in the world, our prayer tor daily needs and for forgiveness is subsumed under the overall quest for God’s glory. Prayer becomes a natural activity in our lives, an ongoing conversation with God, through which we acknowledge our dependence upon him for everything that we need and, yet also participate in the establishment of God’s will through our petitions.” (Tiessen, Providence and Prayer, 348).

What can I expect to happen when I pray? We can say pretty confidently that prayer is NOT simply a method of spiritual self-stimulation, but is a demonstration on our part that we are as concerned as God is that his will be done (Erickson, Christian Theology, 431). Prayer acknowledges, and is based on the revelation of, and the nature and attributes of God (ISBE, 937). This is where we SIGNIFICANTLY MISUNDERSTAND prayer. It is NOT, did you get that, NOT, primarily about me and what I want or desire. It is about giving God the worship, praise, thanksgiving, adoration, devotion, communion and confession that he deserves. So when I offer my petitions to God, and I am commanded and encouraged to do so, they must be offered to the glory of God and with a willingness to submit my requests to whatever direction God’s providential will takes. The effectiveness of prayer does not ultimately rely on the prayer itself or on the one who is making it, but on God to whom the prayer is made. What I will get from prayer is a deepened faith and trust in the Almighty God who is also my Lord and Savior. Nowhere in Scripture am I told that God will speak to me during or after I pray, and nowhere is there any formula laid out by which I can guarantee success in my prayers. To think in these ways is to totally miss the biblical teaching concerning prayer.

In part two of our brief look at prayer I will offer some conclusions based on the above.

Soli Deo Gloria