Prayer

Prayer is one of the most crucial aspects of the Christian faith and one of the most neglected. Prayer is often something that most Christians would agree with as an important act. Yet, we are all guilty of not praying enough. Prayer can also be done improperly. Yet, what is prayer? Prayer is simply being able to talk to God. He speaks verbally to us through His Word and nonverbally through His obvious providence. We commune with Him through prayer, it is the conversing of our soul with God. In and through prayer we express our reverence and adoration for God. It is where we put our souls in confession before Him, where we pour out our thankfulness and offer petitions and supplications to Him.

In prayer we experience God as personal and powerful. He hears us and acts in response. Scripture teaches both the sovereign foreordination of God and the efficacy of prayer. There is no inconsistency between them, for God ordains the means as well as the ends for His divine purposes. Prayer is a means He uses to bring His sovereign will to pass.

Prayer is meant to be directed to God alone, either to Him as Triune, or to the distinct persons of the Godhead. Any other form of prayer to anything else is idolatry. Prayer is only proper when the requisites are followed. First being that we are to approach God with sincerity, any empty words and insincere phrases are a mockery to Him. Such prayer is offensive to Him. We must also approach God with reverence. In prayer we must remember who we are speaking to, this is not some buddy who we talk to on the weekends. To address Him in such a cavalier, casual, or flippant manner, as we might speak with our friends, is to treat Him with the contempt of familiarity.

I have run into this my entire life; one time stands out. I was younger and I was serving on the welcome team an older man wanted to show me a video on his phone of a movie that I was sure was not Christian, but had a ‘good’ message. It was a singing competition and in this video lyrics of a song were made to be ‘Christian’, calling Jesus: “my hommie”. Not only was it cheesy and a bit cringe, that is not the problem. The problem is that it reduced Jesus to just a friend, which is something He is not. Yes, we can be called friends of God, but we are also his children and He is our Father. Even when we become older, our earthly father has sway and authority over us, we may be arrogant to think this is not so, but when there is love there is reverence and obedience. Jesus said that, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). The one speaking to you is your father, this same relationship is supposed to be the reflection of the relationship we have with God.

God is Love, but He is also Holy, Sovereign, Righteous, Just, the list goes on. There is a deep personal love we have for God, but there must also be a fear of Him, not in the sense that we are afraid of Him, but that we have respect for Him. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (Proverbs 9:10). As people pay homage to a king by entering his presence with a posture of respect and obeisance, so we come before God in full recognition of His supreme majesty. He is the King of the universe, He created everything there is, it all belongs to Him.

The third requisite follows closely with the previous two, we are to approach God in humility. Not only must we remember who He is, but we must also remember who and what we are. We are His adopted children, we are also sinful creatures. He invites us to come boldly to Him, but never arrogantly. God instructs us to be earnest and fervent in our requests. While at the same time we come in willful submission to say, “Your will be done.” Saying this does not mean there is an indication of a lack of faith. The faith we bring to prayer must include a trust that God is able to hear our prayers and that He is disposed to answer them. Yet when God says, “No” to our requests, this faith also has trust in His wisdom. God’s wisdom and benevolence must always and everywhere be assumed by those who entreat Him with petitions.

We pray in the name of Jesus because we do thereby acknowledge His office as Mediator. As our High Priest, Christ is our intercessor even as the Holy Spirit is our helper in prayer.