Prayer
by Greg Williamson (c) 2007, 2009
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations
are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The Primacy Of Prayer
How Much Does A Prayer Weigh?
There is a story of a man who tried to weigh a prayer. He owned a little grocery store. It was the week before Christmas, shortly after World War I.
A tired-looking woman came into the store and asked for enough food to make a Christmas dinner for the children. The grocer asked her how much she could spend.
"My husband did not come back; he was killed in the War. And I have nothing to offer but a little prayer," she answered.
The storekeeper was not very sentimental nor religious, so he said, half mockingly, "Write it on paper, and I will weigh it."
To his surprise, the woman took a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to the man, saying, "I wrote it during the night while watching over my sick baby."
The grocer took the piece of paper before he could recover from his surprise and, because other customers were watching and had heard his remarks, he placed the unread prayer on the weight side of the old-fashioned scales. Then he began to pile food on the other side; but to his amazement, the scale would not go down.
He became angry and flustered and finally said, "Well, that's all the scale will hold. Here's a bag; you will have to put it in yourself, I am busy."
With trembling hands the woman filled the bag, and through moist eyes expressed her gratitude and departed.
After that the store was empty of customers, the grocer examined the scales. Yes, they were broken and they had become broken just in time for God to answer the prayer of the woman. But as the years passed, the grocer often wondered about the incident.
Why did the woman come at just the right time? Why had she already written the prayer in such a way as to confuse the grocer so that he did not examine the scales?
The grocer is an old man now, but the weight of the paper still lingers with him. He never saw the woman again, nor had he seen her before that day. Yet he remembers her more than any of his customers.
And he treasures the slip of paper upon which the woman's prayer had been written - simple words, but from a heart of faith, "Please, Lord, give us this day our daily bread."[1]
As artists give themselves to their models, and poets to their classical pursuits, so must we addict ourselves to prayer. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)[2]
Simply stated, prayer is "communication with God."[3] Prayer represents our innate and insatiable desire as finite human beings to reach beyond ourselves and make contact with the transcendent and eternal. Most non-Christian people groups link prayer with elaborate ritual and/or magic as a means of appealing to or manipulating the gods that be. And even in secular societies where "organized religion" may be frowned upon, people engage in prayer-like behavior when, for example, passengers aboard an aircraft break out in spontaneous applause following an especially turbulent flight (praise and thanksgiving), or "an angry crowd in a refugee camp appeals for justice" (petition).[4]
And yet while there are any number of examples of people who make prayer a priority and devote much time to it, for modern people - and especially those residing within industrialized nations - prayer remains an elusive goal, being to the would-be petitioner something like what proper diet and exercise is to the obese person. Why is that? Why do we say we value prayer, but then devote so little time and effort to the actual practice of it? In his insightful book Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?, Philip Yancey identifies several common hindrances to prayer, including: science and technology; modern skepticism; prosperity; time pressures; and therapists and support groups.[5] Truth be told, our natural tendency is to trust in and rely on only that which can be verified through one or more of our five senses.
As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray. - Martin Luther (1483-1546)[6]
The Old Testament
The first mention of prayer in the Bible is found in Genesis 4:26: "Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord." This passage teaches us that one result of the Fall was the removal of constant, unbroken fellowship between God and human beings. It also "lay[s] the foundation for all true prayer: acknowledgment of the divine name."[7] The remainder of the OT shows God's people engaging in many and various forms of prayer, affording us insight into how and why we can and should pray. Specifically, we witness both individuals and communities addressing God in "petition, intercession, adoration, praise, confession, and thanksgiving."[8]
Israel's attitudes and actions regarding prayer were very different from its neighbors. Whereas ancient pagan religions saw prayer as an attempt to influence deity through "mastery of technique and esoteric knowledge,"[9]for Israel prayer was conversation with a relationship-seeking God. This fact is reflected in the use of ordinary conversational language when describing prayer: say, said, call, called, etc.[10] Today there remains a stark contrast between genuine Christian prayer and the prayers of other religious traditions such as, for instance, Islam and Shinto. In the former, prayer is highly formalized, involving ceremonial washing and specific posturing. In the latter, prayers are considered incomplete without "monetary donation at a shrine or food offerings at the home altar."[11]
The most common type of prayer mentioned in the OT is intercession, in which a prophet, priest or king prays on behalf of others. Outstanding examples include Moses, David, and Jeremiah. These pray-ers and others remind us that "petitions are [to be] supported by confession, appeals to the past, and remembrance of God's mercy."[12] In fact, the most common prayer involves a two-step process of 1) remembering what God has done in the past in order to 2) make a proper request that he act similarly again.[13] Because God is real and personal, his actions reveal his character. Thus to approach God on the basis of what he has done in the past is to appeal to his steadfast, unchanging character. The OT leaves us with the distinct impression that God is pleased when we appeal to - but do not presume upon - his sense of "honor, glory, grace, mercy, or trustworthiness."[14]
O God, give us work till our life shall end, and give us life till our work is done. - Author unknown[15]
The Psalms
The Psalms is a book of prayer, praise, and instruction.[16] It is "a sizable collection of musical poems and prayers of diverse authorship and form. ... [which] serve to articulate the hope and despair, the faith and fear, the praise and invective of those who express themselves to God in the vicissitudes of life."[17] Beautiful psalms of praise notwithstanding, the most frequent type of psalm is that involving complaint, in which the psalmist, "often with great pathos and highly figurative language,"[18] complains to God about a particular hardship he is having to endure. This situation is actually in keeping with the book's central theme of relationship: every person and every situation is viewed in the context of God's covenant relationship with his people.
The Psalms describe two broad categories of individuals: the righteous and the wicked. The most significant difference between the two is the fact that the righteous are rightly related to God, while the wicked are not.
The righteousness of which the psalmists speak is thus a religious quality, imputed as a consequence of faith in the Lord. While it undoubtedly has implications with respect to moral behavior, the term righteous does not signify sinless persons. Rather, it points to persons who have experienced mercy and forgiveness and who as a consequence have sought to lead a moral life. The protestations and affirmations of the righteous are thus not the proud exclamations of the self-righteous, but rather the faithful statements of those who have striven to maintain their lives within the merciful context of the covenant relationship with God. The statements concerning righteousness are balanced by the frequent statements in which sin is confessed and mercy and forgiveness are sought.[19]
Oftentimes the psalmist will call down curses upon his enemies, imploring God to smite the wicked and deliver the righteous. Without seeking to minimize the raw emotion, it is important to keep in mind that the larger context is the justice that is a vital part of God's covenant relationship with his people. Imprecatory psalms are thus more like a defense attorney's passionate closing argument than a self-centered demand for revenge.
It becomes clear that the apparently vindictive and harsh nature of much of the language of the Psalms should be interpreted in a legal context, rather than being interpreted as an expression of personal hatred. The enemy of the psalmist has broken the stipulations of an agreement, but seeks to bring discredit on the psalmist, as if he were the guilty party. The psalmist, in turn, calls for the curses of the treaty to fall on the head of the enemy, in part to establish his own innocence of the charges laid against him, and in part because the enemy had agreed that he should suffer the curses if he broke the contractual stipulations.[20]
Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education.- Fyodor Dostoyevski (1821-1881)[21]
The New Testament
From the NT we learn that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone of all legitimate prayer. Through the model prayer he offered and the parables he used, Jesus taught that the prayers of his followers are to be: persistent; bold; humble, compassionate; simple; intense; expectant; and communal (praying with and for others).[22]
The Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a model that teaches much regarding how we are to relate to God, others, and ourselves. Found in Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4, it includes an opening and six petitions. (The benediction, found only in Matthew, is absent from the earliest manuscripts.) The first three petitions are directed Godward, while the last three are focused on human needs and desires. (The following analysis is based on the material as found in Matthew 6.)
Opening:
"Our Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 6:9).
Jesus routinely referred to God as his "Father" (Greek pater), and here he teaches his disciples to do the same. "Our" connects believers with both God and one another in an intimate familial relationship. At the same time, the phrase "who is in heaven" reminds us that we are dealing with the great and awesome King of the universe who deserves and demands our reverent respect and absolute allegiance.[23]God "is a Father, and therefore we may come to him with boldness, but a Father in heaven, and therefore we must come with reverence."[24] The fact that heaven is spiritual, on high, and pure, reminds us that our prayers should be likewise.[25]
First Petition:
"Hallowed be Your name" (Matthew 6:9).
In the ancient world a person's name was highly significant. To act in someone's name was to act with that person's authority and power, and to call on someone's name was to place oneself under that person's command and protection.[26]
"Hallowed" (Greek hagiazo) "means to render or pronounce holy. God’s name is essentially holy; and the meaning of this petition is, 'Let thy name be celebrated, venerated, and esteemed as holy everywhere, and receive from all people proper honor.' It is thus the expression of a wish or desire, on the part of the worshipper, that the name of God, or that God himself, should be held everywhere in proper veneration."[27]
Second Petition:
"Your kingdom come" (Matthew 6:10).
The kingdom of God can be defined as God's sovereign rule over the hearts and lives of those who place their faith in Jesus Christ and are spiritually born again.[28]
Here the future aspect of God's reign is emphasized.[29] "The petition is the expression of a wish that God may 'reign' everywhere; that his laws may be obeyed; and especially that the gospel of Christ may be advanced everywhere, until the world shall be filled with his glory."[30]
Third Petition:
"Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
This petition follows naturally from the second, since by definition God's rule or reign includes the accomplishing of his will.[31]
"The will of God is, that people should obey his law, and be holy. The word 'will,' here, has reference to his law, and to what would be 'acceptable' to him. To pray, then, that his will may be done, on earth as in heaven, is to pray that his 'law,' his 'revealed will,' may be obeyed and loved. His law is perfectly obeyed in heaven, and his true children most ardently desire and pray that it may also be obeyed on the earth."[32]
To pray for God's will to be done on earth is a tacit confession that it has not been done. What's more, there will always be a tension between God's will on earth and his will in heaven until God's kingdom is fully established on the former.[33]
With this petition the emphasis shifts from the realm of heaven to that of the earth.[34]
Fourth Petition:
"Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11).
This petition speaks of trusting God to determine our legitimate needs (versus mere wants), and then depending on him to provide them.[35] Which is not to say that we are to sit idly by and wait for provisions to fall into our laps. Rather, it acknowledges that all good things - including our ability to work and earn a living - come from God.[36]
While modern Westerners tend to think in terms of storing up for the next several days (or weeks), this petition would be especially meaningful for those living in Jesus' day filled as it was with day laborers who lived literally from one day to the next.[37]
Fifth Petition:
"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).
Notice that the word "and" links together the last three petitions, strongly implying that life depends on more than food alone - it also includes forgiveness and deliverance from temptation.[38]
Here "[s]in is pictured as a debt, and the sinner as a debtor. Accordingly the word represents sin both as a wrong and as requiring satisfaction."[39] "Forgive" literally means "to send away, or dismiss."[40] Notice "the past tense, we have forgiven; since Christ assumes that he who prays for the remission of his own debts has already forgiven those indebted to him."[41]
The point is not that we can earn God's forgiveness by forgiving others. Rather, asking God to forgive us as we have forgiven other people demonstrates the fact that we understand the difference between our absolute sinful condition before God and others' relative sin toward us.[42] We are able to receive God's free gift of forgiveness only if we come to him with open, empty hands.
Sixth Petition:
"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13).
In this petition we see "a prayer of conscious and confessed human weakness; it makes no pretense of confidence in its own strength and commitment; rather it expresses an unconditional abandonment to the will and grace of God."[43]
"'Bring' or 'lead' bothers many people. It seems to present God as an active agent in subjecting us to temptation, a thing specifically denied in James 1:13. ... Here we have a 'Permissive imperative' as grammarians term it. The idea is then: 'Do not allow us to be led into temptation.'"[44]
The word "temptation" (Greek peirasmos) can refer to a "[t]rial, temptation, a putting to the test."[45] While it is always a trial, if God is behind it, it is a test designed to reveal a weakness that can then be corrected; in other words, it is meant to strengthen us. Conversely, if Satan is behind it, it is a temptation designed to make us stumble and fall; in other words, it is meant to weaken us.[46] And since Satan is behind all evil, the additional phrase "deliver us from evil" indicates that Jesus had the latter idea in mind here.
(Note: "The Doxology is placed in the margin of the Revised Version. It is wanting in the oldest and best Greek manuscripts. The earliest forms vary very much, some shorter, some longer than the one in the Authorized Version. The use of a doxology arose when this prayer began to be used as a liturgy to be recited or to be chanted in public worship. It was not an original part of the Model Prayer as given by Jesus."[47])
The Lord's Prayer reflects emphases found elsewhere in Jesus' teaching: 1) Humble, unpretentious, unconditional trust in God to provide what is needed, not simply what is wanted. 2) An instant willingness to forgive others. 3) Persistently turning to God, relying on him and being grateful for what he chooses to give us. 4) Joining with other believers in "a community of like-motivated, mutually interdependent and mutually supportive people."[48]