What is prayer or to pray? Many if not all religions and faiths go through exercises of prayer or praying. Whether praying involves incense, speaking in tongues, casual, formal, poetic language, attrition, contrition, desperation, pageantry, silence, open or private, corporate, out loud or mumbling or inwardly, billions of people reach out through their faith to touch their God (or god or leader) with a level of devotion, dedication, and a level or measure of faith to believe (to whatever degree it may be) for action or response.
From the Christian’s point of view, specific verses in the Bible (and this is not an exhaustive list) give us a guide. With scriptures such as Philippians 4:6-7—“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”—to turn to prayer when there are needs present in our lives knowing that God listens and will respond. But to what level of fear? Again, depending on dedication, faith, commitment, etc. do we come with tears? Do we go to God in fear that if we don’t speak the right way or use “King James Language” that God won’t respond without a few thy, thou, and shalts included? Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” And since we have the conjunction “therefore” that means we tie in the previous verse or thought that God knows or understands our needs and where we’re coming from including our weaknesses, desires, situations, temptations, trials, etc. So how can we come to God? The writer of Hebrews—I still contest that it was Barnabas (the Encourager) who wrote this book as it would compliment his nature—says that we can come BOLDLY. Twice he also includes the word grace in that verse which is unmerited favor (we don’t deserve God’s favor but He grants it anyway because of who He is) and once mercy (which is compassion or forgiveness when we deserve punishment). Within our petitions or requests to God, we give to God our list of things or needs but these are usually surface level. We get through the prayers without waiting or without weight in our prayers. In both Matthew 6:9-13 or Luke 11:1-4, Jesus models what and how prayer ought to be structured, a template if you will. Prayer, to Him, begins and ends with faith-filled thanksgiving knowing that God is not only there, but He does hear and desires to move on our behalf with a proper perspective for who God is—that He is God and we are not (Psalm 100:3).
But with so much the Bible speaks about prayer and praying (and there are many other verses that could be provided concerning this) and to whatever level of commitment and frequency of exercise, why is it that most people pray wrong? It isn’t that we forgot to include a few King James, the amount of time (albeit that is a whole other matter of discussion), how many times of the day we pray or when (albeit I strongly encourage people to pray in the morning), or the volume level we use (some people recommend speaking audibly because that keeps themselves awake and engaged or focused in prayer; however, I have also seen people—pastors and want-to-be pastors—who use this as a way to impress others or their pastor (or other pastors) with the passion or volume used so everyone sees “that is a man of prayer” (even in prayer, pride can get in the way). And albeit there is nothing wrong with known or scheduled prayer time and that others know that we are dedicated to that moment and place, we have to be careful that we don’t parade that to others as to pridefully indicate “this is a place with people who pray”.
So how do we get prayer wrong? Let us assume we go to a place dedicated to pray—church, “closet”, living room/bedroom, on the road or in the air—and we pray for 30-45 minutes or even an hour. So is the amount of time sufficient? That, truthfully, depends on what was done during that time, level of faith, and (in my opinion) how much gratitude was included. In other words if the bulk of our prayers is nothing but bless this, heal that, move this, do that, change him, deliver her, etc. then what is our view of God? I applaud that we have our list, we’re ready with our list as to not forget anyone, and are dedicated to go through our list, but when does a list repeated and dedicatedly cross the line to become vain repetition (which Jesus warns about in Matthew 6:7)? So perhaps for the Pentecostal we break up the list with a few momma roda honda so our speaking in tongues encapsulates our prayers as to block the Devil from making our pointed arrows to God (our prayers) become wet, dripping noodles that fall to the floor with no effect. We elicit volume to give our passionate prayers a voice because maybe God is deaf (1 Kings 18:27-28). But all the while I still question, what is our view of God? We rebuke people who view God as a genie from a bottle to run around to do our bidding and grant wishes/prayers, and yet we carve a time with that is what we mostly do is give requests to God and when we look at our watch to notice that we still have time we spin our prayers and repeat some of the people and needs with the same level of passion as we used earlier.
James 5:16 says that the prayers of a righteous man (or woman) avails much. Question, who made man (or the woman) righteous? Is it our deeds we do before God that made us righteous? Is it faith? What does faith look like? Is faith dedicated action? Hebrews 11:1-2 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” Let us couple that definition with A Bible verse example of Abraham in Romans 4:17 with the verse ending with, “…who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did”. All this comes clear when we go back to Hebrews 11 to look at these few words found in verse six, “…for he who comes to God must believe that He is…” Those two words HE IS completely summarizes and testifies the whole Bible as to who God is or specifically rather His nature. There are various names the Jews or the Bible uses to give us a name or personality or perspective (or angle) for who God is. We use words like God Almighty, the Lord who sees, the Lord my provider, the Lord who heals, the Lord of hosts, and a host of other names. So when we meld all of those names, aspects, character traits for who God is, it all comes down to HE IS. So when we realize who God is—a God of healing, mercy, provision, blessing, there with us, saves, delivers, etc. and then this is coupled with the purpose as to why He (speaking specifically the purpose of Christ and the will of God to send the Christ) came to live, die, and rose again—then we see that it is through God for what He did that makes us righteous by our appreciation and faith-led obedience through the will of God…even if that will is not yet made plain.
So then prayer or to pray means we need to be made right and not just made right but to have perspective for who made us right to begin with to then be able to come to God? That is the first part. The second part is our heart or passion. I have often said you cannot explain passion to passionless people. So what is passion? Many people have seen the movie The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson) with a movie to help us visually see what the Bible says was God’s passion to save mankind. Recently I mentioned (or asked rather) who were there at the crucifixion of Jesus—excluding bystanders, Romans, and the Pharisees? Mary (the mother of Jesus), Mary Magdeline, and John (the Beloved). And because of John’s devotion to see passion—a strong motivation to see it all the way through—it is no wonder that he, above all the other people in the Bible, could testify what passion looks like and can testify of love. So when we couple that the matter of prayer, passion isn’t volume or repetition. Passion is the strong belief or desire to take the prayer all the way through to Jesus, that this is an important matter (yes, each and every name, need, etc.), and that we see reciprocated passion from God to meet, move, heal, provide, bless, extend mercy, whatever for that prayer.
So we have a righteous person—made right by God—who passionately takes prayers to God knowing by faith that God will move. Isn’t that enough? I used to think so for years until through prayer and reading that I discovered I was missing the key player in all this: God. Or more clearly, God’s point of view. Incorrectly we view that because I’m of whatever belief or a position in church that God is automatically supposed to hear our prayers above others or He is obligated to move on our behalf. So there are two more ingredients to this. The first is God’s will. What is God’s will? Incorrectly Christians—layman or preacher—believe that God’s will is our will or doing something for God/the church. In short that every outreach, event, service, etc. is always God’s will and so we devotedly keep doing it again and again and again. The definition for insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different (or better) result. But when what we feel is God’s will—because, after all, what we’re doing is not sin and we are not practicing (hopefully not) sin—that God has to move. In 2 Smauel 5, David—as he had done numerous times—was going to fight. And often David prayed, even if the Bible doesn’t clearly say that he did, before he engaged in a battle. But there are a few poignant times when the Bible reveals God’s involvement. And David, like many Christians do, initially goes at it like he did in verse 19 expecting God to be there as he always is, just like we do when we pray (hopefully we pray) before a church service, outreach, etc. But what made this different (and again, these are not exhaustive examples) is what is found in verses 23 and 24 were specific instructions. For many of us, we go at things just as we always have and unless lightning flashes in the sky or the vehicle horribly breaks down (which we usually blame the Devil for any misfortune) and expect God to be there. But this shows us that God gets personally involved (stay with me because this ties into the second and most crucial thing), even in details. Question, when was the last time we waited (and that means to stop and wait, not be busy doing things) for God to tell us how to do the service, outreach, event, healing, or answer a prayer or do we bulldoze on through “God do this”? I sometimes ponder with how many times does God sit there on His throne with His arms crossed His chest waiting for us to finally shut up to let Him get a word in and more so for Him to be allowed to tell us His will. How many outreaches have we done in passing out a million flyers, never see any direct results, to then have people come to church completely unrelated to that outreach? Another example is when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and He told God in prayer, Father let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done (Matthew 26:39). Jesus, the Son of God, personhood two in the Trinty, surrendered His will for His Father’s will. And although I may be viewed a heretic with what I am about to submit and question, but does God have the right to interrupt or even stop a church service, outreach, church event, etc.? Does God have the power to step in to say “not tonight”? We quickly dismiss that thinking just as easily as we would dismiss a couple of more examples in the Bible but they are certainly worthy for us to note something important. John 4:4 says, “But [Jesus] needed to go through Samaria”. We like to applaud that Jesus reached out to the Samaritans to extend salvation and yet miss something that is there in verse four. Plans changed by God. God stepped in to interrupt the other plans for Jesus to make this detour into Samaria. Another example is that Jesus is asked to heal (Mark 5, Matthew 9, and Luke 8) Jairus’ daughter. But on the way to this important miracle, God’s will (or so the people saw) was interrupted by a woman who desperately needed a miracle from God who suffered with an issue of blood. Both were healed (we will count raising the daughter from the dead a healing in this writing) and God was glorified. But let us bring this to home, can we be interrupted on the way to church with something that God deems to be more important to do? Can God orchestrate a job schedule change that needs us to be at work than to be at church that on that particular day/shift someone gets healed or gives their life to Jesus? Can we be busy to get to the next job/task but God interrupts us while leaving the bathroom to pray for a woman who had stage three colon cancer? Can God give rain to help other people who need it—His will was the rain—even if that interrupted or slowed us down a little before a church outdoor event?
So then the second ingredient—and in closing—how can we be that connected to God to see God or hear God in these times to know what the will of God is? Many a Christian tells a new Christian or soon to be new Christian that “prayer is just talking to God like you do to a person”. Genesis 3:8 begins with, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” This was not or never was a singular event as it can be easily perceived. I believe that each and every day since God formed Adam that God took the time to spend time with Adam (and eventually Eve also) to discuss the events of the day, to spend time with them, to have a personal relationship with God and Adam and Adam with God. To see how personal God can be in a relationship with people, allow me to bring in one more specific person. Genesis 18:17 in the Amplified version says, “The LORD said, ‘Shall I keep secret form Abraham [My friend and servant] what I am going to do’” and James 2:23 picks up on this because naming Abraham the friend of God in case we’d prefer not to us the Amplified version for Genesis. Friends know each other. They talk and they listen to each other. They know what the other is thinking. They know to be there in times of need and in times of celebration. And God is that way. So when was the last time we sat down (or paced) in prayer and flatly asked God, “So God, tell me about Your day” and truly cared to know? Or are we too busy with our prayer list and our plans for the day? If—don’t attack me for this gender specific example—hubby came home from work and all he did was gripe about his day to his wife, share everything, command her for food, and other things and never really once heard about her day or cared to want to know (and be engaged enough to note or pay attention to what she said), how happy will that marriage be? (And the same can be said in switching marital partners.) I have often said that a marriage relationship (or courtship) is a context that the Bible uses to convey our relationship with God and God with us. The Bible is said to be God’s love letter to people. Allow me to use an example I heard many years ago to make this point. A wife complained that her husband doesn’t tell her (enough) that he loves her. He snapped back, I told you on our wedding day that I love you and if anything changed I’d let you know. God would like to be more involved in the relationship with His people beyond only limited to just the Bible to speak to us and to spend time with us—however long or short it may be—and not just for us to talk, complain, vent, beg, etc. about our days, lives, and needs. Maybe God wants to tell us His will and unfold it in our lives, even if that means changing our will/plans or even interrupting it for a time? Maybe God wants to engage us in conversation to say, no I need you to pray more for that individual even if that is the only person you pray about today because that person needs that extra prayer? Maybe God truly would like to tell us about His day?
So God, take Your time and please tell me about Your day.