Theology of Christian Prayer

Since the earliest days of Israelite religion, prayer to Yahweh was spontaneous and natural, however formalized it may have become in later Judaism and Christianity. The God to whom Israel prayed was the saving, protecting and judging God of prophetic faith.

As I delineated in a previous hub, The Power of Ancient Hebrew Worship , the psalms exemplify the direct approach of Israel to God. The Israelite whether individually or corporately, poured out all their concerns and happiness to God: concerns for safety, harvest, sins and failures, joys and sorrows, thanksgiving and praise. Such spontaneous addresses were possible only because God was essentially the One who inspired the response of those who knew Him.

Jesus and His disciples inherited this long and rich tradition of personal approach to God. But Jesus added a new dimension of intimacy to the prayer of His followers. The Old Testament is certainly familiar with the idea of God as Father of Israel, but the prayer of Jesus introduces a distinctively personal relationship, as is instanced by His use of an intimate family term, Abba which is the Aramaic word for “Father” or “Daddy.”

Our understanding of prayer is implicit in our concept of God’s relation to the world and man’s relation to God. If we direct our attention on prayer as response and petitions to the Lord, we understand that it encompasses obedience, faith (in word and deed), humility, confession, adoration, praise, truth, devotion and love. Just as all prayers of response spring from God’s love, prayers of request arise from our love for God and our fellowman. Prayer not motivated by love is noise. Without love, prayer is as a vacant house that serves no useful purpose.

Thus, in prayer, Christians pray for the urgent needs of mankind and nations. In doing so, we follow in the tradition of Paul who wrote: “my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” We plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His fields. And even in the midst of social injustice and radical inequality, we pray for all who are in governing and leadership positions. In Christian love, rather than disparage a sister or brother thought to be ignorant or in err, we pray as Paul did for the Colossians,

“Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully.” Colossians 1:9-11.

We remember that Jesus prayed for His friends, His enemies, His disciples, and for those who would become disciples through them. He prayed that those who had received His words would be sanctified by the truth, kept from the evil one in the world, consecrated in truth, be in unity with each other, love one another, that the world may know that God sent Christ and loved them as He loved the disciples. Jesus taught His followers to pray for the fulfillment of the Father’s will on earth as it is in heaven, for the establishment of His Kingdom, for the supply of necessary daily food, the forgiveness of sins that blocks the realization of His purposes, deliverance from further temptations, and the final triumph of God over all evil.

The New Testament teaches that prayer should be made “in the name of Jesus” for it is only through Jesus Christ our Savior that Christians have access to God at all. Our prayers should therefore contain only those requests which can be genuinely offered in the name, character and spirit of Christ. This rules out all selfish petitions and treating prayer as a kind of formula by which God’s attention can be arrested or influenced. It should be clear to all Christians that prayer is not a means of compelling greater powers to do our will.

Patience is a virtue in prayer because attempting to discover a relationship between words uttered in prayer and getting immediate answers from God is a clear indication that we misinterpret the nature of prayer. Prayer is communion with our personal God and because it is addressed to Him, we must realize and accept that it is not subject to prediction and control. No one can manipulate the powers of the Almighty by virtue of a request. Requests of prayers may or may not be granted. The failure to receive the desired answer at the desired time is no argument against meaningless of the personal relationship.

Jesus makes an interesting comment about prayer. He said, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Thus, if we understand it correctly and God knows our needs before we ask, one may legitimately ask, why pray? Well, one thing we know is that clearly the purpose of prayer is not to inform God of anything we think He may be unaware of. God, after all, is omniscient. Beyond that, God desires to bless us.

A consideration to meditate upon is this: An omnipotent God can do whatever He wills in the way He wills it. He has chosen to do certain things irrespective of human conditions, but others, He has determined to bestow only in answer to sincere and sometimes importunate requests. In these situations, His purpose remains unchanged, but man’s relationship to that purpose changes. God’s action seems to change when a person who formerly was impenitent and self-sufficient has become repentant and faithful.

We may also consider that God only responds to our approach if we call upon Him in truth, which means that our praying must be in accordance with His revealed will.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.” 1 John 5:14

God never withholds any good thing from those who seek Him properly. There are times however, when granted answers appear to be averse to our finite understanding. We pray to be kept in health but sickness comes. We pray for relief from burdens but they remain. Has God forgotten to be gracious? Of course not! If our belief in God is the childlike (not infantile) trust in One to whom we can always turn, we know that God responds to our prayers, though, most often not in the way we would have preferred. There is much to be learned from the so-called unanswered prayers of Jesus (i.e. Mark 14:35ff). Christian prayer is only possible where Jesus’ own absolute trust in the loving Father is present.

Prayer, then, is cooperating with Divinity to bring about His plan, not trying to bend Him to our will. Our prayers to God are not for changing Him or to beg Him to do what we want Him to do. Rather, we go to God on His terms, not ours. We draw nearer to Him in humble submission, realizing our unmitigated unworthiness before His Holy Highness. As we relinquish our own selfish desires in acquiescence to the One who knows our needs far better than we ever could before we even ask, our prayers are transformed into power for living.

I think this is important for us to understand because it is man that is transformed in prayer, not God. We cannot exploit God as we tend to do to each other. The real essence of prayer extends beyond always asking to offering, extends beyond self-seeking to self dedication, extends beyond my will to Your will be done.

My Prayer

Lord, help me to live as You always taught;
Clear my mind of every unrighteous thought.
Give me the courage to defy all temptations;
Grant I not succumb to the world's degradations.

Enable me to face the things that I fear,
And never lose sight of the things that are dear.
Grant that I always meet hatred with love;
All pettiness and trifles, in Your power, rise above.

Help me to remember those less fortunate than I,
And those whom injustice has left asking, "Why?"
The bereaved, the hurting, those we ostracize,
The downtrodden, the lonely, those we cast-aside.

Empower me to peace with my fellow man,
To listen and empathize and try to understand.
Control my tongue and my temper Lord too,
That I not wound a soul or bring dishonor to You.

May I never evade truth to simply avoid pain,
And may I look within before I hastily cast blame.
Grant I never speak or act a fabrication,
Nor hypocritically pray prayers of faithful adoration.

Lord, may I never forget Your holiness divine
And that all You have, through Jesus, is mine.
Keep me from stumbling off the straight and narrow path
These things, dear Lord, I unpretentiously ask.

© Saundra L. Washington, “Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach”