QUESTION: Praise God Sir,
In our small Bible study group, the question of how to pray has been frequently asked. Can you help us answer it? How can one pray? Benja.
RESPONSE: Thank you for the question about prayer. We thank God for such fellowships where His Word is shared while believers ask questions. Let us start by understanding what we are talking about.
What is prayer?
Prayer is as old as worship. Humanity has been praying since time immemorial.
People prayed to gods long before they knew the one true God. Prayer, to a Christian life, is like oxygen to the human lungs.
Prayer is a communicative communion between man and God.
It is not just man talking to God and God talking back (communication), but both of them in a space of communion, interaction and encounter.
Prayer, therefore, is a transaction in which both man and God give and take.
When we are praying, there is an exchange happening in that exercise.
In prayer, as we pour our hearts to God, He is pouring Himself into us and directly involving Himself in our affairs as well.
Prayer, therefore, is a fellowship of the human and the divine, of the weak and the strong, of the problem and the solution.
It is a fellowship of the question and the answer. In prayer, we come in despair and leave encouraged in the hope that the God we have indulged will come through.
It is in this transaction known as ‘prayer’ that a sinner confesses and gives their sins to God who forgives.
It is in this transaction that the wayward are rebuked and corrected, and the obedient encouraged in.
Through prayer, God’s blessings access us and those who lack wisdom and understanding are rewarded with the same.
Prayer is a practical experience between the man who prays and the God who listens.
It is not what we think or wish, prayer is what we do or ought to do.
Prayer is not just talking to God, but also allowing Him to speak to us as we listen.
Prayer is not something we do occasionally or even liturgically, but since we have established that prayer is a communicative communion and a transaction between man and his God, it should be as frequent as the need to communicate is “Pray without ceasing” (1Thessolonians 5:17).
The continuity of prayer means that we are not using it as an ATM card, where we swap it and go, but should become our lifestyle (Matthew 7:7-8, Revelations 3:19).
How to pray
We must not restrict an experience to a particular ‘how’ (liturgy and tradition) and leave it to need and eventuality for it to retain its naturalness.
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, He did two things: first, He cautioned them of the pharisaic spirit of turning prayer into a religious exercise represented in outward deed.
Matthew 6:5-8: “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men”.
Relationships, worship
The second thing Jesus did was to demonstrate the structure of Christian prayer and what prayer is about (Matthew 6:9-10, 13).
Jesus taught that prayer is about relationships. It is a practice between relatives and therefore, we should keep in mind that we are praying not just to God the Creator and Redeemer, but ‘our Father.’
This should be your attitude. As you pray, you are talking to your Father.
Again, Jesus taught that prayer is about praise. Not self-praise like the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-12 but praise and worship to God’s name, Kingdom and will.
Every prayer we say must be within the constraints of God’s will, and honouring His name and building His Kingdom on Earth.
Divine providence
In principle, prayer is not about us, it is about God. Praying is a declaration to our mountainous problems that we serve a God who is bigger and stronger than they are.
And that sets us rolling to another aspect that Jesus demonstrated in Matthew 6:11-13: “Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
In summary
The question of how can one pray is best answered by Jesus Himself. He never tells us what to do, but rather what not to do.
In other words, we cannot train you and qualify you as a prayer expert since it is a personal matter.
God cares to tell you what prayer is not. Again you are asked to start from a relationship point and not a religious one if you are to pray to the one true God.
Every prayer request, be it materialistic or spiritual, must be within the limits of the will of God, for glorifying of the Kingdom of God and for the praise of His name (1Corinthians 10:31).
And finally, as we provide ourselves to the Lord in prayer, God also provides for our needs, forgives our sins and protects us from the enemy. Our prayers can never go beyond that.
Answered by
Pr Isaiah White.
