By Glen
Prayer is…
To God the Father…
I’m not praying to a distant Power or an impersonal Force. I’m coming as a child before my heavenly Father.
Nothing transforms my prayers more than reminding myself of Matthew 18:3, “Unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I don’t come to God as a battle-weary soldier approaching a Sergeant Major. I approach God as a little child with an omnipotently gracious Dad.
Through God the Son…
I’m not praying in my own name but in Jesus’ name.
This means it’s not about how good or spiritual I am. I don’t even have to be a good pray-er – in fact the assumption is that I’m rubbish. I pray through my Priest, the Lord Jesus. He, like Aaron the Old Testament High Priest, carries my name on His heart before the Father. I am carried into the throne room not because of my piety but because of Christ’s perfection.
By God the Spirit…
My life (and therefore my prayers) are not about proving myself by works of the flesh. My life and my prayers are “by the Spirit”. It’s all about receiving my life, status and provisions as a gift.
Since this is so, I am a desperately needy child who needs God every minute. Often though, I view myself as a self-sufficient producer who just needs a bit of help to get me through. Actually I’m a branch who has no life in myself – I must be grafted into Christ, the true Vine, and filled with the nourishing sap of the Spirit. I am not a self-sufficient machine needing the occasional spiritual top-up. I am a thirsty, Spirit-dependent sinner who needs God, minute by minute.
With the Church…
Prayer is a team sport more than a solo activity.
Robert Murray McCheyne said many wonderful things but his famous line about prayer is not helpful I don’t think. He said “What a man is alone on his knees before God, that he is and no more.” Our ultimate picture of prayer should be more corporate than this. It’s brothers and sisters calling on our Father together. When personal prayer dries up, allow your church family to carry, inspire and teach you again.
For the World…
Life does not grind along according to iron laws of physics. This is your Father’s world.
We imagine the world to be a factory floor and we have to work hard to pull the levers. According to the Bible, it’s our Father’s house operating according to His gracious word and say so. Today is not about natural forces having their way. It’s not about harnessing the world by your strength and resolve. Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will – and you are much more valuable than sparrows. So “ask, seek and knock!” The doors are not rusted shut. Your Father has floodgates which He loves to open.
Without appreciating these five realities my prayers are addressed to a distant deity, in the power (or otherwise!) of my own piety, for the strengthening of my own flesh, in the solitude of my own head for life in a clockwork universe. But with these truths, I pray to my Father in the name of Jesus, for the joy of the Spirit, in the communion of the saints, for the life of the world.
The former is “babbling like the pagans.” The latter is the real deal – and it’s ours to enjoy for free.
Let us pray…