The world of the twenty-first Century is concerned with immediate results and outputs. Progress in science and technology has led many human beings to believe that the human being can be self-sufficient, that with sufficient effort, we can do everything for ourselves. That is why many have abandoned prayer. Human pride is behind this disposition. The Scriptures tell us that pride is the oldest temptation of the human person – the desire to have complete control over our own affairs. But the truth is that we are limited beings, and now and again things happen that demonstrate our utter inadequacy and dependency. We are not God, and we will never be God. We are only human and our lot would be better if we live with that realisation. It is when we try to be God that we end up most like Satan, who desired the same thing and was thrown down from heaven!
In the modern society many of us cannot pray because we live restless lives. We rush to work and we rush to eat. We even rush through our games, if at all we make provisions for games. We fill our days with all sorts of activities, making no provision for moments of solitude. Urged on by consumerism and the spirit of competition, many human beings do not know how to stop, except when a heart attack strikes. So we find all sorts of excuses for not praying – our job, our appointments, the noise around us, etc. Even our Sundays are often no more observed as days of rest, days of prayer or holy days. They are often filled with engagement, including shopping, since in many places shops are now open all through Sunday.
Prayer is nevertheless central to the Christian life. It is the key way to develop and maintain friendship with God. As Christians we recognise that knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege, and being known and loved is God’s greatest pleasure. In John 15:1-10 the Lord Jesus discusses his relationship with his disciples as analogous to that of the vine and its branches. For five times in that single passage Jesus pleads that we abide (or remain) in him. He says we would only be truly alive and bear fruits if we abide in him as a branch has to abide in the vine in order to bear fruits. Cut off from him he says, we can do nothing. We would only be like a branch that is severed from the vine. It withers! He therefore pleads that we abide in him with him in us so that we may bear fruits in plenty. But how do we remain in the God whom we cannot see with our physical eyes or touch with our physical hands if not by way of prayer and meditation on his word?
Only a few personalities in the Old Testament had the privilege of be called friends of God. These people knew God and spent time in conversation with him and they were very familiar with his word. They include Abraham, Moses, David, Job and Enoch. Before Moses received the tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments from God, he had been away for 40 days and nights, alone with God on Mount Sinai. When he came down from the mountain, his face shone like the light, to such an extent that the people could not look at him. They had to cover their faces against the extremely bright light that Moses’ face had become. Thus, Moses had begun to take on some of the character of God, having spent a good amount of time in his presence. The Christian God is a personal God. No one ever developed a close relationship with him without spending a good amount of time with him. Intimate friendship with God will not come about just by going to mass daily or even having a daily quiet time, wonderful as these spiritual exercises may be. Intimate friendship with God is built when one shares all of one’s life, and all of one’s experiences with him, and when one is open to receive all that God wants to share with the one he loves.
Brother Lawrence, the humble cook in a 17th French Monastery left a legacy for the Christian world on how to develop a constant conversation with God in his small book titled, “Practicing the Presence of God. He tells us in the book how he was able to turn even the most commonplace tasks, such as washing dishes and preparing meals into acts of praise and communion with God. He says that the key to friendship with God is not changing what you do, but changing your attitude toward what you do – doing everything for God, whether it be eating, driving, working, relaxing with friends, or taking out the trash. A writer commenting on this mode of prayer made popular by Brother Lawrence observed that in the Garden of Eden, worship was not an event to attend, but a perpetual attitude. Adam and Eve were in constant communication with God. Because God rules everything and is in everything, because God is with us every time and everywhere, no place is any closer to God than here, and no time is better than now!
Rather than always trying to pray long sessions of complex prayers during which time we often suffer a series of distractions, Brother Lawrence suggests that we get into the habit of saying shorter conversational prayers continually through the course of the day. This form of prayer may be made up of short interjectory phrases (such as “speak lord for your servant is listening,” or “help me lord or I sink,” and a meditation on our favourite biblical quotes like “I am with you always, till the end of time” or “you are the light of the world.” Reading passages of the Bible every day, or listening to the Scriptures and inspiring Christian music on audio tape or CD as well as having around us such visual reminders as holy pictures, will help us achieve the much needed focusing on God. In this way while carrying on our business during the day, at work, at home or on the highway, we are fulfilling the Scriptural injunction to pray at all times (I Thess.5:17). Thus practicing the presence of God (being conscious of the presence of God at different times during our waking hours) is a skill or a habit that we can develop and become good at through practice, just as the musician becomes better and better at reading music or playing an instrument through daily practice.
While with us on earth, Jesus was in constant conversation with His Father. He prayed always and taught his disciples to pray. Before any major engagement such as the appointment of his disciples, Jesus took out time to pray. Before he performed a number of his miracles he turned to his Father in heaven and prayed. He prayed fervently at the Garden of Gethsemane. And even while undergoing the agony of the cross, he prayed for his executioners. And after curing the epileptic demoniac in Mark 9:14-29, Jesus responded to his followers who asked why on their own they could not drive the demon away by saying that this type (of demon) can only be driven out by prayer.
Following the example of Jesus therefore the disciples spent long hours in prayer, and admonished believers to pray ceaselessly with faith and courage (See Col.1:3; Rom.1:10; Eph.3:13; Gal.6:9; 2 Thess.1:11; 2 Thess.3:13). When Jesus calls us, he requires that we be his friends and companions first and foremost, before sending us out to do anything. This friendship and companionship with the Lord is realised principally in the context of prayer. God takes pleasure in speaking to us and in listening to us speak to him. On several occasions, the Bible admonishes believers to pray constantly, for God responds to the supplications of his faithful people. With the aid of a number of parables Jesus Christ himself teaches his disciples to pray with faith, courage, persistence and perseverance, assuring them that God will always hear the prayers of the faithful who cry to him day and night in their moments of need.
In Genesis 18:20-32 we see Abraham praying or interceding for the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He is portrayed as a shrewd and persistent bargain hunter who presses God for the best deal possible for these cities that were marked for destruction, as a result of the gravity of their sin. God on the other hand is portrayed as a merciful and patient dealer, who is not as testy and difficult to deal with as many people might imagine. God’s immense generosity is portrayed in the fact that he listens to Abraham’s intercessory prayer and concedes that if there are up to ten good people in Sodom and Gomorrah, he will not destroy the cities because of the ten righteous people. This story demonstrates that God does change the course of events through the prayer of his friends. (See also the story of Prophet Jonah and the people of Nineveh in Jonah 3-4).
The passage of Exodus 17:8-13 presents the example of Moses who made the victory of the children of Israel in the war against the Amalekites possible by interceding ceaselessly before God. In this episode we are told that as long as Moses had his hands raised in prayer, the children of Israel had the upper hand, but whenever his hands fell, the Amalekites had the upper hand. The Israelites quickly realised this and so Aaron and Hur had to support him, and they even erected stones to ensure that the hands were perpetually raised in prayer. It is in this way that they won the battle.
The story of the prayer of King Hezekiah is told in 2 Kings 20:1-6. The King, who was a very faithful servant of the Lord took ill and was at the point of death. The Lord sent the Prophet Isaiah to warn him to put his house in order, for he was not going to survive the illness, he was going to die. When the Prophet finished delivering the message, the King turned his face to the wall and addressed this prayer to the Lord: “Ah, Yahweh, remember, I beg you, that I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what you regard as right.” And Hezekiah shed many tears. We are told that Isaiah had not left the middle court of the King when before the word of Yahweh came to him saying, “God back and say to Hezekiah, prince of my people, “Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shall cure you… I shall add fifteen years to your life…”
In Luke 11:5-13 after teaching the Lord's Prayer, Jesus tells us to ask and it shall be given unto us, to search and we shall find, to knock and the door shall be opened unto us. He goes ahead to say: "suppose that one of you has a friend who goes to him in the middle of the night to say, "My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him;" and the man answers from inside the house, "Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up to give it to you." I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to him for friendship sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he wants." Jesus encourages his followers to ask, to seek and to knock, and promises that their needs will be answered speedily. He goes on to say that: "If you who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus uses the example of the importunate widow and the unjust judge once again to teach a lesson on the need to pray continually and never to lose heart. He demonstrates that patience and perseverance are two wonderful virtues that are capable of softening even the hardest heart. He thus gives a firm assurance that God will vindicate his own, and unlike the selfish, careless, cynical and unjust judge who had neither fear of God nor man, the just and loving God will hear his poor flock who cry to him day and night and respond to them quickly, speedily, and without delay to their needs. Those who go to God in faith and trust, and persevere in prayer in their hour of darkness and confusion will not return home empty-handed. God will hear their cry, he will vindicate them, and defend their cause. It is then up to believers to place their petitions continually and persistently before him.
The assurance Jesus gives is that the prayers of the faithful are always answered. So when we say that our prayers are not heard, perhaps it is we who need to re-examine our dispositions and our expectations. God's answers are not limited to our questions. God's responses to our prayers are not limited to our short-sighted concepts and notions of success, achievement and fulfilment, for as we read in Isaiah 55:8-9, God's ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts; far from the earth as the heavens are, so far are his ways from our ways, his thoughts from our thoughts. Also experience has taught Christians in the course of the ages that what we ask of the Lord is not always what is best for us. In fact if God were to respond positively to all the childish whims of believers, then many will bring destruction on themselves. God's response to our prayers often challenge us to accept and follow his ways rather than our won. Thus our lack of faith constitute the real reason why we fail in prayer and not because God refuses to hear us. Christian faith is best reflected in a prayer of humble acceptance - "let your will, not mine, be done."
Christian prayer is not about demanding and always receiving what we want. Sometimes our prayers are heard “in another way.” Those who want to pray in the truly Christian spirit must look at Jesus and endeavour to enter into the dynamics of the Lord whose prayer was heard "in another way," not in the way he requested. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed that the cup of suffering may pass over him. The cup did not pass over him. He died a painful and shameful death on the cross of Calvary. Jesus Christ the Son of God who loved the Father supremely, and who the Father loved supremely; the Messiah who did everything well and who said that his food was to do the will of his Father; this same Jesus died on the cross in the midst of two thieves. But God heard his prayer nevertheless. His inevitable death was in accordance with God's design which Jesus subjected himself to perfectly. In response to this self-surrender, God transformed his death unto the utmost good, for through his death Jesus passed on to the joy of the Resurrection, and today he is adored and glorified (Phil.2:6-11). God’s response to our prayer often challenges us to accept his ways, rather than our own. To pray is to lay ourselves open to the gifts of God, whatever they may be.
Christians are challenged today to pray to God who can heal modern humanity of the emptiness and hopelessness that results from Godlessness. We are called upon to pray to God who can heal modern humanity of the meaninglessness and despair that is a consequence of alienation from Him. We are called upon to pray ceaselessly to God who can transform the stony heart of the modern person to a heart of flesh that is capable of lasting love and thus make it possible for today's culture of violence, terrorism and death to give way to Christ's civilization of love.
Jesus Christ desires that the hearts of men and women be surrendered to God through prayer. But he is often frustrated when we seek no more than physical and material satisfaction from him. In John 6:26-27 he rebuked those who were looking for him only because of the miracles he could perform, such as the feeding of 5000 people. He said "In all truth I tell you, you are looking for me not because you have seen the signs, but because you had all the bread you wanted to it. Do not work for food that goes bad, but work for food that endures to eternal life which the Son of man will give you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal." And when tempted by the devil to perform a miracle to satisfy his hunger, Jesus responded by saying in Matthew 4:4 "Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Christianity is about a relationship of love with God in Jesus, and Christian prayer is the dialogue that goes on between God and the person in love with God. It is listening to God as well as speaking to him. Christian prayer is "waiting on the Lord." Prayer involves silent admiration and adoration; it includes thanksgiving and glorification. Prayer demands repentance and conversion from sin and the daily struggle to grow in grace. Prayer is the expression of absolute faith, trust, confidence and total surrender to God the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier.
Prayer is the demonstration of a humble acceptance of our state of sinfulness and utter helplessness and lowliness before an awesome, almighty, all-holy, all-loving and ever-faithful God. We turn to God in prayer, aware of the void in us which only god can fill. The powerful of this world may see no need to turn to God in prayer, but the ones who are aware of their littleness and vulnerability will seek the strength and comfort of the all-powerful God. Christian prayer is real and becomes immensely fruitful only in those who acknowledge the deep void inside them which only God can fill. Christian prayer is the communion within the heart that occurs between God and his children in the Spirit. Through prayer our relationship with God grows and matures. As we continue to pray, we sense the presence of God increasingly in our lives, a presence that will lead to a deeper love, and a more fulfilling worship. Prayer is closely related to, and has its practical dimension in the keeping of God's commandments. Jesus promises in John 15:7 "if we remain in him and allow his words to remain in us, then we may ask whatever we please and we shall get it."
Intercessory prayer has been described as spiritual defiance of what is, in the name of what God has promised. It is the “interior battlefield where the decisive victory must first be won, before any engagement in the outer world is even possible. Intercession visualises an alternative future to the one fated by the momentum of current contradictory forces. It breathes the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of present reality. Even a small number of people, totally committed to the new inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations, can decisively affect the shape the future takes. Intercessors are shapers of the future. By their intercession they believe the future into being!
In the face of the obvious limitation of humanity, prayer allows the human person to go beyond himself or herself and to engage the powers. Faith operative through prayer has been described as “absolute emancipation from any kind of natural law.” It is the highest freedom that one can imagine – the freedom to intervene even in the ontological constitution of the universe. Those who do not believe in the efficacy of prayer simply illustrate the effectiveness of the powers in diminishing our humanity.