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What
is Prayer?
How
to Pray in Five "Directions"
Lord, Teach Us to Pray
January 5, 2003
Each New Year brings with it the hope that the coming year will see us change for our good. One of the leading resolutions people make is to get in better physical shape. This is good; we know that the best way to stay healthy and to live a full life is not so much to resort to taking medicines
after we get sick or to go to the doctor after we have a heart-attack (although these are necessary). The best course of action is to build up our resistance to disease and to create a more full life by the disciplined habits of proper diet, sleep, and exercise. And so, as the year begins, we make a resolution to take better care of ourselves. We will start going to the gym; we will start eating more healthy foods; we will stop eating junk food.
What is true physically is also true spiritually. The real secret to fighting evil and to developing holiness in our lives is not what we do in the moment of temptation (although in those times we must call out to Jesus Christ for deliverance), but rather what we do the rest of the time—building up our spiritual strength by a disciplined life in the Spirit. And so, as the year begins, we make a resolution to take better care of ourselves spiritually. We will start going to church each week; we will devote a specific amount of time to reading our Bibles and praying; we will stop ingesting the junk food of this culture.
All of this is well and good. But we all know what happens to many of our New Year’s Resolutions. That is why many of us have stopped even trying to make them. We have failed far too many times to try it again.
Today, I want to, as a church, resolve to pray more in 2003. It’s not as if we have not been praying in the past, it’s that prayer, unlike so many other things we do as a church and individually, gets short shrift. I think that is because it is the one thing that takes control out of our hands and places it squarely in God’s. We are more likely to “go to it” and “do something” before we stop and pray. But this is totally backward thinking for a Christian, isn’t it? We believe that God is here, present with us—and that all that we do in our lives is really bound up with the fact that there is a
spiritual reality that is bigger than what we can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch. We believe that our interactions with others has great spiritual ramifications, we know that our temptations are not physical as much as spiritual. We know that our struggle is not against “flesh and blood,” but against “spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12). So it is backwards to not make prayer the first priority of the Christian life.
So, I want us to, as a group, resolve to pray more in 2003. And as I researched the things that help people keep resolutions, one of the greatest is to team up with others who are attempting to keep the same resolution and to use this group of people as a source of encouragement keep your resolution.
That sounds familiar. One of the most important words in the New Testament for what we are supposed to do as a church is this:
Encouragement.
In fact, the in-vogue term in Christian circles for what we are supposed to do for one-another is that we are to “hold each other accountable.” A quick search of the Scriptures shows that the word “accountable” shows up just once—and in that verse (Romans 3:19) speaks of how sinful people who know the Law of Moses are held accountable to
God for that knowledge.
But the biblical word for what we do for one another is “encouragement.” It is repeated 39 times in your Bible.
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:11)
So, this New Year, let us resolve to pray more in 2003, and to also resolve to encourage each other in keeping this resolution!
In order to keep any resolution, we need practical advice on what we are trying to do and how we can best do it. Resolutions most often fail when we fail to be
specific. So here are some practical ways to pray, and some help in making this happen in 2003.
There are at least five different kinds of prayer. To help us understand these, we will note that each one of these is looking in a different direction.
 1. Looking up to God.
This is the prayer of
worship or praise or adoration. It is in response to our understanding the glory of God in profound ways. In fact, any and every prayer in the Bible was a direct result of God’s first revealing himself and his character to the people praying. In other words, if you are not praying prayers of worship looking up to God, it is probably because you have not taken the time to find the wonder of who he is in the pages of Scripture. Biblically, prayer is always a response to God’s word. Prayer is always our communication back to God once he has already communicated to us. And the primary way God communicates to us is through the Bible.
So, if you want to talk to God, first open your Bible and let God talk to you. He speaks first (through the Bible); we reply (through prayer).
Now, it is a good rule to begin your prayers by talking back to God (whether it be a prayer of worship, confession, a request, whatever) on the
same subject that God has been talking to you about through your Bible reading. Hey—isn’t it rude to change the subject of a conversation too quickly when your talking to someone? So, what I do is this: When reading a passage, I ask, “God, what do you want me to know about yourself in this passage?” And I begin praying while still looking at the passage in my Bible. As I re-read the passage, I say, “Lord, you are…”
Turn to John 3:16 and 17. This was the central verse about Christmas this year. If this is the passage I was reading today, I would simply pray something like this:
“Lord God, I worship you for loving the world that has turned its back on you so often that we do not deserve your love. I worship you that your character is a love that is willing to give the one and only gift of your Son. I worship you because you are the kind of God that does not want us all to perish but to have eternal life with you. I worship you because your motivation in sending your Son was not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
That is praying with your eyes open…worshiping God.
The real value of worshiping God is that it takes our focus off us and onto God. Worship is the ultimate antidote to our natural self-centeredness. Worship helps us to take our mind off our troubles and instead to meditate on the beauties and intricacies of God. When we survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, we are surveying the healing power
for our troubles. It is so hard for most of us to turn our attention away from ourselves, so this is not easy! But we’ve got to do this, for there is nothing more right or more important!
 2.
Looking in at Ourselves.
This honest look leads to confession. Once again, the Word of God is the key to praying this kind of prayer earnestly. Our Bible reading is meant to make us become introspective, because the word of God exposes sin, selfishness, vanity, greed, and then challenges us to repent and confess. Hebrews 4:12 reads,
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
And when the God’s word cuts you like a surgeon’s knife, seeking to eradicate the cancer of sin in your life, we call out to the God of grace with the words of the Psalmist,
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1)
It is a healthy discipline to schedule in your planner a time each day when you can review briefly and call to mind how you still fall short of the glory of God. Not to do so tends to make us take sin too lightly, and we will not become all that God wants for us. Whereas when we take the time to confess our sin regularly to God, we become humble in our shame for our sin, and we are on our way to greater holiness. This is a good thing, as long as we remember that God is in the business of forgiving our sins. As John writes,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
As practice, take a look at James 1, starting at verse 23.
“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”
(James 1:23-25)
Now take a moment and pray to God what you need to confess to him based on the
truth of this passage of Scripture, and ask God for his forgiveness.
 3.
Looking Around Toward Others.
This is called intercession. Jesus prayed for his disciples and for his enemies. Paul prayed for his converts, for the churches he founded, and also for Christians he had never even met. The greatest act of service you can give to someone is to pray for them.
Most Christians keep a prayer list with them. In order to keep your intercessory prayers from becoming an overwhelming burden, you should set out with a method. What I do is this: I have four different prayer lists. On the first is family members: my wife and kids. On the second, I have the needs of friends, extended family, and church members. On the third, I keep prayers for those that I wish would come to know God through Jesus Christ. And on the last, I have national and international issues and leaders, and concerns for justice in the world and for fellow Christians that I know or read about who are doing the work of world evangelization. All these lists sounds unmanageable, doesn’t it? Not really! I pray list 1 daily. I pray lists 2 and 3 every other day, switching off between them. I pray list four only once a week. So the most I pray is two lists a day.
Whatever system you adopt, make sure it is flexible—you should always be changing the items on these lists. Write them in pencil so that you can erase and change things as situations change. Also, make sure you are
specific. The more specific and concrete we can be in our prayers, the better. To write these things down and to pray them on a consistent basis increases our expectancy as we look for God for the answers, and bolsters our faith as we see God active in the lives of people.
Again, let's put this into practice. Take a moment and think of a person
in your life that is dear to you that you would like to pray for. Pray a prayer
echoing the words that the Apostle Paul prays for the people in Ephesus:
“I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people. I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.” (Ephesians 1:16-19)
 4.
Looking Back to the Past.
This leads us into thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a form of worship—but in pure worship we praise God for who he is in himself; in thanksgiving we show how grateful we are for what he has done for us and for others.
When we marvel at the grace of God to save us from our sin; when we laugh with our friends and family and look into the eyes of our loved ones; when we realize that we take for granted so much in the way of material possessions or where we live or the freedoms we have; when we know that even though life can be difficult sometimes, God is still with us through it all—when we think of all the ways that God is good to us, we are thankful!
“Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psalm 103:2)
Take a few minutes and begin listing all the things that you are thankful to God
for. Just say one-sentence prayers—prayers that start out with “Thank you for…”
 5.
Looking Toward the Future.
This is our prayers of supplication or needs. Some will make you feel embarrassed for bringing your requests to God, but the Scriptures command us to do this very thing:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)
When we pray to God that we are in need, that is when God is pleased—for we are admitting that God is God and we are not. We are saying to God, “I know that my life is ultimately not in my own hands, but in Yours. I certainly must make the hard choices, and I am responsible for those choices, but even in the decisions that I make I am wholly seeking your guidance. I realize my utter dependence on You.”
The purpose of praying to God for our needs is not to tell God what he does not know, or to inform him on the right course of action. Jesus said,
“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:8)
Nor are we trying to persuade God as though he were reluctant to answer our prayers. Jesus tells us that when we ask God through our identification with Jesus Christ, then we can be assured that we can
“Until now you have asked for nothing in my name; Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”
(John 16:24)
If, then, God already knows what we will ask him for, and he already knows the best course of action to answer our prayers, then why pray prayers of supplication?
I believe that God wants us to pray for our needs for two reasons. First, God has, in his grace, determined to allow us to have input into the actual outcome of events. There are certain things that God has determined will happen only if we pray for them. That is why James can write,
“You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2).
Think about the wonderful grace of God for a minute! He does not need any of us, yet, in his grace, he includes us in the marvelous spiritual adventure of bringing forth his Kingdom. We have the privilege of sharing our faith with our friends and loved ones. We have the privilege to pray for our needs and for the needs of others. God did not have to include us in any of this—but he has chosen to do so, so that our joy may be complete!
The second reason God wants us to pray for our needs is that more often than not, when we pray for our needs we are not bending God’s will to ours, but aligning our will to God’s! We look into our future with some trepidation—for we do not know what lies around the bend in the timeline of our lives. We know that there might be joy, there might be heartache, there certainly will be sickness and bereavement and death. We also hope for the second coming of Christ, for our resurrection from the dead, for the New Heaven and New Earth. But with all these things, there are attendant uncertainties—when and how?
So when we pray for the future, when we ask God for our needs, we are really praying this aren’t we?
“Not my will but Yours be done.” We ask for guidance to know what God’s will is and for the strength to do it!
Take a moment now and pray for your own personal needs or for the needs of somebody you know that has been a burden on your heart. This may be one of those instances that God is simply waiting for you to pray.
Pray for God to do what He knows to be the right thing, and ask for God to align
your will to His as His will is being carried out in this situation.
God answers every prayer prayed with the right motives and in the name of Jesus Christ. His answers may be “yes,” “no,” or “wait.”
But rest assured that God knows which is the best answer!
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