Day 127: What is the Spiritual Exercise of Prayer? (Responding)
Today we discuss our second Foundational Exercise of Prayer. Once we have heard from Father God in His Word, we respond to Him, talking to Him, going to Him as the One who knows us best and is leading us to His Kingdom.
Luke 6:12
Now it was during this time that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent all night in prayer to God.
I believe that prayer is the most important activity that we engage in as followers of Christ. It is easy to say I believe it; it is harder to practice it! The New Testament (and the Old) is filled with either direct or indirect admonitions to pray.
The Gospels make it clear that our Lord Jesus was a man of prayer. Take a close look at Luke 6:12 above. This verse is set in the context of Jesus choosing the 12 men who would be His key disciples or Apostles. These men would carry Jesus’ mission forward after He had returned to Heaven. The night before He chose the 12, Jesus spent all night in prayer! Now think about this: if the Lord thought it was necessary to spend hours—all night—in prayer with the Father, how do we rationalize getting away with less!?
Now that statement is not meant to place guilt or shame on us. But it is a sober realization. Jesus considered prayer vitally important to His life and ministry.
Notice however, that we are not told what Jesus was praying about—was He asking the Father which men He should choose? Was he praying for the men He already knew He would choose? We are not told. But we do know this: He prayed all night long.
How Should We Pray?
At several places in the New Testament we are exhorted to constant and continual prayer:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing;
in everything give thanks;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 12:12
Rejoice in hope, endure in persecution, persist in prayer.
Colossians 4:2
Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.
Ephesians 6:18
With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.
1 Peter 4:7
The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep your thoughts straight and be sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
Think of prayer as simply talking to God. Think of prayer as responding to The Father based on what you have heard in His Word. You are not trying to tell Him what to do; you seeking “to be filled with knowledge of His will…” (Colossians 1:9). Prayer is dialogue. Prayer is thanksgiving. Prayer is intercession. Prayer is crying out. Prayer is response.
Paul tells us in Romans 8 that we do not know how to pray as we should but the Holy Spirit within us translates our words and intercedes for us according to God’s will (see Romans 8:26-27 and our earlier discussions about the interceding ministry of the Spirit). This leads me to believe that it is not primarily important how we pray, but that we simply pray.
In the verses listed above, the focus is placed on praying, entering into dialogue with God. So we pray constantly, at all times, soberly, alertly, realizing that our prayers have great effectiveness:
James 5:16
So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.
Why Do We Pray?
At this point, some may ask the question, “If God is sovereign and in control of all things and everything is going to turn out the way He wants, then why should we pray?” With all respect, let me simply observe that this type of question is usually asked by people who have never persevered in prayer. Again, we look to the example of our Lord Jesus. He is the one who now holds all things together (Colossians 1:17) and is sustaining, guiding them toward His good and glorious conclusion (Hebrews 1:3). When He was on Earth, leading His disciples, giving them a model of godliness and faithfulness, He prayed—He prayed a lot. Jesus believed that prayer was essential and necessary and so should we.
In the James passage above we hear that our prayers, the prayers of the righteous, have great effectiveness. In the context, James is talking about healing. Our prayers are effective in the Lord’s work in our world. We don’t have to figure out how all of this works together—that is the Lord’s business. We simply trust Him when He tells us that our prayers are part of His effective work in our world.
This question assumes that prayer is only about “making requests to get things done.” As we said above, prayer is not “telling God what to do…” We make requests to Him, yes. We may even ask Him things over and over, for years. At its heart, prayer is about developing an ongoing conversational relationship with Father God, in Christ, through the Spirit. In the end, we might be surprised to learn that our prayers are part of what Father God factored in to His sovereign and providential plans to accomplish His desires!
How Does Praying Relate To Hearing The Word?
“He that has prayed well has studied well.”
Martin Luther
Prayer is the natural response to our first exercise of hearing the word of God. Father God initiates towards us in His word, we respond in prayer. Father speaks, we respond. As we pray, we should not be surprised as Father God reveals His presence to us there as well.
As we pray, we are raising our experience up and into the presence of our Good and Wise King. We confess to Him that we exist by His will and desire and that we desperately need His grace in order to survive the forces of chaos and despair that surround us. As we pray, we gain an eternal perspective as our words are shaped by Father’s words in the outworking of His wise will. Prayer is our means of discussing with the Father what He is doing in us and in our world through the work of His Spirit within us.
Again, it goes beyond the scope of this introduction to deal with all that needs to be said. However, you already have all you need to get started. Read the Psalms. They are a great pattern of prayer. Study the great prayers in the New Testament, especially the ones that Paul prays for His people. All of these things will help you deepen your dialogue with Father God in Christ.
* A great exercise that you can complete in a short time is to read through the Letter to the Ephesians and take note of all Paul’s prayers in that letter. Copy them out and fit them all together in one, continuous prayer. That will give you a great pattern to follow in your own prayers.
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
