I’ve been surprised at how little Christians expect to see answers to prayer. I remember a church prayer meeting I attended, a very small group of perhaps 12 prayer warriors were gathered together near the front of the church sanctuary, not too impressive of a group, just the steady few committing to pray, out of perhaps 200 members. We were given a list of community and world needs and asked to pray in groups. I was happy when one of the few women I knew who was sitting in the wooden pew in front of me turned around and asked me to join her and her husband.
After our prayer time, she said “You pray with conviction. Like you really expect an answer.” I responded, “Of course,” but I was surprised. This woman was the leader of the Women’s Bible Study and Women’s ministry. I know she fully believes God’s Word, yet she appeared to be lacking confidence that God was listening and would answer our prayers. I’m wondering how common that is among all of us? I’ve often thought that joining a prayer group is probably akin to joining the chess club in High School, not the most popular event.
Of course, there are times when both Christians and non-Christians alike pray, like with my son-in-law’s battle with incurable Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Who wouldn’t pray? If there is any chance, no matter how small, that a miracle might happen, you gotta pray! But how convinced are we, even as Christians, that God answers even those prayers of desperation?
Today I’m wondering what do we think is the purpose of prayer? Walter Brueggeman, my fav OT scholar, says this of prayer…………………….
“Prayer is not an occasion just for pious little children on their way to bed. Prayer is not simply for neurotic people who are excessively and sadly too religious. It is rather the core gesture by which we stay in faith, by which we hope for the world, by which we keep justice as the issue before God and ourselves.”
I’m sharing this because I’ve come to believe, whole-heartedly, that God answers prayer – all the time! And maybe someone needs to hear that. And I believe God works in prayer and that work is vitally important work to do in us and through us. Not to be ignored. Not a have-to, but a get-to. Not a drudgery, but a delight. And prayer will bring us to its natural conclusion – wonder!
I used to approach prayer like an Amazon Wish Fulfillment Center – a place to get my needs and wants met. My idea of prayer was a place where I craft my best version of my life and ask God to make it happen. I’d call this a consumer view of prayer – answer centered prayer. My wishes fulfilled. A sort of call line to simple, straightforward fixes to the many troubles that I face in daily life.
Prayer is so much more than wishes fulfilled – it’s more about work being done – it’s about people being formed. And, oh, that work is needed! The work of prayer doesn’t always start in the circumstances we’re trying to move – it happens in the oddest of places – it happens in my heart. I sometimes forget the part about prayer having a work to do in me. On me. In my heart. I tend to approach prayer as ‘my work for God’ – or my small attempt to save the world (as if that isn’t ridiculous!).
These four words encapsulate my understanding of prayer and hold deep meaning for me –
God is at Work!
For me these four words have become the central truth of prayer for me. It is what I hope for, what I long for, what I delight in, what I look for. Eugene Peterson beautifully explains the work of prayer –
“Jesus cannot be imposed from without. It cannot be copied. It must be shaped from within. This shaping takes place in prayer.”
“The way we follow Jesus must be internalized and embodied. This is what prayer does – gets Jesus inside us, gets His Spirit into our muscles and reflexes. There is no other way.”
Getting God in us – this is prayer. In prayer, we allow Him to work, through His Holy Spirit, to indwell us and to empower us to be His people and to do His work. This is prayer. Getting God in. I agree with Eugene Peterson – ‘There is no other way’.
I think one of the biggest problems we humans have with prayer is we can’t figure it out. We can’t wrap our hands around it or control it. There is an unexplainable mystery to it. Oh, but how we try to unlock it – to add our simple minds to this thing that defies explanation.
We want to formulize it – to give it an equation – so we can work it out, regularly. Then we can make ‘it’ happen. If we pray this way, we can expect this result. These attempts remove God from prayer. They make our work – the methodology, the timing, the place, the anointed people (who seem to have had success in it) the players.
This type of prayer is man powered and result driven – with us, humans, front and center. The goal of this type of prayer is that our wants are fulfilled. Our wills are satisfied. Not. What. Prayer. Is.
Prayer is about getting God into us. No. Small. Thing. The purpose is not the enlargement of self and self’s will and self’s wants. No. The purpose of prayer is the opposite – it is the removal of self and the centering of all of our life on God. It is self as it was created to be, in full wholehearted submission and worship to the Creator, Himself. That’s prayer.
The work of prayer, I believe, often happens in the silence. In the wait. In the unanswered prayers. It is here we learn of His character. It is here we learn of His mercies. It is here we taste His goodness – not in answers, but in His Presence. The Psalmist says it so well – “His presence is my good” (Ps 73:28). That is the place prayer brings us to. To His presence. Which is for my good. A sweet place to land.
It is God front and center. It is God driven. It is God glorified. It is mystery personified. Getting me – my ego – under the control of God, well, that takes the almighty power of God Himself to accomplish that feat. That’s a miracle of epic proportions. That’s the moving of a mountain – the mountain of self being taken down.
The moving and working of God in us, to do the impossible, to form us to do His will and bring His kingdom down to earth – ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ – that is prayer. Our lives the holy and sacred ground where God Himself works and dwells. Us, His holy dwelling. Heaven, happening, not at a future date, but happening here & now. His kingdom coming – here. His will being done – now. No wait. This is life as God promises it. This is prayer – God’s life at work in us.
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