Tag Prayer

Why We Pray

Todd R 1 Comment

Why do Christians pray, and why should they pray?  We probably pay a lot more attention to what we are praying than why, and maybe sometimes we don’t pray because we don’t think its necessary.  This may happen when we don’t know the why.

There are many reasons (many “whys”) we could think of for why Christians should pray, and here are some:

Do we pray to tell God what we want or need?  No, because the Bible tells us[1] that God already knows what we need.  He already knows everything, including knowing what we need better than we do, as our Creator.

Do we pray to convince God we are worthy and deserve His audience?  No, because on our own we are unrighteous sinners and only deserve separation from God.  Jesus has already accomplished everything we need to be able to approach God.

Do we pray so that God will love us more?  No, God’s love is based on His own character, not our actions.  He can’t love us more, and won’t love us any less, than He does.  That He gave His Son to die on the cross for us proves this.

So, why?

Before teaching His disciples how to pray using what we now call the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said to them: “Pray then like this.”[2]  We often think of the Lord’s Prayer as instruction on how to pray, but maybe miss that Jesus told His disciples to pray.  It’s something He wants us to do, and regularly.

We pray because Jesus tells us to.  “Pray then like this” said Jesus because God desires a relationship with us and a big part of that relationship should be time spent in prayer.

Thomas Becon, an English cleric and Protestant reformer in the 1500’s, wrote this about prayer[3]: “For God neither for our worthiness nor for our unworthiness heareth us; but for his commandment and promise sake. He hath commanded us to pray; therefore ought we to pray. For if we should never pray till we were worthy of ourselves before God to pray, so should we never pray: but we therefore pray, because God hath commanded us so to do. Our worthiness is the humble confession of our unworthiness; and our obedience unto the commandment of God to pray maketh us most worthy.”

Therefore, pray, and often.

“Pray without ceasing” – 1 Thessalonians 5:17

[1] Matthew 6:8, 6:32, Luke 12:30
[2] Matthew 6:9a
[3] McKim, Donald K.  Everyday Prayer with the Reformers (2020).  P. 65.

Prayer: A Quint of Quotes

Todd R 1 Comment

Dear fellow travelers,

Here is another “Quint of Quotes” with some of my favorites on prayer, plus a bonus verse:

“Prayer is not getting man’s will done in heaven; it is getting God’s will done on earth” – Robert Law

“Pray as though everything depended on God, and work as though everything depended on you.” – Saint Augustine

“Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.  Pray for powers equal to your tasks.” – Phillips Brooks

“We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives.” – Spurgeon, on Colossians 4:2

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” – Martin Luther

“Pray without ceasing” – 1 Thessalonians 5:17

There Goes John Bradford (to Paradise): History for February 24

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Born in 1510, John Bradford was a rising Protestant minister during the reign of King Edward VI in England and was well known for his pious dedication and unselfish nature.  After studying at Cambridge and preaching regularly around London, he was appointed as Chaplain to the King in 1551.  The common expression “There but for the grace of God go I” is often attributed to him and was a reminder to himself that grace alone has saved him.  An 1822 book on prayer says that:

“The pious Martyr Bradford, when he saw a poor criminal led to execution, exclaimed, ‘there, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford’. He knew that the same evil principles were in his own heart which had brought the criminal to that shameful end.”[1]

Bradford and others in the Tower of London, from John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563). Public Domain.

His worldly fortunes changed in 1553 when the Catholic Mary I became Queen, and one of her first priorities was persecution of prominent Protestants.  Bradford was arrested within a month, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and sentenced to death.  While in the Tower, he wrote a letter to his mother on this date, February 24, in 1554, that included a powerful statement about prayer: God “doth put off our prayers, that he might recompense it with abundance, that is, that he might more plentifully pour upon us the effect of our petitions.” [2]  On July 1, Bradford was burned alive at the stake.

In another book on prayer, Donald McKim wrote about Bradford’s letter:
“We can imagine that no one would seek an answer to his prayers more ardently than Bradford while awaiting death. Yet he believed that even with no apparent answers to prayers, God plentifully pours abundance on those who pray!
At the end of his letter Bradford mentions God’s promise-which believers receive and anticipate, even in the midst of their sufferings and afflictions. Paul recorded the promise: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9) Plentiful abundance! Now and forever!”[3]

In John Bradford’s story, there is a terrible irony between two things he is known for – a common phrase and his martyrdom – but in the end, God is faithful, and I hope to meet Bradford someday in Paradise, where the grace of God has bought me a place.

[1] Bickersteth, Edward.  A Treatise on Prayer.  (1822).  Sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bradford
[2] McKim, Donald K.  Everyday Prayer with the Reformers (2020).  P. 92.
[3] Ibid.

Perfecting Faith Through Struggle

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King David wrote many Psalms during the difficult times in his life.  Psalm 18, written “on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul,”[1] is a song David wrote to praise God for His deliverance from difficulties in the past.  David describes the depths of the troubles he faced in verses 4 and 5:

“The cords of death encompassed me;
            the torrents of destruction assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me;
            the snares of death confronted me.”

There were many moments where David faced enemies seeking to kill him, a situation we may never face.  But, like David we all face struggles and, while not literally life-threatening, some of them may feel like what David describes.  Our enemies may be external or internal, physical or spiritual, and Psalm 18 can be applied to them all.  David magnifies the powers that assailed him, which John Calvin wrote, “enhances and magnifies so much the more the glory of his deliverance. As David had been reduced to a condition so desperate that no hope of relief or deliverance from it was apparent, it is certain that he was delivered by the hand of God, and that it was not a thing effected by the power of man.”  David was truly in a desperate situation and sometimes we are too.

So, how can this Psalm help us in our struggles?  I’m going to focus on only a few of the Psalm’s 50 verses, including verses 1 to 3:

“I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
            my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
            my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
            and I am saved from my enemies.”

Note that these verses come before the ones quoted earlier because before coming to God with his problems, David contemplated who God is and what he has learned about Him from experience.  When we’re struggling, we should also take the time to contemplate the nature of our God so we can get the right perspective.

David uses some military metaphors to tell us about God.  David says God is a rock, a fortress, a shield, a horn, and a stronghold.  These tell us that God:

Photo by Mario La Pergola on Unsplash
  • is a rock, immovable by our enemies and our problems.
  • is a fortress and stronghold, a secure place to flee from our enemies, where they cannot get in.
  • is a shield that protects us from harm.  Our enemies’ weapons can’t pierce God’s protection.
  • is a horn, with all the power we need to defeat our enemies.  A horn was a symbol of might in the Bible.

God is all these things for us too!

In verse 7, David added that when God answered his call for help, “the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.”  God’s power, His “horn”, is so powerful that even the earth fears it, but we need to learn to trust in it, and it alone.

There is no sure way to learn to trust a fortress or shield, other than to test them in battle.  C.S. Lewis wrote that “God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”  When we’re fighting an external battle against an enemy or against painful circumstances.  When we’re fighting an internal battle against temptation, a bad habit, an addiction, or maybe an unattractive character trait, God can teach us about who He is through the pain of those battles, and we can learn to trust Him more.

Although we will not defeat all of our enemies while we live in this world, and we may be frustrated knowing God is powerful enough to win, but we still fail anyway, we know that:

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
            his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
            great is your faithfulness.”[2]

He is faithfully by our side in every struggle, and eager to restore us when we fall, even if it’s every day (or more!).  But most importantly, we know that He is working in all things – even our fiercest battles – to perfect us and that He will not fail.  Even if we are unfaithful at times, He remains faithful always, and it’s His faithfulness that makes the difference.

If you’re fighting something today, remember that God is your rock, fortress, shield, horn, and stronghold, and you can trust Him.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”  – Philippians 1:6

[1] Psalm 18:0 (title)
[2] Lamentations 3:22-23

Cleaning the Conscience

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A great thing about Psalms is that they are written general enough to be used by different people in different ways.  Psalm 19 makes a great prayer for anyone and is one of my favorite Psalms.  In it, David writes about how creation proclaims the glory of God in ways that everyone everywhere can see and understand.  This is what we’d call “general revelation.”  Next David writes about the law of God, how it is “perfect,” “pure,” “true,” and several other things.  This law also glorifies God, in what we’d call “special revelation,” or things revealed about God mostly through His word.

Then, after a brief interlude, the Psalm ends with verse 14, which says:

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
            be acceptable in your sight,
            O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”

What a closing to a prayer!

The Lord, as “my rock and my redeemer,” rules nature (the literal rocks, etc.) and His Word redeems His people.  How can our “words” and “meditation” be acceptable to such a God?  The answer is first, because He loves us enough to redeem us, and second, because He is transforming us into people who are like Him.  In fact, the “interlude” I referred to before (verses 12 and 13) are David’s prayer that God would keep him from sin and make him acceptable in God’s sight.  Those verses say:

“Who can discern his errors?
            Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
            let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
            and innocent of great transgression.

David first points out that we can’t find any errors in God, either in what’s revealed by nature or in His law, but on the other hand God knows all of our faults.  David knows better than to ask God to show him all of his flaws – that may be overwhelming – but instead David asks for a clear conscience.  To get there, David needs a solution for both his “presumptuous sins” – the outward actions that he’s probably aware of – and his “hidden faults” – the inner attitudes and sins that he may not be aware of.  To be declared innocent and blameless by God requires being forgiven for sins that we don’t even know about!

Photo by Nicole Queiroz on Unsplash

Which brings us back to the final verse:

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
            be acceptable in your sight,
            O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”

In my reading of this, “the words of my mouth” correspond to the “presumptuous sins,” the sinful outer actions taken in defiance of God, and “the meditation of my heart” corresponds to David’s (and our) “hidden faults.” These sins may be secret to everyone but God but we may feel guilty about them anyway.  When praying this prayer, David knows only God can cleanse him (or anyone) beyond just skin deep, and beyond skin deep is what we really need to deal with because Jesus told us “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.”[1]  Only by healing the inside can we heal the outside.  David asks for relief from guilt so he can live acceptably in both public and private ways, before both men and before God.

We all need routine cleaning of our inner self on a regular basis.  A redirection of our conscience toward right and wrong as defined by God.  If you feel in need of this, try praying Psalm 19 today.

[1] Matthew 7:17