A Devotion to Prayer

Being a people serious about prayer

Our first value is:

We aim to be worshippers in spirit and truth

But what does this mean in practice?

Well, even a quick glance through the Bible will show that prayer is something which every Christian is expected to be doing…that it’s a normal part of Christian life and experience… but what is it? How do I do it? Why should I do it? Does God really hear me? Does God really answer? Is praying while driving or washing up all that’s necessary? How much should I pray each day? Do I have to pray out loud?

For some really helpful material on prayer and especially motivating us to pray check out the book by Dr David Y Cho, “Prayer: Key to Revival”!!

Who is this God anyway?

Before thinking about prayer – let’s think about who God is… as understanding our relationship with God is really important when thinking about prayer…

One of the major differences between Christianity and other religions is Christianity teaches that God is our father, and we are his children. Now all of us can think of human parents and see some pretty bad examples of parenthood – but when the Bible talks about God being our Father, it’s talking about a perfect Father. That may be pretty difficult to imagine for some of us.

What do you think a perfect Father would do in the following situations:
For a birthday?

Would know you well enough to know what you really do like or enjoy and give you that as a present, not just generic things that ‘young people’ want… Not necessarily what you think you want, but something he knows you will enjoy. My father once bought me a camera, not because I wanted one but because he knew I would enjoy if I spent some time trying photography – and I did.

When you’re facing stress with exams?

Probably try to help with study, probably force me to stay in and get study done, and make sure we do things to relax together.

When you’re trying to decide if you should take a year out, deciding which subjects to take at college or university, which job to go for or a career change?

Ask me lots of questions and try to get me to answer my own question. In reality I normally know the answer to most questions; it’s often just helpful to have someone ask me what I think. Not forcing his answers on me. And when I ask, give his opinion – and not being upset when I don’t take his advice.

When you’re wondering if your boyfriend or girlfriend is ‘the right one’?

If he can see that there are areas of potential problems – mentioning them. But again, by asking questions.

When you’ve just lost a grandparent, a partner, a brother or sister, or a close friend?

Probably tell me how he coped with similar situations, but mostly just be there, give me a hug and cry with me.

Now, if that’s just some of the things a perfect father would do, as the Bible purposely describes God as our Father, wouldn’t you expect God to behave in a somewhat similar fashion toward us? Many other religions talk about God being remote, or requiring rituals, or even God being just a force – Christianity is something revolutionary!

Why pray?

So what is prayer?

Talking and listening to God.

Take your relationship with your father, mother, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner or best mate. Imagine what would happen if you didn’t talk with them for a month… how would they feel? How would you feel?

It wouldn’t really help the friendship. Talking and listening are key parts of any relationship. For a good relationship we need both, and at lease an equal amount of listening.

How important is God? And how powerful is he?

Well, if he made the entire universe – the things which we see and the things we can’t see – then he’s pretty important really and the most powerful thing there is. Nothing else is that important, not even watching the Simpson’s!

Therefore if prayer is talking with the creator of the universe then what sort of priority should it have in our lives? If someone actually looked at our weekly schedule - would they guess that prayer has a priority?

What are the effects of prayer?

What do you think talking with and listening to with the Creator of the Universe should have?

At the very least it should change us personally as, as with most relationships, we are challenged and encouraged by what God tells us. God created each of us, and therefore knows us better than even we know ourselves – therefore surely he has important things to tell us about ourselves?

Read Luke 22:39-46. Why do you think Jesus needed to spend so much time in prayer?

Notice how it says that prayer was Jesus’ usual habit (v39). Jesus needed to pray, to stay focused on what his father wanted him to do.

Read James 5:13-18. What was the effect of Elijah’s prayer?

Elijah prayed and the rains stopped, he prayed again and the rains started. It’s important to remember that Elijah didn’t stop the rain; God was the one doing the miracle. But his prayers seem important in God working – it’s almost as if God chooses to wait for us to pray.

The bottom line is that if God is the one actually doing things, then our prayers can have an effect like nothing else… God seems to use prayer to release people from prison (remember that our prayers for the Nepalese Christians earlier this year in prison were answered), to topple governments or to heal people.

How should we pray?

There are lots of helpful ways or techniques on prayer, however remembering that we have a relationship with God is key – we don’t give him a shopping list, nor do we try to blackmail him or bribe him into doing things. We simply ask. And we simply praise him – no conditions, no “if you love me’s” we just praise him and ask.

But there are a few important things to remember about prayer:

Read Psalm 22:1-2. How do you think the psalmist is feeling?

The psalmist is being honest with God, he feels neglected by God and isn’t afraid to say so. Remember that prayer is talking with God, so talk with him as you would a good friend.

Be specific in your prayers

Paul Y Cho tells the story of how he prayed for a desk, chair and bike to do his work for the church. He prayed and fasted faithfully for months with no answer, and finally when he was really confused God answered him. “Why haven’t you answered my prayers?” he asked God. “You didn’t tell me what type of desk, chair and bike.”

So he asked for a mahogany desk, a chair with wheels and an American bike. He got them all within days.^¹

You may not find yourself in this sort of situation, but all of us from time to time pray prayers like “Lord, please heal this person, unless it’s not your will”. That sort of prayer can still be answered, but where is the faith? Why not ask for the things we want, and even if we pray prayers that are not God’s will, it’s not a problem because God isn’t going to punish us for asking the wrong thing – more often than not he uses the situation to teach us.

If we aim for nothing… that’s exactly what we will achieve.

Pray with confidence

We are not beggars at God’s gates, but his children whom he loves greatly. We know what pleases God, he’s given us a whole Bible full of examples of what pleases him and what displeases him. Therefore we can pray with confidence, knowing God will hear us.

Saying things like “I don’t know if you can hear me” is not a good habit to get into, as it will encourage us to think that God can ignore us. Can you imagine the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son not ignoring his child?

Pray using the Bible

It’s great to select a passage of the Bible, find the promises of God to us in that passage, and ‘remind’ God of these promises. A promise I especially like is John 10:10 where Jesus says he comes to give us life and life in all its fullness… I want to have that life and there is nothing wrong in me asking for it – it is in the Bible and the context is clear that it is a promise to us.

As with all passages though, look for conditions attached to the promises (such as repenting of sin, or stepping out in faith first) and as you pray, think about the conditions and pray that you can meet them. That way prayer becomes not just asking for something, but asking to be changed and challenged.

And this also raises the question of knowing the Bible. It is very helpful to know the Bible (if you can’t memorise verses try writing them down in a notebook), and to know what it says about all manner of subjects. You cannot grow into a mature person of prayer if you don’t study the Bible and that is really study it – not just skim-read it, but read it, think about it, pray it over and ask others what they believe.

Prayer is as much about changing us as it is about changing the world around us!
Prayer is two-way so it’s important to listen as much as we talk, and to expect for our relationship with God to change us… be it by challenging us, changing the way we think about a situation, or by encouraging us… When I think of my friends, I can often say how they have influenced me or changing my way of thinking… why should our relationship with God have be any different or less influential?
What about fasting?

This is another subject in itself, but it is essential to understand that fasting is not a way of twisting God’s arm to do things… that would make it a hunger-strike. Instead fasting is there to help us focus on God and to help us pray. Fasting without prayer is a diet or detox.

What sorts of things are helpful?

Daily Prayer

Firstly, it’s worth getting into the habit of praying daily… this doesn’t have to be a mammoth session – just 2 or 3 minutes is a good start. As you get into the habit then you can pray for longer – but the key thing is to make prayer an impossible burden by forcing ourselves to run before we learn to walk.

What sort of things should we include in daily prayers?

I find it’s helpful to keep the idea of a friendship in my mind – so I try and talk about the things I would talk about with a close friend – my hopes and fears, those things that are on my mind. I try not to use a “shopping list”. I also make sure I ask God what’s on his mind.

Praying at the start of the day, it’s good to ask God for opportunities to learn more about him, that I would recognise situations where I can be a blessing to others, and to ask him to help me avoid sinning. I often ask God to let me see things from his perspective rather than my own.

Praying at the end of the day, I find it’s good to review what’s happened… and ask God what he was revealing about himself, and/or me. Pray for blessing of those we’ve encountered during the day.

I also find it helpful to read the news headlines and pray through those – not as a shopping list or a Miss World prayer (“Please Lord – end hunger and bring world peace”) but instead asking him to direct my thoughts and try to picture myself in these situations – I try to make prayers personal.

Keeping a prayer journal

If you’re anything like me, memory is a problem. This makes it hard to know when God has answered prayers, and/or how God has directed our thinking over time. A journal can be simply a list of things you’ve prayed for and a few words on thoughts or feelings as you pray… or can be a daily essay ;-) Again the key thing is that it is an aid to reviewing the results of prayer.

One aspect of meeting as a community is to encourage each other, and what better way than by sharing how God’s been answering our prayers?

Try prayer walking

I find prayer-walking is a good way of praying for the community of Bullbrook, and that I never seem to do enough of it. The key things about prayer walking is that we walk and actually pray – as you look around at people, homes and nature – ask God to bless people and homes we see – and try to admire God’s creation (harder on a grey, rainy day, but still worthwhile)

Try fasting

If a whole day seems too much to begin with – try skipping a meal and spending the time praying and/or reading your Bible. You can fast from things other than food – but remember to actually pray during the freed-up time.

Attend the half-nights of prayer

We’re trying to make sure we have at least one half-night of prayer each term. It may feel daunting praying for 6 hours, but it’s not mandatory to be there the whole time and we explore a number of different ways of praying so it’s not sitting around in silence (or listening to someone drone on) for the whole time.

Make a point of praying before the Sunday service

Both at 10am when we meet to pray for the service and before leaving our houses. I suspect that it’s a good idea to pray and focus ourselves on what God is going to be doing during the morning… so we go to the meeting with a sense of expectancy and actively looking out for what God wants us to do.

Be proactive in prayer meetings

It’s not essential to pray out loud, but it is a good idea try if at all possible. If you’re not used to praying out loud then try praying just a sentence, thanking God for his love, forgiveness, kindness or not giving up on us. Jesus turned around and pointed out that the fancy words and long sermon-prayers of the religious leaders were not impressing God, but that it is attitude that God desires… humility and simplicity are things He does like. So it might seem that we are not good at public speaking or that we have nothing clever to say, but simply by speaking out when we know that’s hard, can bring a tear and a smile to His face. And the more we do something, generally the easier it becomes!

Be looking for opportunities to pray

It’s often easy when chatting with friends and hearing about problems or challenges they face, to not think of praying… or thinking of it but feeling like it’s not going to be effective so why bother. This is a lie from Satan.

It’s good to pray together, and amongst Christians it’s a safe environment. And as we grow in confidence then it’ll be easier to pray with our friends and colleagues who are not yet Christians.

Appendix 1: Some common questions…

Why does it feel like God never speaks to me when I pray?

How do you expect God to ‘speak’ to you in prayer?

Actually hearing his voice, through thoughts and ideas as we pray, through reading our Bible, through our conscience…

So what sort of things should we do when we pray?

As God can speak through the Bible, either by making certain verses seem to ‘strike a chord’ with us or by bringing up a subject to think about, then we should read our Bible.

As he speaks through our thoughts, we should spend time just thinking about parts of the Bible, called Christian meditation^².

As we pray we should ask ourselves – what would Jesus do in our situation, what would please God the most?

How much of prayer should we be speaking, and how much should we be listening?

Well, I would suggest that with any friendship I try to spend on average 50/50 between talking and listening. Some times I need to talk more, other times I need to listen more… but it’s a good rule of thumb. If I’m always just asking for things in my prayers then I probably need to just spend time in quiet with God – try being silent for 15 minutes and just think of a verse of the Bible?

An excellent book looking at the question of unanswered questions is “God on Mute” by Pete Grieg. For instance, did Jesus ever experience unanswered prayers?

Do my prayers have an effect?

Read Matthew 7:7-11, Luke 18:1-5, Ephesians 6:18 and James 5:13-18. What do these passages say about the effects of prayer?

Whatever we think about prayer – here are several passages which seem to imply that prayer does have an effect. The James passage especially equates prayer with something happening – be it someone being healed or forgiven or rain stopping or starting.

All these passages tell us we should pray. Why do you think that the Bible tells us to pray?

You could argue that we are told to pray not because it changes things, but because that way we learn more about what God wants us to do… so it’s really only for personal benefit. But when I read these passages I cannot help believe that things do happen when we pray.

Isn’t God going to work anyway?

Thinking of Elijah, as mentioned in the James passage – read 1 Kings 18:30-39, the story of the confrontation with the prophets of Baal. Do you think God was going to send fire down if Elijah hadn’t prayed?

To me it seems that God was waiting for Elijah to pray.

How do you think Elijah knew what God wanted him to do?

By praying, listening to God.

Do you think God would have destroyed the prophets if Elijah hadn’t confronted them?

I personally think that God probably would have raised up another person to challenge Baal’s prophets. If Elijah hadn’t prayed, listened and obeyed God probably wouldn’t have used him to get ride of Baal worship and end the drought. Though God may have eventually sorted things out, it may have taken longer – so by not being faithful Elijah may have delayed God’s plan.

If it is true that we could delay God’s plans or cause him to use somebody else instead, then how important is it for us to pray, listen and obey?
Read 1 Kings 17:17-23. Do you think Elijah’s prayer was important?

Does prayer change God’s mind?

Firstly, there are no explicit examples in the Bible where a person changes God’s mind, though delays and slight variations do seem to happen. Abraham didn’t stop Sodom and Gomorrah from being destroyed; Hezekiah didn’t stop himself dying (though he was given an extra fifteen years); and it wasn’t Jonah’s preaching that stopped God from killing the Ninevites, rather they heard the warning and they listened and repented. God’s warning did what he wanted… got them to repent and change so he didn’t need to destroy them.

But even if you argue that God never changes his mind, it doesn’t really make a big difference on how we actually live our lives. You can say that because God does something or ‘appears’ to change his mind in response to prayer, that it was his intention all along and so his mind hasn’t been changed.

But how do you know what his real intention is? We are told to pray, we know that God appears to answer prayers and he seems to wait for us to pray before doing things. Therefore for all intents and purposes, even if we can’t change his mind, we can change situations around ourselves. Therefore irrespective of actually what’s going on in heaven, we should pray and live our lives as if prayer makes a crucial difference in this world!

One thing we can be sure of though is that no matter how much we pray, we shouldn’t pray for things which are forbidden in the Bible… so we shouldn’t pray with hate against people, nor should we pray that something sinful we’ve done will not be found out… you can pray all you like but you are not going to get the answer you want.

What about unanswered prayers?

God hasn’t said that he will answer all prayers within a few minutes, hours or even years. Sometimes he answers and we don’t like the answer so ignore it. Sometimes he wants us to persevere.

If we pray for something for selfish motives, or which is forbidden in the Bible… do you think God was answer the prayer?

He will answer it, but not how we want. Technically he needn’t say anything because he’s already given his answer in the Bible.

Read Luke 18:1-5 and Luke 11:5-13. Jesus talks about being persistent and bold in prayer. What do you think this says about unanswered prayers?
The Luke 11 passage mentions seeking God – what do you think seeking means?

The film Bruce Almighty deals with the question of unanswered prayers, and it seems to do a really good job at explaining why prayers are not all answered yes. At one point Bruce answers 11,000 people’s prayers to win the lottery… what do you think the result of all those prayers being answered in the same week would be?

Appendix 2: Pray continually…

At the end of his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul adds some final advice for the Christians. 1Th 5:16-18 reads “Be joyful always; pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I’ve added the italics. No matter how much time I spend in quiet times this verse always makes me feel inadequate… recently I encountered some helpful teaching which explained what this may well refer to.

The danger of quiet times

Having a regular quiet time where you spend time with God unrushed and alone is really important, but there is a danger of assuming that this is enough. The temptation is that act as if a quiet time is the only time when we can talk with God, apart from a few quick panic prayers when things go wrong.

It’s as if we have scheduled God into our busy lives…

Nothing could be less than what God wants. God doesn’t want 15 minutes, or an hour, or two hours of our day – he wants us all 24 hours, when we’re alone and when we’re with others.

Take the analogy of a friendship; if all I do is spend time talking one-on-one with that person then it is going to be a fairly strange friendship. Balanced friendships often include things we do together or doing things as a group – this is a helpful reminder that God likewise wants to do things together, and with other people.

God would rather us cultivate an attitude of prayer than restrict our prayer to a limited time during the day. Again though, this is not saying that having quiet times is a problem – but if you do have an attitude of continual prayer then quiet times fit naturally into that.

Cultivating an attitude of prayer

An attitude of prayer is where act as if God is involve God in everything we do.

“He wants to be included in every activity, every conversation, every problem, and even every thought. You can carry on a continuous, open-ended conversation with him throughout the day, talking with him about whatever you are doing or thinking at that moment. ‘Praying without ceasing’ means conversing with God while shopping, driving, working, or performing any other everyday tasks.” – p 88, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

One further thing he adds:

“If you are seeking an experience of his presence through all this, you have missed the point. We don’t praise God to feel good, but to do good. Your goal is not a feeling, but a continual awareness of the reality that God is always present. That is the lifestyle of worship.” – pp 89-90, Ibid

There are several things which I have found helpful in working toward this (and don’t think I’ve got all the answers - I still have a long way to go!). The key thing I find is simply forgetting that God is there:

Buy a pack of small brightly coloured post-it notes and just stick them places where you will see them during the day. When you see one, say one thing about God to praise him. Be specific too, not just “Praise you Lord”, but something like “I love the way you are wise and know best Lord”, or “I love how you love me so much you went to the cross for me”… Would prefer it if I said to you a general “you’re great” a dozen times, or if I was specific in my compliments like “I love the way you always consider others” or “Your hair looks good”?
In every situation we find ourselves in, ask God how he wants you to act. Whenever you start talking with someone, even if it is nothing to do with ‘spiritual things’, quickly pray silently “Lord, please help me to be Christ-like in this conversation”… even if all it is doing is asking a work colleague for something or responding to the question “how are you?”
In the morning read a verse or two of the Bible. Morning is important because as the day goes by, whenever you get a few minutes think about the verse. Think what it means, think what the implications of it are, or think of any other verses related to it. Whenever you do something or are faced with a situation, try to imagine how this verse affects things? What is God saying to you through the verses?

For example a few days ago I was reading in Genesis about the Joseph in prison in Egypt. Not too applicable to life working in Bracknell, eh? Well during that day I was feeling a bit down that friends of mine seem to be doing so much better in their careers than I am, and that I’m being a fool studying part time… but as I thought about the stuff I’d read I was reminded that surely Joseph’s situation looked worse, yet God had amazing plans and it was important for him to be there. I believe God was telling me that I shouldn’t look at my situation from the world’s situation, but trust the He has great plans than require me to study now. I was then able to talk with God a bit about it. If I hadn’t read something that morning I probably would have kept on feeling down and wallowing in self-pity.
Some people find something called “breath prayers” helpful. That is a simple phrase (or a verse of the Bible) which you can repeat, such as “you are with me”, “I’m depending upon you”, “I want to know you more” or “you will never leave me”. Don’t fall into the trap that thinking by repeating a prayer more and more you can persuade or control God – but by repeating it you are thinking about it and effectively meditating on it…
But the most important thing is to ask God to help you to pray. Pray asking that you want to go deeper and know Him more and more. And then just do it… just try praying as frequently as you think about God.

My goal

The bottom line is I want to be in a place where everything I do, everything I say and everything I think is my worship to God… I want a quiet time to be just that, me being quiet together with God… the rest of the time I am just being noisy and active together with God.

1 But being specific doesn’t mean the prayer will get answered when it’s not a godly prayer. When I ask God for a Ferrari, I can be specific about what model and options I would like – but why do you think he has not answered that specific prayer?

2 This is different from other meditation, with Eastern religions meditation is about emptying our minds and letting thoughts float into an empty mind (very dangerous when combined with the occult), whereas Christian mediation is about filling our mind with something good, and then dwelling on it and thinking about it.