The Biblical Background of Prayer

William C. Brownson

What is prayer in the thought-world of the Bible? How do the saints, seers, and singers of Israel pray? What do we learn about prayer from the life and teaching of our Lord ? How does the gift of the Holy Spirit shape the praying of the early church? What convictions about prayer seem constant amid the rich diversity of the biblical witness? These are large questions, and the task of addressing them is daunting. But the effort to do so is surely worthwhile. If prayer is what our Heidelberg Catechism understands it to be, "the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us," if Luther was right in calling it "the life-breath" of genuine religion, and if Calvin was on the mark in saying that "the principal exercise which the children of God have is to pray; for in this way they give a true proof of their faith" (sermon on 1 Tim. 2: lff.), then reexamining its biblical roots is a task always vital to the life and ministry of the church. Especially in our contemporary religious culture, with its new openness to prayer and meditation, with its burgeoning interest in spiritual formation, we do well to ask which flowers in this freshly blooming garden seem to have their roots in biblical faith and which may arise from other sources.

Prayer As Response to Revelation In the Bible, God speaks, and his people respond. First the word of divine self-disclosure, then the words of human worship and prayer. It is when the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob addresses his chosen ones that they begin to invoke "the name of " (Gen. 12:7-8). In biblical religion, the "name" of God stands for God's self-revealing. Any person's "name" is closely associated with its bearer. It discloses that person's nature. God reveals himself to Abraham (Gen. 17: l) and to Moses (Exod. 3: 14; 6:2) by disclosing his name. Biblical prayer is not then a word launched into the void. It is never an instinctive cry to "whatever gods may be," or to "whomever may be listening." The God to whom Israel prays is One whose character and purpose are known. God has spoken; God has acted. His revealing word and saving work call forth the prayers of his covenant people. God says, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery .. . (Exod. 20:2). In response, God's people cry: "You, 0 Lord, are our father; our from of old is your name" (Isa. 63: 16). "O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but we

85 acknowledge your name alone" (Isa. 26: 13). God reveals himself to Moses as "the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness ... (Exod. 34:6). Thus God's servants are moved to pray: "Answer me, 0 Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me" (Ps. 69: 16). The people of Israel offer praise and thanks, confession, and supplication, all in the light of God's self-revelation to them in words of grace and works of power. Prayer in the biblical witness rests especially upon God's promise. The patriarch Jacob, fearfully awaiting the approach of his offended brother Esau, prays, "Deliver me, please, ... from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. Yet you have said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea ... '" (Gen. 32: 11-12). Note the ground of his appeal to God: "Yet you have said." King David, advised by the prophet Nathan that he is not to build a house for the Lord, but that the Lord will build him (David) a "house" (that is, a dynasty), offers this prayer, "And now, 0 Lord God, as for the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, confirm it forever; do as you have promised" (2 Sam. 7:25). The psalmist speaks for all God's people when he makes this appeal to the one who has entered into covenant with Israel, binding himself to them with faithful promises: "Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope" (Ps. 119:49). Here the plea for an answer is twofold: "It is your promise, Lord, and you have caused me to hope in it. " It is this feature of biblical prayer, depending as it does on God's revealed character and covenant faithfulness, that accounts for the confidence with which God's people pray, their certainty of being heard. David prays, "For you, 0 Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house'; therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you" (2 Sam. 7:27). Prayer based on God's promise finds the courage of faith, the assurance of an answer. Why does the author of Psalm 23 express such serenity of trust in "the Lord"? Why is he so sure that he will never want, that God will unfailingly be with him, that goodness and mercy will ever follow him, that he will always dwell in God's house? Because the shepherd of Israel has pledged these mercies to his people. They have come to know his purpose, his heart, his promise. Whenever they cry to God in their need, they confess with triumphant confidence, "But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me" (Micah 7:7). They say, in effect, "My God will hear me- because of who he is, and because of what he has promised to his people." The experience of being heard, of receiving God's answer, quickens the devotion of God's people, and inspires them to further prayer. Listen to this grateful psalmist: "I love the Lord,

86 because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live" (Ps. 116: 1-2). This trust in God's hearing, this reliance upon God's promise, is close to the heart of what the Bible means by faith . Abraham is the Old Testament pioneer of faith, rhe father of the faithful. This is how he received that title, when he welcomed God's word of promise: The Lord "brought him outside and said, 'Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be. ' And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gen. 15:5-6). Here is Paul's comment on Abraham's faith: "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised" (Rom. 4:20-21). This is faith in the biblical sense: reliance upon the faithfulness of God to keep his promise, clinging to the hope of fulfillment in spite of all seemingly contrary evidence. This is the trust that both inspires prayer and gives honor to the God who hears it.

Prayer from the Midst of Community As we have seen, prayer in the Bible is not primarily a human quest, but rather a response to God's gracious word. Nor is biblical prayer an isolated individual's conversation with God. The idea of a private, mystic search for union with God is foreign to biblical faith. Prayer in the Bible, while intensely personal, is always steeped in the awareness that one belongs to the covenant people. The individual, with his/her personal faith, shares in the faith of the larger community. As a member of that fellowship, she/he has a personal share in the relationship with God that has been granted to all the people. The "I" of Psalm 32 is a word of vivid, personal witness "While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and you forgave the guilt of my sin" (vss. 3-5). But all of this has meaning not only for the exulting psalmist, but for all God's people. The next words are: "Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you" (Ps . 32:6). This God of mercy is the refuge of all who call upon him. Another psalmist prays, "Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your custom toward those who love your name" (Ps. 119: 132). In other words, "Treat me as one of your covenant people. I appeal to you as one of your own." Many of the prayers of God 's people, accordingly, are "we" prayers: "Do not be exceedingly angry, 0 Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people" (Isa. 64:9). "Have mercy upon us, 0 Lord,

87 have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt" (Ps. 123:3). Here the prophet and the psalmist are voicing the prayers of the entire community. Because of this community context, the prayers of individual Israelites are never for themselves alone. The good they seek for themselves, they desire for their brothers and sisters as well. Petition is always moving outward to intercession. Samuel prays for the people even when they have rejected his leadership (1 Sam. 12:23). Moses intercedes for Israel after God has purposed to destroy them and begin afresh with him (Exod. 32:10, 31-32). With these leaders in Israel, and others like them, prayer for others becomes a costly commitment, a willingness to offer one's own life and welfare so that intercession for the people may be heard. And, because the community belongs to God, prayers for their good become intertwined with concern for God's name and purpose. The psalmist prays, "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations .... May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him" (Ps. 67:1-2,7). The praying Israelite is always identified in prayer with the welfare of God's people and the praise of God's name.

Prayer Linked to Obedience Prayer is God's gift to his people, given in the revelation of his name. Believers are heard on the basis of God's gracious promise, and not because of their personal worthiness. At the same time, God's covenant with his people calls for their obedience. Prayer, to be answered by God, must spring from commitment to his lordship. Again and again, God's people are told that their prayers are not heard because of their evil ways . The prophet Isaiah declares, "See, the Lord's hand is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear" (Isa. 59: 1-2). Their prayer has become fruitless through their disobedience. The hindrance here lies not in the fact of their having sinned. The biblical writers are agreed on the universality of human sin. God freely offers forgiveness and restoration to those who confess their sins and repent, trusting in his saving mercy. But where his people harden their hearts and refuse to repent, where they brazenly continue in idolatry and disobedience, their prayer becomes offensive to God. The ancient proverb puts it bluntly: "When one will not listen to the law, even one's prayers are an abomination" (Prov. 28:9). When the covenant people ar~ disobedient, God counsels even his faithful servants not to pray for them. Jeremiah reports, "The Lord said to me: Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Although they fast, I do not hear their cry, and although they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I do not accept them ... " (Jer. 14: 11 -12). Even if great intercessors of the past were to pray for

88 rebellious Judah, God declares that it would have no effect: "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people" (Jer. 15: 1). Individual believers sense this moral requirement in their praying. The psalmist confesses, "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" (Ps. 66:18). The principle is expressed repeatedly, "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers" (Ps. 34: 15-16). They will not be acknowledged. Their cry will not be heard. The biblical writers indicate specific evils that block the hearing of prayer. One is heartlessness toward the needy. "If you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard" (Prov. 21:13). James tells us that our requests to God can be vitiated by selfish motives (James 4:3) and by unbelief (James 1: 5-8). Peter reminds husbands that failure to honor their spouses will cause their prayers to be hindered ( 1 Pet. 3:7). These passages remind us that prayer in the Bible is neither magical nor manipulative, but moral through and through. Genuine, effective praying is not a matter of formula or technique. It arises from a trusting relationship with God which is not clouded by unconfessed or unrepented sin. It depends upon a heart commitment to the Holy One and to his purposes in the world. The apostle John drives home the point: "And we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him" (1 John 3:22). Though our obedience is always imperfect at best, God graciously honors the prayers of those who are moving toward his light.

Prayer As the "Outpouring of the Heart" Surprisingly little is said in the Bible about the form or manner in which prayers are to be offered. Much is said, however, to urge their sincerity and wholeheartedness. Believers pray in a variety of bodily positions. Sometimes the people of God are invited to "kneel before the Lord, our Maker" (Ps. 95:6). Sometimes they fall on their faces before God. Sometimes they stand to pray. Sometimes they commune with God while reclining on beds of rest. Prayer is offered wherever the people of God find themselves. Old Testament believers went to the sanctuary to pray, first to the tabernacle and later to the temple. When away from Jerusalem they would sometimes face toward the Holy City as they prayed. But this was never a requirement. We meet them praying in king's palaces, at building projects, and out in the desert on a mountainside. The early Christians prayed together in upper rooms, by a riverside, on the beach, on shipboard, and in prison. The people of God pray in the morning, at the time of the afternoon sacrifice, and at the close of the day. Sometimes they rise a great while before day to pray, or continue in prayer throughout the night. But the Bible never commands these particular seasons for prayer. The penitent

89 and brokenhearted sometimes wear sackcloth as they pray, or heap ashes on their heads . Sometimes they rend their garments. Sometimes they fast. In seasons of celebration they join dancing to their prayers. They shout and sing and clap their hands. These matters of position and place, of time and accompanying action, are never centrally significant for biblical prayer. Almost every external arrangement for praying is seen as vulnerable to abuse. Long prayers can be a means of pretense, a cloak for greed and oppression (Mark 12: 40) . Fasting may be a performance for the eyes of onlookers (Matt. 6: 16) . We may pray in certain places, at certain times, in certain styles, to create an impression (Matt. 6:5). The particular form in which prayer is offered neither denies nor guarantees its authenticity. Here also it holds true that "the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). What is commended and exemplified in the Bible is the expression of one's deepest feelings and one's most painfully felt needs in the presence of God. The psalmist urges, "Trust in him at all times, 0 people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us" (Ps. 62:8). The singers of the Old Testament psalms and the prophets of Israel do not hesitate to use the language of complaint. "You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a thing of horror to them" (Ps. 88 :6-8). They raise baffled, pain-wracked questions to God. "How long, 0 Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? (Ps. 13: 1-2). Jeremiah is so filled with anguish that he hurls accusations at God: "O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed (Jer. 20:7). "Why is my pain unceasing, my wound ' incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail" (J er. 15: 18) . The prophet is beside himself-constrained by God to speak his word to the people and yet receiving nothing but rejection and abuse for doing so. His prayers pulse with rage and frustration. Job, the sufferer, also rails at God: "When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,' then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, ... Why have I become a burden to you?" (Job 7: 13-14,20). Persecuted, anguished believers sometimes plead for the destruction of their enemies, the blotting out of their families and their names from the earth. The saints of God air freely their lamentations and longings, their doubts and fears, their shames and griefs before the throne of God . At a comfortable distance from their sufferings, we may find it easy to be patronizing toward them, to chide them for their excesses. We wince at their

90 more strident outcries, and would perhaps temper them if we could. But we search the Scriptures in vain for evidence of such delicacy on God's part. He seems to take no offense at the ravings of his servants. Perhaps God prizes this, at least, that in such praying his people are trnly themselves before him. They come as they are. They engage God as authentic persons, not as pretenders. These same strnggling saints pour out their hearts in devotion to God as well. They praise God for his steadfasl love and faithfulness. They exult in God's mighty works on their behalf. They sing to God with overflowing joy in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In Psalm 73, after expressing his bitterness at the prosperity of the wicked and bemoaning his own lot, the psalmist has a moment of God-given insight in the sanctuary. He realizes now all that God is to him. "When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast before you. Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you" (Ps. 73:21-25). Believers voice their sheer delight in communion with God: "You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; In your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16: 11). They tell out their inmost longings: "O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is not water. . . . Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you" (Ps. 63:1,3). They make fellowship with God their supreme life-prayer. "One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple" (Ps. 27:4). Whether in pain and anger, in penitence and pleading, or in bliss and longing, wholehearted prayer is honored by God. God welcomes such wrestling, and responds to it. "Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:12-13). On the other hand, God is grieved when "Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense" (Jer. 3: 10). He sends confusion and darkness upon those who "draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote" (Isa. 29: 13).

Prayer in the Life and The writers of the four present Jesus as a man much given to prayer. Matthew shows him praying after a season of ministry. "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants" ( 11: 25). He teils how Jesus after feeding the five thousand, "went up the mountain by himself to pray" (14:23). Mark shows us Jesus, after a busy day of ministry, rising "while

91 it was still very dark." He "went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed" (1:35). Matthew and Mark both describe Jesus' impassioned praying in Gethsemane, and his words of prayer from the cross. John's shows us Jesus praying at the grave of his friend, Lazarus, (John 11:41-42) and interceding for his disciples on his last night with them (17: 1-26). Luke, however, gives us by far the fullest picture of Jesus at prayer. Luke alone notes that at the time of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, as the Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove, and when the voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved," Jesus "was praying" (3:21). Only Luke tells us that on the night before Jesus chose his twelve disciples, he had been praying all night (6: 12). Also, Jesus was in prayer before he asked his disciples, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" and "But who do you say that I am?" (9: 18ff.). In other words, Peter's great confession of faith was preceded by Jesus' prayers (see 16: 17). We owe to Luke's report the awareness that Jesus climbed the mountain of transfiguration in order to pray, and that he was in the midst of praying when the glory of God came shining through his countenance (9:28-29). We learn also from Luke that when the disciples said to Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray," and learned from him the Lord's Prayer, it was immediately after a season of his praying in their presence (11: 1). Jesus appears in the Gospels as one who prepares for and lives through the major moments of his life in prayer to his Father. Further, a distinct pattern of praying emerges in the way he carried on his ministry. Luke describes it: "But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray" (5:15-16). This was not, apparently, a one-time occurrence. The word about Jesus kept spreading. There were many crowds, many occasions of teaching and healing, many wilderness seasons of prayer. Work and worship; ministry and prayer-these made up the rhythm of his life, the music of his days. So he fulfilled the father's purpose. From his baptism in the Jordan, throughout his ministry, until his last breath on the cross, Jesus appears as one who prays. His recorded prayers express thanksgiving for God 's self-revealing (Matt. 11: 25) and for his hearing of prayer (John 11: 41-42). Jesus intercedes for Peter (Luke 22: 31-32), for the disciples (: 11, 15, 17), for all who shall believe through them (John 17: 20), and even for those who put him to death (Luke 23:34). Jesus prays for the Father's name to be glorified (John 12:28; 17: 1). He asks for what he deeply desires, but submits himself utterly to the Father's will (Luke 22:42, Mark 14:36; Matt. 26:39). He always calls God "Father." Jesus sometimes "rejoices in the Holy Spirit" as he prays (Luke 10:21). As he looks toward his "hour," he ponders what he shall pray and confesses to the Father that his "soul is troubled" (John 12:27). In Gethsemane he is "deeply grieved, even to death" (Matt. 26:37) . In great distress, he prayed "more

92 earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground" (Luke 22:44). The writer to the Hebrews .·otes that "Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears" and "was heard because of his reverent submission" (Heb. 5:7). On the cross Jesus cried out in the agony of dereliction, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46), but later said with consummate trust, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). So Jesus, the true Man, the praying Christ, "poured out his heart."

Prayer in the Teaching of Jesus When Jesus was asked by his disciples, "Lord, teach us to pray," he responded with these words: "When you pray, say: Father" (Luke 11 :2). The call to address God in this way reflects Jesus' own practice. In his every prayer recorded in the Gospels, he invokes God as Father (The one exception to this, the cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?," Matthew 27:46, is a direct quotation from Psalm 22: 1). Further, the word he customarily used in calling God "Father" was the diminutive Aramaic form abba (Mark 14:36). Jeremias notes that "Whereas there is not a single instance of God being addressed as Abba in the literature of Jewish prayer, Jesus always addressed him in this way (with the exception of the cry from the cross, Mark 15:34 par.)" 1 With very few exceptions, says Jeremias, the Fatherhood of God in the Old Testament expresses two convictions: the obligation to obey God, and that God is the one who helps in time of need. 2 But the word used there was the Hebrew abh . Abba is the diminutive, familiar form used by small children in addressing their fathers. On the lips of Jesus, it represented a fresh revelation of God's name. For Jesus, abba combines paternal authority and maternal tenderness. Abba is the One who sees his human children as unspeakably valuable, who delights to give them good gifts, who runs to meet them with pardoning grace. Jesus prays to God as abba with a blending of reverence and affection, freedom and confidence. In what we call "the Lord's Prayer," he gives his disciples more than a name to speak; he offers them a share in his relationship with God. As his followers, they too are privileged to approach God as beloved children, sure of God's acceptance, certain of being heard. This seems fundamental to all Jesus' further teaching about prayer. Immediately following the address to God as Father, abba, the disciples are called to pray "Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come" (Luke 11 :2). These were Jesus' primary concerns in life-that God's name should be glorified and God's rule obeyed (the Matthean addition "Your will be done" amplifies this). Those who have asked for a way of praying appropriate to Jes us' disciples are instructed to adopt the same priorities. Karl Barth notes that in these requests we are invited and summoned "to take up the cause of God and actively

93 to part1c1pate in it with our asking .. .. [What God wills] is that His cause . . . should not only be His but also ours. . . . He summons us to make His purposes and aims the object of our own desire. "3 Thus in prayer also, believers "strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. 6:33). This is their "modest participation in the work of Jesus Christ Himself, but now in the opposite sense. For in the work of Jesus Christ it has indeed come to pass and been fulfilled that God has made man's cause His own, not only salvaging it but leading it to victory and clothing it with His divine glory. "4 In biblical usage, as we have seen, the prayer of God's people involves a commitment. As they ask that God's name be exalted and his rule served, they offer themselves to God for his use in seeing these petitions fulfilled. Then they pray freely for themselves and for others: "Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial" (Luke 11 :3-4). The followers of Jesus, called to participate in the cause of God by their requests, are now invited to appeal to God, that he may espouse their cause. They ask for provision sufficient to each day, for the gift of forgiveness, and for deliverance from every evil power. Jesus' call to pray for daily bread reminds us that Christians are invited to bring all their needs and wants to God. They are not to be tensely scrupulous over what is appropriate to ask. If God is a Father more eager than the best of earthly parents to shower good gifts on his children, if their joy and well-being are ever God's concerns, they may pour out the desires of their hearts to him. God may withhold in his mercy what is not best for them to have, but will not chide them for their spontaneous asking. Jesus' word about forgiving others stresses again the moral dimension of prayer. We cannot live in the kingdom of grace without extending grace to those who wrong us. We cannot appeal to God with integrity to forgive our sins if we are stubbornly unwilling to forgive another. Our willingness to forgive is not the cause of God's mercy to us, but it must surely accompany our seeking it. God looks not only to the words of a prayer, but to the heart and life from which it springs. The plural form of these latter three petitions stresses again that biblical prayer arises from community. "Give us ... forgive us ... do not bring us .... " We do not ask bread, forgiveness, and deliverance for ourselves alone. We pray in the fellowship of the faithful , with compassion for the entire human family, sensing our solidarity with the people of God and with all creation. And once again, the petitions draw our lives along with them in commitment to feed the hungry, share the evangel, and free the oppressed. We are strnck here by the predominance of petition. There is never a hint in the teaching of Jesus that any other form of prayer should be viewed as central. Praise, thanksgiving, and confession are always vitally related to prayer

94 in biblical religion, but praying itself, in the root sense of the verbs used, remains asking-for God's cause, for others, for ourselves. The Lord's Prayer, enclosed as it is within an address to God as Father and an ascription of praise, is simply and clearly a series of petitions. God delights in the asking of his children. God does not view petition as a somewhat selfish, rudimentary form of address which they are to outgrow as they mature. Growth in prayer is rather growth in learning the childlike trust and dependence of those who look to God for everything. The prayer God seeks from us is not a passive flight into reverie; it engages will and heart. Ask .. . seek ... knock is ever God's call. "Why ail this asking?" we sometimes wonder. George MacDonald answers aptly. "What ifthe main object in God's idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need-the need of Himself? ... Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer .. . to bring His child to His knee, God withholds that man may ask. "5 A related emphasis in Jesus' teaching is on the importance of persistence in our asking. In the parables of the friend who knocks at midnight (Luke 11 :5-8) and the widow appealing to the unjust judge (Luke 18 : 1-8), Jesus argues from the lesser to the greater. If a reluctant sleeper will finally rise to give bread to a persistent knocker, and if a godless, uncaring judge will yield at last to a widow's endless entreaties, how much more will God respond to the importunate cries of his beloved people? Jesus enforces the point with unwearied repetition "Keep on asking (the force of the Greek present tense) and it will be given you. Keep on searching and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be opened for you" (Luke 11 :9, my translation). Then, lest anyone should fail to grasp the lesson, he goes over the same ground again: "For everyone who [keeps on asking] receives and everyone who [keeps on searching] finds, and for everyone who [keeps on knocking], the door will be opened" (v. 10). "Why this call to persistence?" someone asks. "If we have asked in faith the first time, why make the request over and over again? Sounds to me like unbelief!" But Jesus sees it differently. Persistent prayer embodies the "faith" he will look for when he return (Luke 18:8). It's the quality he calls "great" in the pleading of the Canaanite woman (Matt. 15 :21-28) . Believers persist not because they doubt God's answer, but because they desire it so ardently. Because the longing for another's salvation or for their own deliverance is so strong in their hearts, they cannot stop asking. This kind of praying is at an infinite distance from what Jesus called "vain repetitions" or "empty phrases" (Matt. 6:7). He is against words without thought, prayers without heart. He welcomes, on the other hand, the passion of a persistence that will not be denied.

95 Is God then genuinely affected by the prayers of his people? Does God act, in response to their praying, as he would not have acted otherwise? Jesus emphatically underlines the answer of the entire Bible: Yes. In the purpose of God , the believing, importunate prayers of his people make an enormous difference. Hear Karl Barth thunder against every theology that denies this: "If ever there was a miserable anthropomorphism, it is the hallucination of a divine immutability which rules out the possibility that God can let Himself be conditioned in this or that way by His creature. . . . His majesty, the glory of His omnipotence and sovereignty, consists in the fact that He can give to the requests of this creature a place in His will. "6 Jesus' call for persistence and passion in prayer militates against all pretense. "And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matt. 6:5-6) . The snare here lies not in the public character of prayer-Jesus often prayed in the presence of others-but in its mainspring of motivation. For whom is the prayer-for God or for a watching world? Whose attention is desired? Whose reward is sought? "In secret" meant for Jesus a prayer in which we are conscious of God, concerned only with him, seeking his face. Whatever divides our hearts is a snare. Whatever helps "unite our hearts to fear God's name" is prayer "in secret. " Jesus teaches his followers to pray henceforth "in his name." "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete" (John 16:24) . "On that day you will ask in my name" (v. 26) . Since these words occur in Jesus' last moments with his disciples, in the context of his teaching about the vine and the branches, praying "in his name" obviously means more than reciting it at the close of a prayeli. Prayer in Jesus' name is prayer in vital union with him, prayer in the unity of our asking with his, prayer as those who follow and obey him, who act by his power and authority. In the light of Jesus' cross and resurrection, prayer in the name of Jesus becomes also prayer through him as the mediator (1 Tim. 2:5-6), prayer in dependence upon his saving work. The people of God are now to do "everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col. 3: 17) .

Prayer and the Holy Spirit Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the Holy Spirit. Before his Ascension, he made this promise: "And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised "-the gift of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49). In preparation for this

96 bestowal, Jesus urged them to "stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). They interpreted this "staying " as a call to prayer. They all prepared for Pentecost by "constantly devoting themselves to prayer" (Acts 1: 14). Jesus had stressed the Father's readiness to give the Holy Spirit to his praying children. "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" (Luke 11: 13). In a parallel passage in Matthew, Jesus is quoted as saying, "how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him" (7: 11) . All the good gifts of God are gathered up, apparently, in the bestowal of the Holy Spirit. In giving his Spirit, God gives himself to his people. The "asking" described in these passages is in the present tense, implying a continued action. God's people keep on asking; the Father keeps on giving the Holy Spirit. In another sense, believers are moved to pray "by the Spirit." . The Holy Spirit is the author, the quickener of prayer. Paul writes to the Galatians: "And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father'" (Gal. 4:6). The Spirit who dwelt in Jesus the Son now dwells within all who are God's children through faith in him. His "Abba! Father!" now sounds forth from them by the power of the Spirit. It is the Spirit's cry, yet also intimately theirs. Paul witnesses to the same reality in Romans 8: 14ff. "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. . . . When we cry 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God." Here believers are said to cry "Abba!" as the Spirit brings to their hearts the assurance that they are God's children. Calling upon God as Father is their birth-cry, the sign that they have received new life. Here the full gift bestowed by Jesus comes to light. He first teaches his followers to call God abba. Then, as the crucified and risen One, he sends his Spirit to their hearts, assuring them of God's amazing love (Rom. 5:5). They are moved then to make the cry abba their own, confident that they are God's dear children. Believers are urged in the New Testament to pray "in the Spirit." The apostle Paul exhorts the Ephesians to "Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication" (Eph. 6: 18). Jude issues a similar call: "But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 3:20). This seems to mean prayer in dependence on the Spirit's guidance and help. The same Spirit who awakens prayer in God's children aids them in expressing it. Paul underlines this and goes beyond it in his letter to the Romans: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And

97 God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints, according the will of God " (Rom. 8: 26-27) . In our profound human weakness, we often find ourselves at a loss in our efforts to pray. We struggle to know what to pray for, how to ask, what to say. Sometimes we can only groan in agonized yearning. But in those moments of extremity, the Spirit "takes hold together with our weakness." It is as though the Spirit "picks up the heavy end of the log. " In the midst of our confused longings before God, the Spirit intercedes for us with "sighs too deep for words." This is more than the Spirit helping us to pray. The Spirit takes hold of our inarticulate groanings and prays in the midst of them his perfect prayer, prayer that is according to the will of God. He "translates" our formless sighing, articulates before God our inmost desire. And so, when we can scarcely pray at all, the Spirit offers on our behalf the prayer that is needed. The gospel tells us not only of the crucified and risen Jesus, who ever lives at God's right hand to pray for us, but also of the Holy Spirit, who from the inmost depths of our being comes to our aid with mighty intercessions. The God who invites us to pray provides for us everything needer. for our calling: the revealing Word, the saving work of the Son, the life-giving help of the Spirit. Soli Deo gloria!

ENDNOTES

1. The Prayers of Jesus (Naperville, IL: Alec R. Allenson, 1967), 57.

2. Ibid, 18-19.

3. Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1961), III/4, 103f.

4. Ibid, 105.

5. George MacDonald; An Anthology, ed. C. S. Lewis (New York: Macmillan, 1947), 51f.

6. Op. cit., 108f.

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