This October will mark the ten year anniversary of the publication of ANiC’s monthly first Friday Call to Prayer. Originally begun under the auspices of Anglican Essentials Canada, it has been part of the ministry resources of ANiC since January 2009. Through this decade, it has been my privilege most months to share a meditation on some aspect of prayer as we seek to grow together in this most important and strategic activity.
As ANiC’s national prayer coordinator, I believe the most important mandates of this calling for me have been to exhort and encourage ANiC church members to pray, to impart vision as to the importance and privilege of prayer, and to provide teaching and focus for prayer. I have also had the joy of traveling from coast to coast, conducting seminars in ANiC churches on prayer, and seeing people catch the vision of prayer being the language of love between our gracious heavenly Father and us, his adopted children.
What I would like to do in this blog post is to share seven things that I believe that the Lord has taught me through this decade-long process of preparing ANiC’s first Friday Call to Prayer. These may very well be familiar thoughts to you, but we all need reminding and exhortation to not slide into prayerlessness. My goal is that, wherever you are in your knowledge and experience of prayer, you will be encouraged to go deeper.
Okay . . . seven things. Here we go . . .
Jesus himself was a man of prayer
I am currently reading a book with that very title – “Jesus – Man of Prayer” by an Anglican contemplative nun, Sister Margaret Magdalen. She examines in detail the various aspects of Jesus’ prayer life, driving home the fact that even the sinless Messiah of the world needed to spend large amounts of time in prayer with the Father. She writes:
“It becomes clear that, despite the enormous pressures on his time and energy, he did not, indeed could not, allow prayer to become a casualty. Communion with his Father was the mainspring of his life.”
The Gospels record many situations where Jesus would slip away from the disciples and the crowds to spend time alone with the Father; sometimes early in the morning, other times all through the night. And it’s clear that Jesus wanted his disciples, including us, to have that same life-giving experience in prayer that he did. Jesus told several parables that demonstrated this desire. Luke understands the heart of his Master as he introduces the parable of the persistent widow.
“He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Luke 18: 1 ESV
When his disciples asked him to teach them to pray, Jesus responded enthusiastically with the words of what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. He was delighted to teach them to begin to engage the Father through prayer the way he did. Think about this: if the sinless Son of God in human form found it essential to spend time in prayer with his Father in order to carry out his ministry, how much more do we need to soak in his presence and learn to hear his voice in order to be obedient to him in our own lives!
Prayer is a delight and privilege, not just an obligation or duty
When I first became a Christian as a young boy of 8, I was instructed by my Sunday School teachers and other adults that daily Bible reading and saying my prayers was a duty, an obligation that all Christians needed to fulfill. Somehow, God was impressed and satisfied with me if I remembered to fulfill these duties on a daily basis. If I’m honest, it was closely akin to picking up my pajamas and making my bed in the morning: duty, obligation, discipline. It was not at all intended to be fun or pleasurable.
But that is so far from all that our loving Saviour intended! The reality of prayer is that, “You don’t have to; you get to!” The truth is that, notwithstanding our sinful lives and repeated failures at trying to keep the law, we have unrestricted and unlimited access to Almighty God 24/7! We get to spend unlimited time, whenever or wherever we want, with the King of kings and Lord of lords! There’s no right words that you have to use; there’s no purification ceremony that we have to endure. Muddy boots, runny nose and all, we can come into His presence in prayer! What a joy; what a privilege! It boggles the mind!
Prayer is the life-flow between God and us. Without it, we’re out there on our own!
There’s a TV drama that’s been on this season called Revolution. The premise of the plotline is what would life in America be like if suddenly, without warning, all electricity was shut down. Nothing electrical or mechanical works; no TV, no internet, no air conditioning, no refrigeration, no communications, no iToys. Or, try to imagine life without any source of water in which to shower, wash your hair, bathe the kids, make a cup of tea, soak in the hot tub, or have a refreshing drink.
Trying to live the Christian life without prayer is like these examples; it’s virtually impossible. Prayer is the two-way flow of life that energizes our relationship with God and provides us with power to obey. Jesus refers to this life-giving flow in John 15 when he uses the example of the vine and the branches.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”. John 15: 4,5 & 7 ESV
Fellowship with the Lord through prayer is the primary way that we “abide in the vine”. To neglect prayer is to live a life with the power turned off!
Prayer is for all of us, not just the hard core intercessors.
Supposing in your family as you sit around the dinner table only certain people ever spoke, ever shared what they were feeling or about the joys or stresses of their day (if you have teenagers, maybe it sometimes feels like that!). “Well, I would say something, but I’ll leave it Dad or my sister – they say it so much better than I would!”
As a parent, wouldn’t you want to hear from everyone in the family, even down to the toddler who’s just learning to talk? Sometimes it’s like that in the Church; “O well, we should leave prayer to the ‘experts’!” Not so! Jesus wants to hear from everyone that he loves, that he died for, everyone in the family!
Fear and guilt intimidate and rob us of the intimacy of prayer.
Fear and guilt – they are like two home invaders who break into our lives to steal our sense of peace with God. Their attacks are relentless, insidious and common to us all.
Have you ever reflected on how these uninvited intruders operate in our lives? Guilt looks back to the past, bringing shame and condemnation. It screams at us “Failure! Disqualification! Unworthy! Unloved!” Just like Adam and Eve after the fall, we hide when we hear God coming. We’re ashamed to be too near him, and so we withdraw and isolate ourselves. That’s just where the enemy wants us, hopelessly focused on the past, and little or no threat to him.
Fear looks forward, bringing anxiety and apprehension about the future. It screams at us a thousand “what ifs”: “What if I can’t find a job! What if no one will like me! What if we run out of money! What if I get sick and can’t work! What if my marriage fails?” Again, the enemy plays on the vulnerability of our minds and conjures up all sorts of scenarios designed to entrap us in fear and anxiety.
Prayer brings us into an intimacy with Jesus that is in the present, right now; an absolutely safe place. He came among us, and died on the Cross to take all the guilt, shame and fear upon Himself! His sacrifice has mercifully dealt with the past, and his amazing love and provision securely holds our future. He’s made it possible for us to stop looking back and stop looking forward, and to just delight in Him in the present! Right now! Alleluia!
If all of my prayers are requiring a specific answer from God, then I am missing out on some of the most rewarding ways to pray.
There are some important types of prayer that do not require God to answer us. For instance:
a) Thanksgiving; simply expressing our gratitude to the Lord for the prayers that he has already answered, and for his wonderful blessings in our lives, beginning with the greatest gift of all – our salvation. Brother Lawrence, in his classic book, The Practice of the Presence of God, shared that his most frequent prayer was simply, “Thank You, Father”, which he would repeat many times over as he went about his daily tasks. He felt that in faith it covered everything he needed to say.
b) Worship or adoration; the prayers where we are putting into words our love and awe at who Almighty God really is in all his majestic splendour.
We think of the Psalms as we read them or say them in church as the worship songs, the hymns of the Old Testament, and so they are. But if we consider them not just as lovely ancient world poetry, but as prayer, a prayer from the heart, then just listen to the poignant tone and the passion in these familiar words:
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Psalm 42: 1-2
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep! Psalm 92: 1-5
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Psalm 8:1
We could look at dozens more examples, but here’s my point: if my whole prayer life is about seeking God for things that I want or need; in other words, where my total focus is on me rather than on him, then there is a whole refreshing side of prayer that I am missing completely!
Much of my prayer should not require a specific answer from God other than his delight in me as I delight in him!
Satan fears our prayers more than anything else we can do
In our secularized, rational culture, we Christians often lose sight of the true spiritual nature of our struggle. Listen to a few quotes from some saints of the past on how the devil reacts to the prayers of the saints:
“When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy.” Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch woman of God imprisoned for sheltering Jews in World War II; author of The Hiding Place.
“Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying.” Paul E .Billheimer, noted mid-20th century author of Destined for the Throne.
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” Samuel Chadwick, a Wesleyan Methodist preacher of late 19th century.
“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on his knees.” William Cowper, 18th century popular English poet and hymnodist.
Dear brothers, and sisters, if there is an activity available to us that Jesus loves so much and the devil hates so much, should we not want to grab hold of it with all the energy, commitment and joy that we can muster?
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There are many more principles about prayer that we could have shared together. I am sure that many of you could add some helpful insights that God has shown you in your own prayer experience. However, these seven seemed to be the ones that the Lord wanted highlighted at this time. May I suggest that we read them over several times? Let their truth take firm root in our hearts and bring forth an increased fruitfulness in our prayer experience. As Oswald Chamber put it, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”
