Bible Study On Prayer Part 1
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Illustrations
What is Prayer
PRAYER Communication with God, primarily offered in the second-person voice (addressing God directly). May include petition, entreaty, supplication, thanksgiving, praise, hymns, and lament.
PRAYER Communion with God, usually comprising petition, adoration, praise, confession, and thanksgiving. The ultimate object of prayer in both OT and NT is not merely the good of the petitioner but the honor of God’s name.
PRAYER
A primary means of communication that binds together God and humankind in intimate and reciprocal relationship. Its foundational assumption is the belief that the Creator of the world is both available for human address and committed to a divine-human partnership that sustains, and when necessary restores, the world in accordance with God’s creational design.
Hebrew & Greek Meaning
PRAYER (Heb. tep̱illâ; Gk. proseuchḗ, déēsis, aítēma).† Any form of communication with God on the part of believing people in response to situations that may arise in life. Prayer is marked, therefore, by variety and encompasses petition (including intercession for others), complaint, praise, thanksgiving, confession, imprecation
nonverbal communication (Rom. 8:26),
As speaking to God rather than about God, prayer expresses most clearly what is believed about God and serves to effect the personal relationship that exists between God and his people.
Our Working Definition
Purpose Of Prayer
Prayer is not intended to be the means of bringing “a reluctant God” to do the will of human beings. Such a statement does not preclude importunity or “wrestling” with God in prayer. Rather it seeks to bring human wills into subordination to God’s will so that God can bless such human beings and accomplish his will and purpose. Fisher Humphreys describes prayer as “talking to God who listens to us and responds to us because he loves us.”64 The unbeliever prays in order to seek and obtain a right relationship with God; the Christian prays that he/she may be kept in close fellowship with God.
The proper subject for prayer is “anything that is of concern” to human beings, for the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is interested in anything and everything that touches the lives of his human children.”
Forms Of Prayer
1. Adoration or Praise
As a form of prayer, adoration is to be distinguished from other forms, such as petition, thanksgiving, confession, and intercession.
The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed be Your name,” is a prayer of adoration.
Why is adoration so important, and why does it come first? First of all, adoration is our duty. In heaven, the angels ceaselessly praise God. Here on earth also, surely it is among our highest privileges to come into His presence and praise Him.
Secondly, adoration creates the context for the rest of prayer. If we spend some minutes praising God and worshiping Him, it will have two effects on us. First, it will remove from us any feeling of stiff formality in approaching God, but it will also remove from us any kind of “chummy informality.” Praise and reverence enable us to come boldly before Him, while affirming that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
2. Thanksgiving
thanks•giv•ing \thaŋ(k)s-ˈgi-viŋ also ˈthaŋ (k)s-ˌ\ noun
1533
1: the act of giving thanks
2: a prayer expressing gratitude
3 a: a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness
b capitalized: THANKSGIVING DAY
“Thanksgiving is the expression of our recognition of God as the source of our blessings and an acknowledgment of the fact that God’s gifts to us put us under obligations to the Giver.
This type of praying affirms the goodness of God’s creation and of his provisions
Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
106 Praise the LORD!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD,
or declare all his praise?
3 Blessed are they who observe justice,
who do righteousness at all times!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
are expressive of the prayer of thanksgiving. Prayers of thanksgiving abound in the epistles of Paul. Prayers of thankfulness should be expressions of joy, especially when the Giver is acknowledged even more than the gifts
3. Confession of Sin or Contrition
Prayer of confession is the acknowledgment of sin and its guilt vis-á-vis the holiness and righteousness of God. In the Old Testament prayers of confession sometimes followed upon calamity and included reference to the sins of the forefathers
contrition (Lat. contritio, “a wearing away of something hard”) The state of inner sorrow for sin and desire to confess sins. In Roman Catholic theology, true contrition includes the desire not to sin again because of one’s love for God (contrasted to “attrition”).
the Parables of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15:11–32) and of the Pharisee and the Publican (Lk. 18:9–14)
4. Petition or Supplication
“Pet tion mtans thaa we aske God forsomethÿng thatÿwe desire to happen.” It is the offering of direct and specific requests to God in behalf of oneself and those of one’s immediate circle.
Jesus’ teaching on prayer stressed the repeated asking, seeking, and knocking
the boldness of a friend at midnight (Luke 11:5–8)
the persistence of a widow seeking justice (Luke 18:1–8).
Fred Lewis Fisher, after insisting that “we are not to think of God as the servant of man” or pray as “the means of imposing our will upon God,” affirmed that petitionary prayer is needed not only because of the biblical mandates for it but also because “we cannot receive the best gifts of God until we become consciously aware of the fact that we need those particular gifts
5. Intercession
in•ter•ces•sion \ˌin-tər-ˈse-shən\ noun
[Middle English, from Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin intercession-, intercessio, from intercedere] 15th century
1: the act of interceding
2: prayer, petition, or entreaty in favor of another—in•ter•ces•sion•al \-ˈsesh-nəl, -ˈse-shə-nəl\ adjective—in•ter•ces•sor \-ˈse-sər\ noun—in•ter•ces•so•ry \-ˈses-rē, -ˈse-sə-rē\ adjective
Intercession is “asking God for a blessing on someone else rather than on self.” It is the offering of specific requests to God on behalf of other human beings and causes. Hence it is “a special form of petition
Abraham interceded for the righteous residents of Sodom (Gen. 18:22–33),
Moses for idolatrous (Exod. 32:31–32)
Paul for unbelieving Jews (Rom. 9:1–3; 10:1)
Intercessory prayer not only affords blessing to the one who intercedes and evokes his effort in behalf of that which has been asked for but also anticipates the responsive action of God.
In the New Testament one finds intercession for civil rulers, for the salvation of lost humans, for the protection of others from dangers, for the support of missionaries, for the well-being of churches, for sinning Christians, and for bodily healing
In intercession one may reach the Alpine heights of prayer.
Certain practical issues or questions in regard to prayer have been repeatedly raised by and among Christians.
1. Why Disturb a Good and Wise Providence?
If God is a good God who knows what is best for human beings, why should we bother him with impertinent petitions and intercessions? In reply one may assert that “prayer changes the conditions” for the outworking of God’s providence and that “God’s best gifts,” as evidenced by both experience and reason, cannot be and are not bestowed “apart from prayer.”
2. Is Not Prayer Useless in View of the Foreknowledge of God?
Some people assume that the foreknowledge of God means a fatalistic foreordination of all events in which God is not free to act by answering the petitions and intercessions of human beings. It is God, not abstract foreknowledge, who is the Lord. His foreknowledge can encompass prayer. According to Jesus, God knows our human needs before we pray, and hence, while excessive verbosity in prayer is not appropriate, we are to pray (Matt. 6:8).
3. Does Prayer Change the Will of God?
This may be the question of a sincere seeker or of one who has reduced prayer to nothing more than subjective effects upon the one who prays. Definition is needed. If by “the will of God” one means “God’s ultimate purpose or plan for the universe” and for humanity, then prayer obviously does not alter the will of God. If, on the other hand, one means by “the will of God” a specific “executive volition” of God, then Christians have reason to affirm that “prayer does change the will of God.” God is not the slave of abstract “immutability,” and his answering prayer does not “make God the puppet of men.” According to P. T. Forsyth, prayer is “an encounter of wills—till one will or the other give way.” Moreover, through prayer we “change the conduct, if not the will, of God to us.”
4. Can God Grant the Conflicting Petitions and Intercessions of Human Beings and Groups?
What happens when human prayers for contradictory effects are offered to God? “The Spaniards prayed for the success of their Armada: the English prayed against it.” The question suggests that such prayers place God in an embarrassing quandary. As the Lord’s Prayer would seem to suggest, answers to specific requests are conditioned on the hallowing of God’s name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will. God is sufficiently wise to answer.
5. What about “Unanswered Prayer”?
This question immediately poses a question of terminology. If prayer be rightly understood as communion with God, then true praying does not result in “unanswered” prayer. To pray is to commune with God even if certain petitions or intercessions offered to God are not immediately answered in the affirmative. Hence the question needs to be restated in terms of “unanswered petitions and/or intercessions.”
The New Testament, especially the teaching of Jesus, provides some conditions of answered petition and intercession. Such answered praying depends on faith (Matt. 21:22; James 1:6), on persistence, or importunity (Matt. 7:7–8; Luke 11:5–13; 18:1–8), and on praying in Jesus’ name—or as his agent (John 14:13–14), while abiding in Jesus (John 15:7), asking according to the will of God (1 John 5:14b), and being under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:26–27).
Those who offer petitionary and intercessory prayer are well advised to recognize that God’s response can be “negative” as well as “affirmative,” can be “later” rather than “now,” and can be in terms of a response more blessed than that which has been requested.
HINDRANCES TO PRAYER
1. THERE are many who have experienced at times an intense dissatisfaction with their prayers. They seem so lame, so cold, so profitless that they are inclined to exclaim, “What a weariness, what a mockery it is!” They are constantly disappointed with themselves. The heart that seemed so full has run empty ere they reached their knees. They have nothing to say; all their thoughts have fled from them; and the intense longing comes across their heart that some one would teach them how to pray.
11 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
¶ I think it was some sense of dissatisfaction with their prayers which stole into the hearts of the disciples, and prompted the petition—“Lord, teach us to pray”. The sight of their praying Master doubtless aroused the feeling. As they saw His earnestness, His faith, and how many things He had to lay before His Father, they craved to know the secret of that spirit of prayer. They contrasted it, in their own minds, with their own faint, dead, spiritless, and meagre petitions; and realized, with a vividness they never felt before, how grievously defective in all the features of true prayer were their own lifeless supplications.
2. Can we discern any of the causes of this barrenness in prayer? We may find some help if we consider the following:—
(i) Inattentiveness.
(ii) Preoccupation.
(iii) Doubt.
(iv) Pride.
(v) Selfishness.
Inattentiveness
in•at•ten•tion \ˌi-nə-ˈten(t)-shən\ noun
circa 1670: failure to pay attention
in•at•ten•tive \-ˈten-tiv\ adjective
1692: not attentive: not paying attention—in•at•ten•tive•ly adverb—in•at•ten•tive•ness noun
17 Jesus remarking it, said to them, Why do you make this reflection, that you have no bread? Are you yet so thoughtless, so inattentive? Is your understanding still blinded? 18 Have you no use of your eyes, or of your ears? or do you not remember 19 when I distributed the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you carry off? They answered, Twelve. 20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many hand-baskets full of the fragments did you carry off? They said, Seven. 21 How then is it, proceeded he, that you do not apprehend me?
Take, first, wandering thoughts. Very likely our thoughts wander at other times besides during our prayers. Very likely we find it difficult to fix them steadily upon anything we want to study or think about attentively. We have suffered ourselves to fall into a bad intellectual habit of inattention, and so have lost in a great measure the power of fixing the mind upon any subject. We are not likely to be able to fix the mind upon our prayers, if our ordinary habit of mind is thoughtless, vague, indolent, indifferent. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” is a rule which may be applied with equal force to the mind and to that which it “findeth to do”. Those who can at all times fix the mind upon that which they are doing have a great advantage in their prayers.
Attention is an effect, and you cannot have an effect without its cause. Is it not sacrifice, then, that is to say, is it not love, that lies at the root of attention? Consider your own case: did you ever experience any difficulty in attending to what you loved? Is it not significant, for instance, that a person who loves another is said to pay attention? Think, too, of little children, how careless and inattentive they will sometimes be at their work one moment, and how devoted they will be to their play the next.
2. But thought can be controlled by will. If it were not so, St. Paul would never have written, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things”. Concentration of thought on prayer is hindered not only by careless thinking of God and eternal realities, but by inattentive habits in regard to any subject. Life is a whole, and the ordinary frame of the daily life will be, practically, the mood of the hour of prayer. “Learn to give your whole mind,” it has been truly said, “to whatever you are doing, to the book you are reading, the letter you are writing, nay, even to the sweeping of a room, or the making of a garment.”
¶ When thou shalt have entered the church for prayer or praise, leave outside the tumult of wavering thoughts, and be inwardly forgetful of all care as to outer matters, so that thou mayest be free to devote thyself to God alone. For it is not possible that there should at any time talk with God one who at the same time is also silently chatting with the whole world. Give attention, therefore, to Him who giveth attention to thee. Listen to Him as He speaketh to thee, that He Himself may hear thee when thou speakest to Him. It will thus happen that if thou assistest at the utterance of Divine praises with due reverence and thoughtfulness, if thou hearkenest intently and diligently to every word of Holy Scripture, thou wilt hear God speak to thee. Not that I say that I do these things; but I wish to do them; I grieve at not having done them; I am vexed when I do them not. But do thou to whom greater grace is granted, with vows and devout prayer turn towards thyself the merciful ears of the Lord; with tears and sighs beseech Him to look with clemency on thy wanderings from faithfulness, and with spiritual beings praise and glorify Him in all His works. For nothing more pleaseth the citizens on high, nothing giveth more joy to the Heavenly King.
It is only self-deception when we quiet our conscience by trying to persuade ourselves that we have been praying, when really we have only been kneeling. Better far to recognize and admit our constitutional infirmity, and, without yielding to it, none the less take special measures to discount its adverse influence, rather than court discouragement by persistently attempting to accomplish what our natural disposition renders almost an impossibility.
Preoccupation
pre•oc•cu•pa•tion \(ˌ)prē-ˌä-kyə-ˈpā-shən\ noun
1603
1: an act of preoccupying: the state of being preoccupied
2 a: extreme or excessive concern with something
b: something that preoccupies one
pre•oc•cu•pied \(ˌ)prē-ˈä-kyə-ˌpīd\ adjective
1842
1: previously applied to another group and unavailable for use in a new sense—used of a biological generic or specific name
2 a: lost in thought also: absorbed in some preoccupation
b: already occupied synonym see ABSTRACTED
Solomon In Ecclesiastes Chapter 2
21For there is a person whose toil is with wisdom and knowledge and manliness, and a person who did not toil at it: he will give him his portion; indeed, this is vanity and a great evil. 22For what happens to mortals in all their toil and in the preference of their heart with which they toil under the sun? 23For all their days are days of pains, and their preoccupation is of anger; indeed, at night their heart does not sleep. Indeed, this is vanity.
A man is building a new house, and planning his garden. He can think of little else. It is natural enough he should be greatly interested in his plans. But then they will come into his mind when he is at his prayers. This is a great snare, and needs much resolution and many struggles. It matters not what the care or the interest is, it must not be allowed to get between the soul and God. It must be made a subject of special prayer that it may not do so.
Doubt
2doubt noun
13th century
1 a: uncertainty of belief or opinion that often interferes with decision-making
b: a deliberate suspension of judgment
2: a state of affairs giving rise to uncertainty, hesitation, or suspense 〈the outcome is still in doubt〉
3 a: a lack of confidence: DISTRUST 〈has doubts about his abilities〉
b: an inclination not to believe or accept 〈a claim met with doubt〉 synonym see UNCERTAINTY—no doubt: 1DOUBTLESS
Doubt
“To believe is to be ‘in one mind’ about accepting something as true; to disbelieve is to be ‘in one mind’ about rejecting it. To doubt is to waver between the two, to believe and disbelieve at once and so be ‘in two minds’” (Os Guinness, In Two Minds [Downers Grove, Ill: Inter-Varsity,1976], pp. 24-25).
Doubt
God will help us overcome doubts (Psalm 42:5–6)
God doesn’t leave us during our time of doubt (Isaiah 40:27–28)
Help those who have spiritual doubts (Hebrews 3:12)
Doubt inhibits our prayers (James 1:5–7)
Drinking
3. However common and distressing may be the infirmity of doubt, it is exceedingly simple both to understand and to deal with. It requires only the application of common sense for us to see that we know enough to be able to overcome the weakness by degrees. The difficulty, in short, solvitur ambulando; as Archbishop Temple used to say, “Is it impossible? then make it possible by doing it”. No revelation from God is needed for this purpose. We require simply (1) to pray for help before beginning; (2) to grasp the principles of prayer as taught in the Lord’s Prayer; (3) the discipline of practice; (4) patience with the slowness of our progress; (5) perseverance; (6) to recognize that wrestling effort is an inherent characteristic of prayer in the Bible, from Gen. 32:26 (Jacob and the Angel) to the word “strive” in Eph. 6:18, and Rev. 6:10; (7) to remember that genuine dissatisfaction in such a matter is a sign of life, and common to all prayerful people; (8) certainty of conviction that the promises attached to earnest effort in prayer will not fail.
Pride
1pride \ˈprīd\ noun
[Middle English, from Old English prȳde, from prūd proud—more at PROUD] before 12th century
1: the quality or state of being proud: as
a: inordinate self-esteem: CONCEIT
b: a reasonable or justifiable self-respect
c: delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship 〈parental pride〉
2: proud or disdainful behavior or treatment: DISDAIN
3 a: ostentatious display
b: highest pitch: PRIME
4: a source of pride: the best in a group or class
5: a company of lions
6: a showy or impressive group 〈a pride of dancers〉
Pride (see also Self-Esteem)
Pride leads to shame (Proverbs 11:2)
Pride leads to arguments (Proverbs 13:10)
Pride will be punished (Proverbs 16:5)
Pride ends in destruction (Proverbs 16:18)
Pride cuts us off from God and others (Luke 18:9–14)
There is no place for proud boasting in the Christian life (Romans 3:27)
God chose to reveal himself to the humble, not the proud (1 Corinthians 1:26–31)
Pride is not compatible with the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–26)
God opposes the proud (James 4:6)
1. We are very slow to learn the lesson of our own utter inability. Pride is a very dull scholar in the school of experience; and often and often she will beat about, seeking for every possible excuse for the failure of which she herself is the sole cause. We feel at some time, perhaps, that our hearts are prompted by an earnest desire to pray. We become for the moment keenly alive to our own wants; but when we attempt to pray, we find the edge of that sense of need is gone. The heart appears full, but when we kneel we find it empty. Like Tantalus of old, we anticipate a rich draught of the brimming flood; but as we stoop to drink, it is gone. Vexed and disappointed we murmur at our privation, but are too blind to see its cause. We cannot see that our own self-conceit lies at the root of our failure. We think we can do it of ourselves—we anticipate rich heart communion; but we are miserably mistaken, because we do not realize that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but that our whole sufficiency is of God. We forget that it is ever true, and must continue to be the heart experience of all the sons of God till the end of time, that we know not what we should pray for as we ought. We forget that, for real, successful prayer, a Divine energy of prayer must quicken our hearts; that the Holy Spirit of God must help our infirmities, making intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
¶ A full hand cannot take Christ.
¶ It is very significant that in Solomon’s catalogue of “six things which the Lord hateth, yea, seven which are an abomination unto him,” the very foremost place is given to what few men would consider a sin at all—“a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that are swift to run to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren”. A black catalogue that! most of them sins that all men will condemn, and of which most men would be ashamed. But at the very head of the list stands the “proud look”; and as there cannot be a proud look unless there is a proud heart behind it, it is the hidden pride of heart that here is stamped with the foremost reprobation of God.
¶ James and John once came to Jesus and made to Him the amazing request that He would place one of them on His right hand and the other on His left hand when He set up His imperial government at Jerusalem! As long as these self-seeking disciples sought only their own glory, Christ could not give the askings of their ambitious hearts. By-and-by, when their hearts had been renewed by the Holy Spirit, and they had become so consecrated to Christ that they were in complete harmony with Him, they were not afraid to pour out their deepest desires. James declares that, if we do not “ask amiss,” God will “give liberally”. John declares that “whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight”. Just as soon as those two Christians found their supreme happiness in Christ and His cause they received the desires of their hearts.
3. For true balance of character and to produce the best work in any line, it is necessary for a man to have both humility and also self-confidence. There is a false humility which weakens a man and unfits him for the duties of life. It is often indistinguishable from moral cowardice, a refusal to put forth the best powers, a slackness of moral tissue which may be as fatal a form of self-indulgence as any other form of it.
Selfishness
selfishness An inordinate concern to satisfy one’s own desires and fulfill one’s own needs. From the Christian perspective this attitude violates the command of Christ to love others (Matt. 19:19; 22:39) and to live with the needs of others as foremost (cf. 2 Cor. 12:20; Phil. 2:3; Jas. 3:14, 16).
During a sermon, the country preacher said to his congregation, “Now let the church walk.” Deacon Jones said, “Amen, let it walk.”
“Let the church run,” said the preacher. “Let it run,” echoed Deacon Jones.
“Let it fly,” said the preacher. “Amen, brother, let the church fly,” said Deacon Jones.
“Now it’s going to take money to let it fly, brother,” said the preacher. “Let it walk,” said Deacon Jones. “Let it walk.”
The pastor of a large and wealthy church in Texas broke out in laughter in the middle of singing a hymn during the Sunday-morning service. After the service was over, his wife asked what could have caused him to do such a thing. “Well,” he said, “I couldn’t help it. We were singing ‘Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee,’ and I noticed the words of the third verse: ‘Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold.’ It suddenly struck me, with all the millionaires sitting in the congregation, what if God would answer that prayer right then? Some of them would be very upset and angry with him. I’ve been encouraging them to give their silver and gold for a long time, but they’ve not been willing. But now they’re singing, ‘Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold.’ ”
A spirit of selfishness in prayer will lead to the sense of barrenness. By selfishness in prayer is meant that spirit in prayer which confines all our supplications to our own individual need. It is not that we do not include by name many of our friends and relatives within the circle of our prayers.
Of course we all of us do this. But even when we do so, is it not often done in a perfunctory way? Is not the spirit which yearns over them very far removed from us? Is there the presence of that feeling of the Apostle, who described himself as travailing in birth-pangs for those in whose hearts he desired to see Christ formed? And God often visits us with barrenness because we fail to grow in heart-sympathy and Christian longing for the welfare of others. It is the very law of Christ that His love should spread, as it is the law of hydrostatics that pressure should circulate in all directions through a volume of water; and when we in a niggardly forgetfulness of others violate that law, we are met with the punishment of a straitening in ourselves.