How We Should Worship: Prayer
“If I could define Christianity with one word, it would be prayer.” Spurgeon
What is prayer?
Prayer, properly speaking, is a petition which we make to God for the things which pertain to our salvation; but it is also taken in another, broader sense to mean any raising of the heart to God’ (*Luis de Granada).
Prayer in the Bible addresses the personal God who reveals himself to human beings, created in his image. When sin disrupted their communion with him, God took the initiative
What is Prayer?? Heidelberg Catechism
Why is prayer necessary for christians?
Because it is the chief part of thankfulness which God requires of us:a and also, because God will give his grace and Holy Spirit to those only, who with sincere desires continually ask them of him, and are thankful for them
What are the requisites of that prayer, which is acceptable to God, and which he will hear?
First, that we from the heart praya to the one true God only, who has manifested himself in his word,b for all things, he has commanded us to ask of him;c secondly, that we rightly and thoroughly know our need and misery,d that so we may deeply humble ourselves in the presence of his divine majesty;e thirdly, that we be fully persuaded that he, notwithstanding that we are unworthy of it, will, for the sake of Christ our Lord, certainly hear our prayer,f as he has promised us in his word.g
Prayer is regarded throughout Scripture as a fundamental means of religious expression.
The OT uses four main words to refer to prayer and praying: פָּלַל (pālal, “to pray”), תְּפִלָּה (tĕpillâ, “prayer”), עָתַר (ʿātar, “to supplicate”), and תְּחִנָּה (tĕḥinnâ, “plea”). Other verbs for asking and pleading are used to express praying, including זָעַק (zāʿaq, “to cry out”), קָרָא (qārāʾ, “to call”), and שָׁאַל (šāʾal, “to ask”).
The Septuagint primarily translates pālal with προσεύχομαι (proseuchomai, “to pray”); it also uses δέομαι (deomai, “to beg”) and εὔχομαι (euchomai, “to pray”) to translate both pālal and ʿātar. The NT uses four main families of words to refer to prayer, proseuchomai, which is related to εὔχομαι (euchomai, “to pray”), and three common verbs to denote asking: deomai, αἰτέω (aiteō, “to ask for”), and ἐρωτάω (erōtaō, “to ask”).
This is because praying to God assumes in faith that he is powerfully willing and also graciously able to hear and respond to the prayers of his people—and further, that he chooses to work in and through these prayers.
Thus, prayer is seen all through Scripture as both a wonderful privilege and also a solemn responsibility for God’s people. It follows, then, that prayer is utterly dependent on the revealed relational character of the God of the Bible, demonstrated most fully in the person of Jesus Christ in the NT.
Types of Prayers
How to Pray??
Sometimes we want to pray and do not know how to begin. Some examples of beautiful heartfelt prayers.
John Preston’s The Saint’s Daily Exercise (1629); Thomas Watson’s The Lord’s Prayer (repr. 1960); Matthew Henry’s Beginning and Ending the Day in Prayer; and John Flavel’s The Mystery of Divine Providence (1678).