The essential nature of prayer⤒🔗

There is a simple definition of prayer, yet one that shows some­thing of its great potential. Prayer is 'the address of a creature on earth to God in heaven, about everything that concerns his God, his neighbour or himself, in this world or the world to come'. The two main persons in prayer are the creature and his Creator. The subject matter is everything in time and eternity. This view of prayer is expansive. Here is the God to whom we can speak about things great and small.

The potential of prayer←⤒🔗

Perhaps we gain so little from prayer because we expect so little from it. It can be one of those duties that is expected of a Christian. For a Christian it is a privilege full of great potential for spiritual enjoyment. Prayer is 'that language wherein a creature holds correspondence with his Creator: and wherein (in which) the soul of a saint often gets near to God, is entertained with great delight, and, as it were, dwells with his heavenly Father for a short season before he comes to heaven'.

How far removed that is from so much of our praying, is it not? What do we know of nearness to God, great delight and foretaste of heaven in prayer? Do we see prayer as 'a glorious privilege that our Maker has indulged (allows us to enjoy the pleasure of) to us'?

The nature of prayer←⤒🔗

Prayer can be divided (separated) into nine parts. It is not that every time we pray all these elements have to be found, but that we have a mental image of the structure and aspects of prayer to assist us in praying.

Prayer begins with invocation or calling upon God. God is addressed by one of his names or titles, our desire to worship him is expressed and his assistance is sought, for we recognise that to pray aright we need his help.

Invocation (calling upon God) is followed by adoration (worshipping with love). God is praised for what he is in his Being: self-sufficient, Trinitarian (believing the doctrine that the three persons of the one Christian God are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), above our understanding and infinitely (boundless, endless) superior to us. He is praised for all the different aspects of his character, for being precisely the sort of God the Bible reveals him to be. He is to be praised for his great acts of creation, providence (the work of God  in which he actively preserves and directs all his creation and all his creatures so that his purpose for creation is  fulfilled) and salvation (the saving of a sinner from the righteous judgment of God) and for all the different relationships that he has to us as Creator, Saviour, Friend, etc.

Adoration (worshipping with love) is especially important for warming our hearts in prayer. God in his essential Being may seem remote, but the nearer we draw to him as we consider his great works of salvation in Christ the nearer we will feel to him. Adoration prepares us for other parts of worship.

Adoration (worshipping with love) is followed by confession. True confession acknowledges our frailty (weak) and creatureliness (being a creature/human), our utter dependence on God. It then confesses our fallenness in Adam and the personal sins by which our lives have been pol­luted (made unfit and foul). It recognises the justice of God in being angry with us for our sins and our desert (leave someone without help) of punishment. Confession increases our humility (not to think more highly of yourself than you ought, to know true position before God), abasement (our low and sinful state) and shame before God.

The confession of sin drives us on to petition (appeal to, request, ask). Our sense of sin and need ought (should expect) to lead us to cry to God for mercy and for deliverance from all evil. However, there is more to petition than a cry for forgiveness. There is also to be a request for growth in grace and greater sanctification (To be set apart for a holy use. An ongoing inner transformation in which the Holy Spirit works to make the believer more and more like Christ in every way, including desires, thoughts and actions.). Not only our per­sonal needs but also the needs of others are to fill our prayers. The prosperity of the church worldwide, the extension of God's kingdom, the conversion of the nations, the outpouring (pouring out, flowing out) of the Spirit, the deliverance of the persecuted and special prayers for our own nation and family are all part of petition.

Special pleading with God is to be added to petition. This is humble but intense petition using arguments with God to emphasise (importance) our requests. We ought to plead (ask earnestly) with God on the basis of the greatness of our needs, the nature of his attributes (a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent (existing in someone) part of someone or something), the special relationship that he has towards his church. We are to plead with God to act for the sake of his own great Name, for his reputation and cause is at stake, and to take on our lips the name of Christ, for 'the most powerful and prevailing argument is the name and mediation (settle differences) of our Lord Jesus Christ'. Such pleading with God in prayer is surely rarely heard among us. We lack the fervency (great warmth and passion) and the persistence, and so often the half-heartedness of our praying reflects the coldness of our hearts.

Pleading with God is to be followed by self-dedication to God. A part of our prayers ought (should expect) to be the renewed profession of our faith in Christ and a recounting of his mercies towards us as a preparation for renewed self-dedication. In our prayers we ought (should expect) to promise to continue to serve God and to do what pleases him. Such rededication (returning to the Lord) should be accom­panied by a renunciation (giving up) of all that is displeasing to him.

Thanksgiving is the next element in prayer. As we recall God's goodness to us we should remember those blessings given in answer to prayer and those blessings given without our asking. All God's mercies ought (should expect) to stir us to thanksgiving but especially those which were unasked yet freely given. If thanklessness (not thankful) in man to men is a discourtesy (bad manners), how much more serious is thanklessness in man to God?

In addition to thanksgiving is blessing. Blessings is a type of thanksgiving peculiar to man, and especially appropriate (proper) to God's people. Blessing is praising God for his own sake out of a genuine (true and real) inward joy, satis­faction and pleasure. It is an unselfish part of thanksgiving.

Blessing God is followed by the Amen. Far from being a redundant (not useful) for­mality or a liturgical (formal worship) ending to prayer, the amen is the affirmation (yes and true) that all that has been said, requested and promised in prayer is sincerely meant and that the prayer is expected to be answered.

These nine elements are summarised in verse as an aid to their memorisation:

Call upon God, adore and confess,
Petition, plead and then declare
You are the Lord's; give thanks and bless
And let 'Amen' confirm the prayer.

Increasing our proficiency (with great skill) in prayer←⤒🔗

The ability to pray well is the 'gift of prayer' and seeks to give some directions to aid us in our praying. He believed that well structured prayers were easier to pray and to be heard by others, although he did not want our praying to become formal and replace our own needs and thoughts.

To pray well the child of God needs content (something) in his prayers. Such content will arise from his own particular experience of God's mercies and the needs of the situation pressing upon him. However, he needs also to stimulate his mind to pray by the reading of Scripture, Christian books, conversation with other Christians on helpful matters, and through private meditation (thinking, reflecting, praying).

He also needs some structure. In addition to that structure given by an understanding of the different aspects of prayer, it is useful to have some gen­eral principles to guide our sequence of thoughts. We should work from the general to the particular. We should group together things of the same kind. We should follow the biblical method of praying about doctrinal (beliefs and teaching) matters that involve our judgment before consequences of the doctrine that involve our affections. In other words, we are to try to have some logical order in our praying so that we do not ramble uncontrolled, back and for­ward between subjects, as if we were mindlessly babbling.

In addition, prayer should be expressed in suitable language. The mind that is stored with Scripture and the tongue that is used to being engaged in profitable speech will be best equipped to express itself in prayer. The more our minds contemplate (examine and view) and appreciate (recognize the full worth) the mercy of God towards us the more our mouths will speak out of full hearts. True ability in prayer cannot be separated from our general state of godliness.

To pray in suitable language also involves attempting to express what is in our minds in the most fitting way. Especially in public prayer there ought (should expect) to be an avoidance of language which is either archaic (very old) and redundant (not useful), or new and racy (lively, entertaining). Theological (religious beliefs) and philosophical (existence and reality) language, constant repetitions, long, involved sentences and long, tedious (dull, tiresome) prayers ought (should expect) to be shunned (avoided, rejected). An attempt at some diversity (a range of different things) in expression is helpful.

Prayer should be offered in a suitable voice. A suitable prayer voice is exactly the same voice that we would use to speak on any serious subject. Public prayer requires a voice that is distinct (decided), even at the end of sentences, loud enough to be heard without being painful, neither monotonous (lacking in variety or interest) nor theatrical (like an actor), neither too fast nor too slow. Our voice and our gestures (facial, hand or body movement), if any, should suit our subject matter.

Largely, although not totally, ability in prayer has to do with the outward act of praying: how we speak and what we say. Behind this ability to pray has to be the spiritual state of the soul which prays. This is the 'Grace of Prayer'.

Spirituality in prayer←⤒🔗

The grace of prayer is 'all those holy dispositions (usual attitude) of soul which are to be exercised in that part of divine (of God) worship ... the soul and spirit that gives life, and vigour (strength) and efficacy (the desired and intended result) that renders it acceptable to God and of real advan­tage to ourselves.'

We have the dispositions of soul, the spiritual ability to pray with effect, when our prayers are motivated by faith. A definition of faith given in Hebrews 11:6, the first grace needed, 'Faith or belief of the being of God, and his perfect knowledge, and his gracious (forgiving, compassionate and kind) notice of all that we speak in prayer.' The person who prays has really to believe in the living God and his willingness and readiness to hear our prayers.

True prayer will also come from a person who is serious-minded rather than trivial (of little value or importance) and flippant (not being serious and respectful) in his approach to God. To come into the presence of God is a grave and solemn (sincere, earnest) thing. Low views of the majesty of God lead to reduced estimations of the significance of prayer.

Heavenly-mindedness is a key to true prayer. 'For prayer is a retirement from earth, and a retreat from our fellow creatures to attend on God, and hold correspondence with him that dwells in heaven. The mind that is pre­occupied with this world, its riches, fame and interests will find prayer a hard work.'

Sincere attention to the matter in hand when we pray, to the type of prayer we are offering and the things we are saying, is of great importance. It is so easy for the words of the mouth to be detached from the thoughts of the mind.

Few Christians would question that the kind of spiritual frame which fits us for prayer is desirable, but how is it to be attained and maintained? We should think much about prayer: its nature, its importance and the greatness of its privilege. In addition, we should be sure of our friendship with God and particularly focus our attention on Christ. 'Live much upon and with Jesus the Mediator: by whose interest alone you can come near to God.' We should also seek to maintain the frame of mind that is always prayerful and that takes those opportunities given to it to pray.

All the very best intentions and desires will fall short of realisation with­out the assistance of the Holy Spirit. 'All the rules and directions that have hitherto been laid down in order to teach us to pray will be ineffectual if we have no divine help.'

The Spirit of prayer←⤒🔗

There are many Scriptures which declare the special role of the Holy Spirit in prayer. Historically, some professing Christians have made too little of the need of the Spirit in prayer, as though it was a merely natural activity, whereas others have made too much, as though the Spirit alone prayed and human involvement was minimal.

The Holy Spirit is the author of our natural abili­ties. He also blesses us when we pray and attempt to pray. However, in addition he inclines our hearts to pray and assists us to persevere in prayer. He can suggest to us those things for which we ought (should expect) to pray, and prompt us as to how to pray. He helps us to express ourselves and stimulates those graces which are needed for prayer.

He warns against misinterpreting the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer. Not all desire to pray proceeds from the Holy Spirit. People may be incited (stirred up) to pray by other reasons than his influence. The Spirit's help in prayer is not always a felt help. I do not have 'to feel the Spirit moving in my heart' before I pray! The presence of the Spirit is not necessarily discernible to others. A man 'praying in the Spirit' is not necessarily going to be the most eloquent (fluent, expressive and well informed) in prayer. Yet while taking these warnings to heart it has to be rec­ognised that the need for the aid of the Holy Spirit in prayer is paramount (of great importance).

The blessing of God on our own souls, families, churches and nations cannot be expected while prayer lies so neglected and is performed so half­heartedly. If the need of this age is the blessing of God, then prayer is the means of obtaining it. Let us then be persuaded to pray, and look to God for his response of blessing.