The Nature of Prayer
What is prayer?
A simple question, right?
In some ways, yes, and in others, not really. Prayer is one of those things that anyone who has been a Christian for any amount of time will likely be able to define. Prayer is talking to God. Prayer is asking God for his help with something. Prayer is just being with God. Prayer is listening to God. Prayer is meditating on God’s Word. There is no shortage of answers from our Christian backgrounds, experiences, and personalities. And, you know what? Those answers are all correct in that they speak to an aspect of prayer. Tim Keller, in his book on prayer, talks about the multifaceted nature of prayer saying.
“We should not drive a wedge between seeking personal communion with God and seeking the advance of his Kingdom in hearts and in the world. And if they are kept together, then communion will not be just wordless mystical awareness on the one hand, and our petitions will not be a way of procuring God’s favor for “our many words” (Matt. 6:7) on the other. This book will show that prayer is both conversation and encounter with God. These two concepts give us a definition of prayer and a set of tools for deepening our prayer lives. The traditional forms of prayer adoration, confession, Thanksgiving, and supplication are concrete practices as well as profound experiences. We must know the awe of praising his glory, the intimacy of finding his grace, and the struggle of asking his help, all of which can lead us to know the spiritual reality of his presence. Prayer, then, is both awe and intimacy, struggle and reality. These will not happen every time we pray, but each should be a major component of our prayer over the course of our lives.”[1]
I love the way Keller expresses that prayer is both a connection to God’s presence and this struggle we participate in as we put our requests before God. Not that we’re struggling against God with our requests. But that we are joining God in the struggle against the powers of this age through our requests. This is something we see quite clearly in Paul’s life. In Ephesians, we see Paul’s prayer life shine through. He devoutly and regularly prays for the Ephesian believers (1:16). And his prayer life is motivated by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which reflects the awe and mystery of his salvation (1:14,18). Paul walks in the reality that prayer is an active thing where he both experiences the awe of God and joins God in mission.
The question for us to consider is, do we see prayer the same way?
Intimacy and struggle. Awe and reality.
[1] Timothy Keller, Prayer-Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. (2014) p. 5