Thursday, February 09, 2006
Praying
Mark Roberts has been doing an interesting series on prayer, primarily public prayer and what is or is not appropriate for the Christian. His motive is the recent President's Prayer Breakfast and its interfaith nature. In the latest installment, Mark looks at closing prayer with the phrase "In Jesus' Name."
Prayer is not about what we say, or even really "think" - it is another way of placing ourselves in a proper attitude in front of God, prostrate, humble, reliant, submissive and in awe.
Related Tags: prayer, Christianity, church, Mark Roberts, Mark Daniels, faith
In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches His disciples to pray "in his name": "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:13-14). Yet Jesus doesn't mean that we must say "in Jesus's name" at the end of every prayer, though this is surely a fine thing to do as long as we don't think of "in Jesus's name" as magic words. To pray in Jesus's name is to pray under His authorization. It means to approach God through Jesus and to seek, not our own will, but the will of Jesus our Lord.This caused me to reflect on prayer. It's funny stuff. Mark Daniels had an interesting post on it the other day
Therefore, all Christians should pray in Jesus's name and no other, whether they say "in Jesus's name" or not. When I, and thousands of other Christians at the Prayer Breakfast, agreed with Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Jewish man, in prayer, we were praying in Jesus's name, even though he was not and did not use the familiar Christian ending to his prayer. I was coming before God in the name of Jesus because that's the only way I pray.
So today, my prayers are shorter than they used to be. I also pray more often. In this way, I'm able to avoid the spiritual pitfall of praying for a long time just to say that I prayed a long time--meaning that I egotistically yammered rather than prayed-- and because I check in with God more often each day, also do as Paul recommends: Pray without ceasing.It just seems to me like people get really hung up on the form of prayer instead of the content, and even more importantly, the attitude. Mark goes on to say this
Many regular readers here know that one of my favorite books is Prayer, written by the Norwegian theologian, Ole Hallesby. Hallesby says, with good Biblical and experiential warrant, I think, that for the things we offer to God to actually be prayer, two ingredients must be present:Have you ever thought about the fact that there is nothing we can tell God? I mean really, if we actually had information that He did not, would He not be something less than God?
- Faith in God
- Helplessness
Prayer is not about what we say, or even really "think" - it is another way of placing ourselves in a proper attitude in front of God, prostrate, humble, reliant, submissive and in awe.
Related Tags: prayer, Christianity, church, Mark Roberts, Mark Daniels, faith
