Disciplines for Life/Prayer: Direct Dial to Heaven

From Gospel Translations

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My wife Nancy and I are well known among our friends for the amount of time we spend talking. We don’t do it because someone at a marriage seminar told us to. We do it because we love conversation with each other. It’s been that way for seventeen years now and began long before we were married. Hardly a day goes by without some time of stimulating, usually intimate, discussion.

As I write this, Nancy has the flu. She’s been sick for about ten days now. Five days ago she lost her voice. She can’t talk beyond a whisper, and when she does whisper, it causes a painful cough.

Last night we sat on the couch after the children were in bed—a typical time to talk—and both of us ended up frustrated. She whispered, “Tell me what’s been on your mind.” So I told her. It took three minutes. She wanted to respond with a question or some thoughts of her own, but the coughing wouldn’t allow it. We ended up reading the newspaper.

Our love and commitment for each other haven’t diminished through Nancy’s illness, but we miss the inti- macy of conversation. Our relationship with God is the same. We can have a commitment to him without an intimate relationship with him. But if we want our relationship to grow, we must converse. The Bible calls such conversation with God prayer. Without this conversation our experience with God becomes similar to what Nancy and I have gone through during her bout with the flu: we love each other, but our lack of communication creates a sense of distance.

Still, we can’t take our love for granted and ignore prayer. With the distance of non-communication, love can be tempted to wane. Ask anyone who’s been through a marital crisis. So prayer is essential to our life with God.

Prayer is perhaps the simplest yet most profound of the spiritual disciplines. When we pray, we are simply communicating with God. No exotic spiritual hoopla, no mystical rituals—just dialogue. And yet it’s a dialogue with the exalted Lord of the universe. We have the amazing privilege of speaking directly to Almighty God! More remarkable still is the fact that he listens, and speaks to us in turn.

To keep us from getting tongue-tied or intimidated, Jesus took great pains to show us how to relate to God. He could have emphasized God’s role as Judge or King. Instead, Jesus presented him as Father—the kind of Father who welcomes his children with open arms (Mk 10:13-16). And while some of us may have bad memories of our own dads, our Father in heaven loves nothing better than to sit with us and hear everything that’s on our mind.

Why Pray?

Prayer changes us as much as it changes the situations for which we pray. This is usually unexpected. There I sit, praying for someone who has a bad attitude toward me, and suddenly I realize that the Spirit is playing his flashlight along the walls of my heart. “You seem very concerned about that speck in your friend’s eye,” he whispers, “but have you noticed the log sticking out of your face?” We rarely appreciate this information at first until we realize that God is answering our prayer.

Prayer also increases our faith. As I write this, my church is involved in a building program. When I think about the amount of money and effort still needed before our facility is built, I can get discouraged. As I pray, though, and affirm the fact that God is in control of the situation, my perspective changes. Not only do I gain faith that God can pull it off, but I get excited about the part I can play in making it happen.

Thus far we’ve not mentioned the most obvious benefit of prayer: It works. When we pray, God unleashes his power. Are you sick? Pray. Need a job? Pray. Want your family to know Jesus? Pray. Facing conflict with someone? Pray. We’ll be amazed to see the things our Father does when we ask for his help.

But is this work of prayer really necessary? If God is sovereign and controls the whole world, why do we need to pray? Couldn’t God do a far better job without our help?

There are certain things our prayers will never change. For example, Jesus will come back whether we pray or not. He will judge the living and the dead. These are fixed events in God’s purpose. However, our prayers do have an impact in other areas. There are things God just won’t do unless we ask. When we pray for a fellow believer to over- come sin, or for a child to be healed of cancer, our prayers are helping fulfill God’s will.

Not that God can’t accomplish his purposes without us. As John the Baptist noted, God can raise up stones to do his will if we refuse (Mt 3:9). But our involvement matters to God. He invites us, through our prayer, to help usher in his coming kingdom. Why? I’m not sure we can know beyond the fact that he’s chosen for it to be that way. Who am I to question him? The fact of the matter remains that though our efforts be sloppy and often weak, he’s chosen to accomplish much of his will through us: an amazing privilege.

The Power of Example

Reading about prayer can be helpful, but watching others pray is even better. I spent 15 months serving a church in Southern California in the late 1980s. Every Tuesday through Saturday the pastoral staff invited any- one who wanted to join them for prayer between 6:00 and 7:00 in the morning. No schedule conflicts there. When the church hit a crisis time, we decided to meet as pastors for an additional hour of prayer on those days before the other folks arrived.

I can’t say I always came freely. It was part of the job, and my attendance wasn’t always exemplary. But God used this imposed discipline in my life. I was praying with men committed to intercession. Not that they did anything fancy. And I could tell they were as tired as I was. Yet their fervency and perseverance made a lasting impact on me. By their example, these men taught me more about praying than any lecture or book ever could. Today I count those prayer sessions among my most precious memories of our time in California.

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