Of prayer
Prayer often takes up a substantial part of a Christian's life, or it should. In Hope Church Singapore, it is one of the four important basic values of a Christians, the rest being Word of God, service, and fellowship. Before I begin my long reflection on what I think about prayer (inspired by some of the books I have been reading so far), let me share a story about a brother in church, someone whom I have not been meeting up for some time since last year.
When I first got to know this brother, he was a relatively young believer, about 7 months old (due to my own experience, I have often found it difficult to comprehend and relate to the difficulties faced by younger believers even though I have been through the same stage as them). And I remember he often shares one of his favourite verse with me. In Matt 7:7, it is written that “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." And he often encouraged me to continue to claim the promise of this verse as I searched for a job.
Another story, this time about myself. When I first came to Christ, I will say a prayer before I go to bed, praying for two dear friends, then who are close to my heart, to come to Him as I have come to Him. It was a routine that lasted some time. I received the HS baptism during that period of time. At the end, only one of them received Christ, but I never knew how strong is her walk in the end.
The last one, which I just read, tells of two pastors who lost their faith in God over the years, and held on to their pastoral roles cos it's a job to them. The story can be found here: http://flne.ws/26119380. One can only imagine the state of the congregations they are leading as they lead them in prayers that they do not believe in anymore. There is no need to judge the two pastors but it reflects a sorry state among even the most senior believers in the church today, as it did happen to the Hope movement last year as well.
So what is my point in these three stories? You see, prayer is often an integral of our Christian walk. We have often two choices how we want to see prayer, to treat God as a Santa Claus who answers every single one of our prayer requests, or to treat God as who He is and recognise that it is a privilege by itself to even be able to pray to God at such intimate level. And here, together with what I have read and reflected, may I dare suggest that the Christian faith offers one unique point which no other religion can offer: the intimacy of God and the closeness of His presence. I will elaborate this further later on.
And facing the truth, it is often our prayers or the lack of answers from our prayers that fail us. The brother whom I mentioned in the beginning, one can only wonder how many of his prayers are answered as he has prayed for. My continual prayer for the salvation of my loved ones continued to remain unanswered. But how can we, as Christ believers, understand what prayer is all about? After all, Paul exhorted us to 'pray continually' and present our request to God by prayer and petitions in every situation.
I believe that one clue about what prayer is really all about is found in Jesus' teaching of the Lord's prayer.
Let's do it the way we normally do it. There are often 7 'P's about prayer that we will want to teach new believers, and let us look back at these 7 'P's and ask ourselves what prayer really is and really means in the whole scheme of things.
The first P would be what we called 'presence'. The first line of the Lord's Prayer clearly acknowledges the presence of God in our lives, but I think we need to go further than that. One must realise that there is something revolutionary in Jesus' day when He prayed this prayer. This is consistent and almost symmetrical to others of His prayers. In these prayers, He will almost predictably start off with the word 'Father', and this itself, should give us a clue of what prayers mean.
Jesus' use of the word 'Father' to acknowledge God's presence in our lives is by itself unique amongst all the major religion that we know today. Eventually, the 'higher beings' in other religions seem so far-distanced apart from the commoners. In Buddhism, or rather Chinese syncretism, one has to go to the temples to pray to Buddha or the other deities. There are always rumors here and there that will inform you which temples have 'higher access' to the deities and in essence, have more prayers answered. Literally speaking, it becomes like how we measure hospital performances. The more prayers answered, the better the temple's access to the deities. Likewise, in Islam, from what I understand, the believers view Allah as being distanced from them, and someone more to be feared than being close.
This is how Christianity distinguishes itself from these worldview. In our human experience, the existence of worship shows me that we yearn for some relationship with a higher being, and only in Christianity, do we address God as our Father in heaven. This is an intimate term in the context when Jesus prayed this prayer. It signifies a level of trust and closeness towards God. It's like David directly addressing God as Yahweh.
The second 'P' is praise, which I think ought to be qualified a bit. Praise is one thing we should offer to God, but when we said 'hallowed be Your name', it means more than praise, but it is a recognition of God being holy and His name has to be, therefore, be kept holy. If Father is a term of intimacy, then the second verse is representative of the distance we have from God. It implies the standard that we are called to reach, and add the long-forgotten dimension in our Christian walk. This is one thing that is always conveniently ignored, that we always forget that God is holy as He is love, gracious, kind, merciful etc. And we abuse the grace and love of God, distort it to suit our means, and not remembering that we have a holy standard to maintain and work towards to, so that our body, the temple of God, is worthy of His holy name. I believe that praise to God is only meaningful when we kept His name holy through the outworking of our faith. God needs to be feared, and He demands reverence from us. just read through Malachi. Implicitly, Jesus' prayers never forget that God is His Holy Father. Just read His 'ripple prayer in John' and He called God 'Holy Father'.
The 3rd 'P' is purpose. Prayer ultimately is a submission to God. It is a natural progression after acknowledging the closeness and holiness of God. Let Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done, this is one prayer that puts things into its proper scheme of things. Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves, when we pray, are we ready to submit to God's purpose. It is through this that it makes sense for us to ask, seek and knock. It is when we pray for God's purpose in our lives, that we can start praying in accordance for what God will in our lives. That is when it makes sense that we commit God whatever we do and He establishes our plans. And this is where the big picture emerges. If God, being close and holy, has His will and purpose and sovereignty over us, it just logically concludes that our prayers should be answered according to His will and purpose and sovereignty. This is where He establishes Himself not as Santa Claus but as our Lord and Saviour.
The 4th 'P' is where we come to our 'providence'. Yet, sorry to disappoint all, but I have a tendency to believe that this is still not the providence that we often pray for: wealth, material gains, achievements etc but it's much more. Give us today our daily bread, is also quoted as 'give us each day our daily bread' in Luke. One needs to question the language, why is it that our daily bread? Why can't Jesus teach us to pray for God to provide our bread, enough to sustain us through our lifetime?
One can do a simple cross referencing and find that bread is also commonly and frequently referred and associated with spiritual food. Man do not live by bread alone, Jesus being the bread of life etc. God wants us to go beyond the thought of physical provision and desire for spiritual provision for our soul. Just as our body crave for physical food, we are exhorted in the bible to crave for spiritual food as well. And it is not a one time provision. It has to be a daily provision. This is crucial. I believe that we have a lot to learn as we strive to live by God's daily provision to sustain our own need. What will happen if He provides all once and for all? Perhaps we will become complacent and forget about the providence altogether? A daily prayer for God's sustanence is a key for us to continue to offer our thanksgiving to God.
And it is also here, that we perhaps always forget that God sustains our days. How many times have we passed each difficult day and find ourselves facing another, just to wonder how we have passed through the previous one? How have we found the strength to carry on? And it is here I believe that God hopes that we learn to be content with His sustanence. In the new updated NIV, it is made clearer that Phil 4:13 is really in the context of Paul's contentment towards what God has brought him through. God's power allowed him to be content with all situations. And this is where our prayers have to mind, that when we pray for providence, the prayer is ultimately a spiritual exercise and therefore the providence is ultimately going to be a spiritual one.
Let me make one important comment about this. I am not disputing that God provides us materially, but we have to bear in mind to look beyond the physical providence, which failure to do so will surely lead us to realise that our view of Christianity has utterly failed us.
The 5th 'P' is pardon. As I reflect, I wonder why pardon comes after providence? Then it makes sense to me. If providence, being spiritual providence, comes in the form of Jesus, then pardon is naturally down the pecking order, as we cannot seek God's forgiveness without first accepting God's providence for forgiveness: the sacrifice of Jesus. Redemption comes with sacrifice. In the OT, one only needs to read towards the middle of Exodus to realise that sacrifice is really a messy business. Even the building of the tabernacle takes up so much trouble, and the rules for the sacrifice are excruciating painful in preparation. Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross is essentially a providence by itself and it offers the pathway for repentance. And this signifies the importance of repentance in our prayer as well. I think Joseph Prince got it half right. It is true that some preachers use repentance (whether intentionally or not) to guilt-trip and condemn their followers, but repentance is ultimately a core in our Christian walk. Otherwise, why would Paul exhort the Corinthian church that godly sorrow leads to repentance? Repentance, ultimately, is not meant to condemn ourselves, but it is relly turning back and walking back in the correct direction towards God. It is more than saying sorry, but really receiving God's pardon and living a life worthy of that pardon.
The 6th 'P' is people. God loves people, and we ought to love them too. Forgiveness of people is essential in our relationship with people. I personally know how unforgiveness is affecting my life and affecting how I relate with some people, and this is a constant issue that I am still dealing with God. But the word speaks clearly. As God loves us, we ought to love other people the same way God loves us. And at the end of the day, if we cannot pray for people, our prayers will continue to remain self-centred.
The last 'P' is protection. We pray to be protected from temptation and evil. That being said, it is not to say that we will not be exposed to them as we know that the Tempter will seize all opportunities to distort the good things on earth to tempt us to sin. I shall not elaborate much on this further.
I ask myself if I have over-spiritualised prayer in my reflections. I am, again, not saying that prayers do not meet our physical needs, but we need to see prayers beyond the physical realm and realise that in prayers, we commune with the Almighty God. This is a spiritual act and it has its own purpose far greater and divine than our own worldly desires. I do pray for better pay, better jobs, better stuff, but I also pray more importantly of all, for God's will and purpose to be done in my life. My ultimate worship slogan is to know and worship God for who He is, not who I think He is. This, I believe, is where prayers exercise power most, that when we recognise God for who He is, and ask Him for providence, He will give us his Holy Spirit. In fact, in Luke, it is recorded that when Jesus taught us to seek, ask and knock, it is in the context that God will give us His Holy Spirit.
This is the presence, the presence of God in us from which the praise will originate. This is where God begins His purpose on earth, as it is in heaven. This is our providence, a gift that shows us pardon and gives us protection, and the conduit from which we reach out to people and find strength to forgive. I believe this is ultimately what prayer is all about.
When I first got to know this brother, he was a relatively young believer, about 7 months old (due to my own experience, I have often found it difficult to comprehend and relate to the difficulties faced by younger believers even though I have been through the same stage as them). And I remember he often shares one of his favourite verse with me. In Matt 7:7, it is written that “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." And he often encouraged me to continue to claim the promise of this verse as I searched for a job.
Another story, this time about myself. When I first came to Christ, I will say a prayer before I go to bed, praying for two dear friends, then who are close to my heart, to come to Him as I have come to Him. It was a routine that lasted some time. I received the HS baptism during that period of time. At the end, only one of them received Christ, but I never knew how strong is her walk in the end.
The last one, which I just read, tells of two pastors who lost their faith in God over the years, and held on to their pastoral roles cos it's a job to them. The story can be found here: http://flne.ws/26119380. One can only imagine the state of the congregations they are leading as they lead them in prayers that they do not believe in anymore. There is no need to judge the two pastors but it reflects a sorry state among even the most senior believers in the church today, as it did happen to the Hope movement last year as well.
So what is my point in these three stories? You see, prayer is often an integral of our Christian walk. We have often two choices how we want to see prayer, to treat God as a Santa Claus who answers every single one of our prayer requests, or to treat God as who He is and recognise that it is a privilege by itself to even be able to pray to God at such intimate level. And here, together with what I have read and reflected, may I dare suggest that the Christian faith offers one unique point which no other religion can offer: the intimacy of God and the closeness of His presence. I will elaborate this further later on.
And facing the truth, it is often our prayers or the lack of answers from our prayers that fail us. The brother whom I mentioned in the beginning, one can only wonder how many of his prayers are answered as he has prayed for. My continual prayer for the salvation of my loved ones continued to remain unanswered. But how can we, as Christ believers, understand what prayer is all about? After all, Paul exhorted us to 'pray continually' and present our request to God by prayer and petitions in every situation.
I believe that one clue about what prayer is really all about is found in Jesus' teaching of the Lord's prayer.
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Let's do it the way we normally do it. There are often 7 'P's about prayer that we will want to teach new believers, and let us look back at these 7 'P's and ask ourselves what prayer really is and really means in the whole scheme of things.
The first P would be what we called 'presence'. The first line of the Lord's Prayer clearly acknowledges the presence of God in our lives, but I think we need to go further than that. One must realise that there is something revolutionary in Jesus' day when He prayed this prayer. This is consistent and almost symmetrical to others of His prayers. In these prayers, He will almost predictably start off with the word 'Father', and this itself, should give us a clue of what prayers mean.
Jesus' use of the word 'Father' to acknowledge God's presence in our lives is by itself unique amongst all the major religion that we know today. Eventually, the 'higher beings' in other religions seem so far-distanced apart from the commoners. In Buddhism, or rather Chinese syncretism, one has to go to the temples to pray to Buddha or the other deities. There are always rumors here and there that will inform you which temples have 'higher access' to the deities and in essence, have more prayers answered. Literally speaking, it becomes like how we measure hospital performances. The more prayers answered, the better the temple's access to the deities. Likewise, in Islam, from what I understand, the believers view Allah as being distanced from them, and someone more to be feared than being close.
This is how Christianity distinguishes itself from these worldview. In our human experience, the existence of worship shows me that we yearn for some relationship with a higher being, and only in Christianity, do we address God as our Father in heaven. This is an intimate term in the context when Jesus prayed this prayer. It signifies a level of trust and closeness towards God. It's like David directly addressing God as Yahweh.
The second 'P' is praise, which I think ought to be qualified a bit. Praise is one thing we should offer to God, but when we said 'hallowed be Your name', it means more than praise, but it is a recognition of God being holy and His name has to be, therefore, be kept holy. If Father is a term of intimacy, then the second verse is representative of the distance we have from God. It implies the standard that we are called to reach, and add the long-forgotten dimension in our Christian walk. This is one thing that is always conveniently ignored, that we always forget that God is holy as He is love, gracious, kind, merciful etc. And we abuse the grace and love of God, distort it to suit our means, and not remembering that we have a holy standard to maintain and work towards to, so that our body, the temple of God, is worthy of His holy name. I believe that praise to God is only meaningful when we kept His name holy through the outworking of our faith. God needs to be feared, and He demands reverence from us. just read through Malachi. Implicitly, Jesus' prayers never forget that God is His Holy Father. Just read His 'ripple prayer in John' and He called God 'Holy Father'.
The 3rd 'P' is purpose. Prayer ultimately is a submission to God. It is a natural progression after acknowledging the closeness and holiness of God. Let Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done, this is one prayer that puts things into its proper scheme of things. Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves, when we pray, are we ready to submit to God's purpose. It is through this that it makes sense for us to ask, seek and knock. It is when we pray for God's purpose in our lives, that we can start praying in accordance for what God will in our lives. That is when it makes sense that we commit God whatever we do and He establishes our plans. And this is where the big picture emerges. If God, being close and holy, has His will and purpose and sovereignty over us, it just logically concludes that our prayers should be answered according to His will and purpose and sovereignty. This is where He establishes Himself not as Santa Claus but as our Lord and Saviour.
The 4th 'P' is where we come to our 'providence'. Yet, sorry to disappoint all, but I have a tendency to believe that this is still not the providence that we often pray for: wealth, material gains, achievements etc but it's much more. Give us today our daily bread, is also quoted as 'give us each day our daily bread' in Luke. One needs to question the language, why is it that our daily bread? Why can't Jesus teach us to pray for God to provide our bread, enough to sustain us through our lifetime?
One can do a simple cross referencing and find that bread is also commonly and frequently referred and associated with spiritual food. Man do not live by bread alone, Jesus being the bread of life etc. God wants us to go beyond the thought of physical provision and desire for spiritual provision for our soul. Just as our body crave for physical food, we are exhorted in the bible to crave for spiritual food as well. And it is not a one time provision. It has to be a daily provision. This is crucial. I believe that we have a lot to learn as we strive to live by God's daily provision to sustain our own need. What will happen if He provides all once and for all? Perhaps we will become complacent and forget about the providence altogether? A daily prayer for God's sustanence is a key for us to continue to offer our thanksgiving to God.
And it is also here, that we perhaps always forget that God sustains our days. How many times have we passed each difficult day and find ourselves facing another, just to wonder how we have passed through the previous one? How have we found the strength to carry on? And it is here I believe that God hopes that we learn to be content with His sustanence. In the new updated NIV, it is made clearer that Phil 4:13 is really in the context of Paul's contentment towards what God has brought him through. God's power allowed him to be content with all situations. And this is where our prayers have to mind, that when we pray for providence, the prayer is ultimately a spiritual exercise and therefore the providence is ultimately going to be a spiritual one.
Let me make one important comment about this. I am not disputing that God provides us materially, but we have to bear in mind to look beyond the physical providence, which failure to do so will surely lead us to realise that our view of Christianity has utterly failed us.
The 5th 'P' is pardon. As I reflect, I wonder why pardon comes after providence? Then it makes sense to me. If providence, being spiritual providence, comes in the form of Jesus, then pardon is naturally down the pecking order, as we cannot seek God's forgiveness without first accepting God's providence for forgiveness: the sacrifice of Jesus. Redemption comes with sacrifice. In the OT, one only needs to read towards the middle of Exodus to realise that sacrifice is really a messy business. Even the building of the tabernacle takes up so much trouble, and the rules for the sacrifice are excruciating painful in preparation. Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross is essentially a providence by itself and it offers the pathway for repentance. And this signifies the importance of repentance in our prayer as well. I think Joseph Prince got it half right. It is true that some preachers use repentance (whether intentionally or not) to guilt-trip and condemn their followers, but repentance is ultimately a core in our Christian walk. Otherwise, why would Paul exhort the Corinthian church that godly sorrow leads to repentance? Repentance, ultimately, is not meant to condemn ourselves, but it is relly turning back and walking back in the correct direction towards God. It is more than saying sorry, but really receiving God's pardon and living a life worthy of that pardon.
The 6th 'P' is people. God loves people, and we ought to love them too. Forgiveness of people is essential in our relationship with people. I personally know how unforgiveness is affecting my life and affecting how I relate with some people, and this is a constant issue that I am still dealing with God. But the word speaks clearly. As God loves us, we ought to love other people the same way God loves us. And at the end of the day, if we cannot pray for people, our prayers will continue to remain self-centred.
The last 'P' is protection. We pray to be protected from temptation and evil. That being said, it is not to say that we will not be exposed to them as we know that the Tempter will seize all opportunities to distort the good things on earth to tempt us to sin. I shall not elaborate much on this further.
I ask myself if I have over-spiritualised prayer in my reflections. I am, again, not saying that prayers do not meet our physical needs, but we need to see prayers beyond the physical realm and realise that in prayers, we commune with the Almighty God. This is a spiritual act and it has its own purpose far greater and divine than our own worldly desires. I do pray for better pay, better jobs, better stuff, but I also pray more importantly of all, for God's will and purpose to be done in my life. My ultimate worship slogan is to know and worship God for who He is, not who I think He is. This, I believe, is where prayers exercise power most, that when we recognise God for who He is, and ask Him for providence, He will give us his Holy Spirit. In fact, in Luke, it is recorded that when Jesus taught us to seek, ask and knock, it is in the context that God will give us His Holy Spirit.
This is the presence, the presence of God in us from which the praise will originate. This is where God begins His purpose on earth, as it is in heaven. This is our providence, a gift that shows us pardon and gives us protection, and the conduit from which we reach out to people and find strength to forgive. I believe this is ultimately what prayer is all about.
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