Matthew 5:9, 45; Luke 6:35; John 1:12; Romans 8:14ff; Romans 9:26; 2 Corinthians 6:16-18; Galatians 3:26
The second motivation for prayer is because God commands it.
“We pray not simply as some solitary self-improvement program, but because we have been addressed by God. Prayer is a response to a prior divine invitation. No, ‘invitation’ is too weak. God commands us to pray, in fact to ‘pray constantly.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:17) He yearns and longs for us to pray more passionately than any earthly lover yearns for his beloved to turn her eyes and her attention to him.
We pray to obey God, not to ‘play God’. We pray, not to change God’s mind, but to change our own; not to command God, but to let Him command us. We pray to ‘let God be God.’”
This divine invitation is for relationship, and we see it in no better place than the beginning, the garden, when God formed man and woman, breathed life into them, and then, wonder of wonders, walked with them in the cool of the day. It seems this picture is lost; at least it is to me at times, too often in fact. My interaction with God becomes asking, which he’s told us to do. But it becomes only asking. It seems that what God was after with us from the beginning was relationship. We’re uniquely created for it, with Him and with each other.
Throughout scripture the picture is expanded. God is seeking after us for relationship, for a heart that longs for Him. The first chapter of Isaiah is a prime example. The people are jumping through the religious hoops day in and day out, but there’s no heart for relationship with Him. He is simply dissatisfied with their religion because it’s not what he’s after. God is, after all, not looking for subjects as much as he is looking for sons and daughters to whom He desperately wishes to give an inheritance of all sorts of good things. (Matthew 5:9, 45; Luke 6:35; John 1:12; Romans 8:14ff; Romans 9:26; 2 Corinthians 6:16-18; Galatians 3:26)
I’ve been reading Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. He’s a thoughtful and funny writer (you should read one of his books Blue Like Jazz is popular). I came across this thought there, “The God of the Bible seemed to be brokenhearted over the separation in our relationship and downright obsessed with mending the tear.” And a bit later on, “I realized that Jesus was always, and I mean always, talking about love, about people, about relationship, and He never once broke anything into steps or formulas. What if, because we were constantly trying to dissect His message, we were missing a blatant invitation? I began to wonder if becoming a Christian did not work more like falling in love than agreeing with a list of true principles.” (Chapter 3, pp 45, 46).
My Stuff
- John J. Roberts
- Moses Lake, Washington, United States
- I was born in Croix Chapeau France in 1963. My dad was there serving in the Military. I was able to go visit the town in which I was born a few years back... it was a delightful journey. Happily married... three wonderful and energetic boys: Jonathan, Joshua, Noah. I find them more interesting and fun, the older they get. I really don't understand parents who don't want to be around their children. I have a BA in Theology/Preaching from Puget Sound Christian College (which no longer exists, but from which I got some good stuff {thanks Dr. Ford - RIP})and an MA in Apologetics from Biola University.
Friday, July 11, 2008
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3 comments:
I listened to an interview of Dr. Kreeft regarding this book and basically he summed it up this way, "If you want to learn about prayer, the best way to do so is to simply pray. There's no magic formula, no book, no model that'll do it for you." One of the cool things about prayer is that you're not babbling to the air or the furniture or the walls around you. You are actually talking and listening to the greatest teacher on prayer (or on any subject, for that matter) ever! If we take the time to do it, he'll meet us there and be with us, which leads me to believe that prayer is a lot about submission - submission to his commandment to pray, submission to his call for us to leave the things buzzing around in our brains behind for the sake of this conversation, submission to his desire to see us die for the sake of resurrection.
I'm not good at prayer, but it's not because I don't know how to pray, it's because I don't take the time to do it. I don't take the time to submit or die.
Hey Chris,
Thanks for writing! There's no question about the gist of the book... and you've got it... rather I guess... Kreeft gave it to you.
I'm with you; I think of myself in the same way in regard to prayer. There are some great chapters later in the book, however, regarding "Jesus the simplist prayer" and some other ideas that really hit me. He gets into the sacramental nature of simply praying "Jesus" which we miss in our evangelical protestant culture. It's not surprising to find that given Kreeft's theology.
Time! I guess it's not making the time huh? It's taking some of the time that we have to pray... and using the moments we might not normally think of as praying moments.
I haven't prayed the name of Jesus very much (Tony Campolo starts every day out by doing this, I guess). The Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner") is something I've prayed quite a bit, though. When I notice I'm being judgemental or harsh or contemplating a sin or needing to repent of sin, rolling this prayer over and over and over again until I'm centered in the Lord's presence with him in his place and me in my place. Emily and I pray the Lord's Prayer every night as well. In a lot of the marriage stuff out there's this idea of asking your spouse how they'd like to be loved and then do that. If Jesus says that this is the best way to talk to God, then we should do it. Again, I find meditating on the words really opens me to the reality of God's presence at that time and place. (There isn't much meditation going on with Em, though :0) I once had a friend who said something about savoring your food and I think that's the way it needs to be with praying these ready made prayers.
When I first became a Christian, I thought prayer had to be this really long and drawn out thing, like taking a girl on a date (which probably says a lot about why I didn't date at all!) But, if prayer is conversing and communing with God, then it doesn't always have to be this big deal. In college, a young woman once talked about arrow-prayers or something like that. They were the prayers you say as you're going along in life. I had a roommate once who used to say stuff like, "Jesus, where'd the peanut butter go?" He wasn't cursing, but actually having a conversation with Jesus about stuff like peanut butter that would usually end with, "Praise God! There's the peanut butter!" My point is, I'm good at praying through out the day as different issues come up. I'm lousy at having the sort of time where my heart touches God's heart and my world is changed.
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