Prayer: Modern Proverbs

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.
- Martin Luther

Prayer
Modern Proverbs

Moving God, men and circumstances are among the chief reasons to pray. Doing so requires learning and practicing the art of prayer. Fully dependent on the love, mercy and faithfulness of God, the wise Christian daily intercedes for the needs of family and friends, neighbors and the world in which we live. Spontaneous praying throughout the day, the true intercessor knows that scheduled sessions of quality prayer are even more vital.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.

- Titus 2:11-12 MSG

Prayer
Modern Proverbs
by Robert R. Pennington

Prayer may be less about declaring our thoughts to God than uncovering His.

Omnity notwithstanding one wonders if God has any more luck getting us to hear and answer His prayers than vice versa?

Nothing seems easier than simple prayer. Requests can be whispered or even just thought. Yet what is less common than clearly Divine answers. Miracles, by definition, are rare. Far too rare...

Does God fail to answer because we fail to pray or do we fail to pray because God fails to answer? Or both?

As for the act and discipline of Christian prayer, there is something to be said for the exercise alone. While often more like "fishing" than "catching" the practice can be refreshing and even invigorating. Done right, or nearly so, obediently unburdening one's soul can be therapeutic on several levels. Few however, hooking and landing little or no fish, continue to devote themselves to either.

Has anyone else spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours repenting only to address the question of God's goodness so directly as feel the need to apologize to Him during and after prayer? Such prayers are not tolerated in public - perhaps for good reason.

Do others risk repeatedly pointing out the apparent inconsistencies of Divine care to Him with whom there is no variance or shadow of turning? Am I alone in being accustomed to ending prayers with "have mercy" or "I'm sorry" rather than "amen" or "hallelujah"?

Jesus counsels it is not the hearing of fair words and songs but of impertinent knocking and demanding that causes a Friend to arise at midnight and give what is needed.

I've often thought it the duty of those "at peace" to invest themselves in praying through for themselves and the afflicted. As it is written: "remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering."

As for prevailing prayer, I've often felt more like Woody Allan than Moses.

In the annals of comedy, Kings would hire jesters to tell them truths about themselves and their kingdoms none else would dare. No doubt many a comic "died" of displeasing his Audience. I hope God finds my "set" more to His liking.

After attending over 1,000 corporate prayer meetings I can count on the fingers of one hand those with whom I am currently welcomed to pray at even 30% intensity (honesty, content and/or style). Praying sorrowful prayers alone can be lonely business but then there is generally more agreement.

It is only reasonable that reasonable people should ask reasonable questions in hope of reasonable answers. "For all who ask receive..."

"What does it mean to ""trust in the Lord"" during trials? What part does "crying out" play in this event and/or process? How does one cry? What emotion and volume is implied? What content is preferred or acceptable; liturgical, religious or real? What of stillness, silence and/or "praying in the Spirit?" What are the various purposes in crying out to God what He already knows? What role does obedience play; to what degree and which commands? What, if any, answer(s) might be reasonably hoped for? What does His silence and/or lack of action mean? What manner might answers come and what messages, if any, do they bare? Do the answers to these questions vary for everyone or are their normative rules? Are there exceptions? If so, to whom, when and why?

Once having prayed hundreds or even thousands of times about a given issue any requirements regarding perseverance would seem to have been settled. From this point on additional concerns should be considered remembering God knows our requests from before the foundations of the world. Continuing to press Him one should remember He's not senile and that it’s rude to speak as if He hadn't heard the first few hundred times we asked.

Public prayers of complaint may have several uses. One might be to more fully bare one another’s burdens. It can be therapeutic for Christians to hear their brothers bare the secret cries of their hearts and souls in complaint to the Source of all goodness and comfort. Even more so should He choose to finally grant such petitions.

The tenor of my prayers, particularly those of complaint, trouble even me. Even if God in His mercy counts them as "knocking loudly" on heaven's door I fear for myself should He open it. Yet I fear more what has, is and will happen to us all if He does not.

When what is clearly best for others seems stymied by people, circumstances, the devil or even "God's will" we see what faith is made of. Consider Mary at the wedding feast of Cana, the Syro-Phoenincian mother and Paul's 195 scars.

Jesus' promise to be present where ever 2 or more are gathered (by the Holy Spirit?) may have been for several reasons. One of which may have been in anticipation regarding to the size of modern prayer meetings. Such a small quorum may also reflect the vast apostasy of the church, particularly in the end times.

Should one often wait long in prayer and fasting, free from expectation so that the mind's eyes and ears are ready to receive more than one's own mouth or inner dialogue is saying?

Closing in on my 1,000 prayer meeting one might ask why I continue to attend and encourage their creation if I believe so few can pray so God will hear. Because without a prayer we haven't got one.

After decades of studying the largely ineffective prayers of we in the Western Church, I grow more convinced the prayer of faith must be triune in nature. To be heard on high one must be a pro-life activist (see "Abortion Changes Everything"), a fervent intercessor (James' "the effectual fervent prayer...") and possess a good deal of sanctification or holiness (...of a righteous man avails much).

Throughout the New Testament the Holy Spirit warns there is danger in misinterpreting subjective experience. Yet far from throwing the baby out with the bath water, He commands Christians to proceed cautiously. With doctrinal and practical errors ubiquitous within Western Christianity, even matters as seemingly as innocuous as prayer should be closely examined. It might be helpful to adopt Paul's 1 Corinthians 14 model of discerning truth in the area of the prophetic for the corporate prayer meeting that is if you can find one. Let each pray, and let the mature offer assistance in bringing the concerns voiced into harmony with the full weight of scripture as merited by the situation.

Would Jesus have multiplied the fishes and loaves had each person already had some of each? Lord help us hear our own prayer.

Mature Christians, those who have well invested tens of thousands of hours in seeking and serving God, may encounter a mode of prayer where always translating thoughts and emotions into verbal or nonverbal words may be a hindrance. By definition, whatever attributes describe God forgetfulness is not among them. Omnity stand in little need of “hearing” our requests verbally the first, tenth, hundredth or thousandth time allowing that at some stage flashes of faces, places and events both real and dramatized might be silently offered allowing prayer to move unshackled at the speed of thought with even greater depth and scope.

Those considering prayer often fear themselves too sinful and faith-less, making prayer appear as wasted breath. Yet for us sinful and faith-less who continue to broken heartedly confess our state, what better use of breath is there?

Genuine and effective prayer may be less about what we are willing to ask for and more about what we willing to continuing asking for in the face of silence and/or adversity.

In many ways it's risky to be honest, even before God. I struggle to be guiless before Omnity, without pretending a lack of pretense.

Last night three of us gathered for regularly scheduled serious prayer, a passé discipline perhaps one in a thousand church attending Christians do on a weekly basis. For two of us it was the second time that day, having met before sunrise and again after sunset. Pushing 50 to 60 years old collectively we've racked up nearly 250,000 hours of Christian service between us, including having attended perhaps three thousand prayer meetings. In light of this one might hope we were the scourge of devils, waxing strong in the Spirit and taking captivity captive. As an honest charismatic, a rare breed harder to find than dedicated intercessors, I must admit that as usual there was no tangible difference in the world or those we've been praying for, including ourselves. One of us noted that it must be better that we gathered and prayer than if we hadn't. All evidence to the contrary I believe this is true, though judging strictly by quantifiable results the three of us together couldn't pray ourselves out of a wet paper bag.

Millions would take offense at the following statement. "Christians don't pray often because often prayer doesn't work." This is simply a fact. Yet, while there's no denying the truth of either the assertion or it's corollary, in the name of faith believers refuse to admit the obvious. This is an egregious error. Authentic faith never requires intellectual dishonesty. Quite the opposite. To step into eternity's cosmic war raging across three Heavens one must "bring their A game" and all their faculties to bare.

I prefer prayer walks under storm clouds, the sky and I crying together over a planet of God's lost children.

I prefer predawn prayer walks for three reasons. To begin the day rightly. Because in the darkness twilight more seems possible than in the light of day. And less chance of being arrested for talking to myself.

Humanity, including much of Christianity, languishes enslaved to sin. Ensnared by the devilish cunning of the "god of world" billions suffer miserably under the lash of an Evil task master. "The way of the transgressor is hard" but not so much as facing the specter of torment for all eternity while weeping and gnashing teeth. How long will t he Church stand for this? How long will we living wimpy Christian lives continue praying wimpy prayers, if and when we pray at all?

Regular and lengthy prayer meetings are rare enough. Even fewer are those willing to wrestle with "what" is happening around us. Practically non existent are those willing to enter into the struggle to understand and pray through the foundational reasons "why."

Daily I pray that we might comprehend our precipitous position. Soulish spirits in bloody meatcycles, fearfully and wonderfully composed of stardust, 14 billion years in the making.

Few Christians intercede today. Fewer still are ready to pray the kind of prayers that might work.

If we refuse to hear God say "no" how can we hope to turn His response to "yes?"

When it comes to seeking God, when is good not good enough?

The temptation of pleasure whispers, "why not?" The temptation of pain cries, "why?"

Ironically, the Still Small Voice of the Creator of the Singularity can drowned out by an iPod.

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