How to Pray?

Luke, the writer of the Gospel, tells us that Christ was praying alone and "When he finished (praying) one of his disciples said to him, `Lord, teach us to pray`." Maybe the disciples realized there was a connection between the wonderful life of their Master and prayer, so they came to him asking him to teach them to pray. They could not have done better than go to the Master. Jesus was an experienced and successful teacher, and the successful teacher is the one who teaches from his experiences. He did not exhort them in what to do to reach their goal, but showed them by example how to do so.

So by this method, which was full of experience, he gave them a living pattern of prayer which contained concise sentences suitable for expression before the throne of Grace.

This pattern, simple in wording but deep in meaning is called "The Lord's Prayer" in reference to the Lord who taught it. It consists of the following:

a) Introduction
"Our Father in Heaven." This exclamation places us in the position of the wonderful relationship which the Lord Jesus came to establish between us and the Father. It contains the secret of redemption which is that Christ saves us from the curse so that we become children of God. It contains also the secret of regeneration, which is that the Holy Spirit by the new birth gives us new life. There is in it also the secret of faith.

We understand from this introduction that prayer is the fellowship of personal love between the one who prays and the Lord God. The basis of its power and growth is the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. So we must meditate long and profoundly upon these words "Our Father in Heaven," until the Holy Spirit fills our hearts with their spirit and truth. Then we speak to God in this way as from "inside the curtain," in the sanctuary of secret power, where prayer can avail much.

b) Three requests concerning God
"Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done."
The aim of the first request is that mankind should sanctify the name of the Father in their hearts, their thoughts, and with their tongues. The second request is a natural result of the first. When the name of God is sanctified in hearts, thoughts and by words, his authority is spread abroad. The third request means the complete surrender of man to God. The will of God carried out in heaven and Christ teaches us to pray that God's will be carried out on earth, as it is in heaven, in the spirit of worship and complete obedience. The will of God is the glory of heaven and its performance heaven's delight. When this Will is carried out the Kingdom of God comes to the heart.

c) Three requests concerning man
The first deals with the needs of the body: "Give us today our daily bread." Its purpose is to give to the body that which is necessary for life, in order to make it possible for man to carry out his spiritual duties.

The second request concerns forgiveness: "Forgive us our debts." For even as bread is the first necessity of the body, so the first necessity of the soul is forgiveness. For truly, though we are God's children we are also sinners, and our right to come to the Father is based on the blood of Christ which obtained forgiveness for us.

The third request, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one," deals with sin and its deceptions which draw us into temptation. This request carries its own special obligation, because the one who utters these words must flee from temptation.

d) Conclusion
This contains the reason for the whole prayer. We offer it to God because He is King, that is, he has the power and complete authority over the world and he has power to answer these petitions. Glory is his and we ask these things for his glory.

After explaining the pattern for prayer, Christ exhorted people to bring their requests to God. He said "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). He followed the exhortation with the definite assurance that whoever asks will receive and he who seeks will find. It is as if the Lord wanted to impress upon our minds the fact that prayer has an unchangeable law; namely that whoever asks receives.

If one asks and does not receive it means something is hindering his prayers. This may be lack of assurance that God is near those who call upon him. It might be a state of doubt in the mind of the one who prays, since he who doubts cannot possibly receive anything from God. There may be the hindrance of sin which the one who prays has not confessed to God, for sin veils the face of God from man.

Prayer may fail when the one who prays asks for wrong things, as James said "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives." It also may fail because it is offered as religious duty and not out of love and longing for God.

How Is Prayer Performed?

In his conversation with the Samaritan woman the Lord Jesus said that the Heavenly Father seeks worshippers and it pleases him when we worship him, on condition our worship is in spirit and in truth. He said, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24). Christ means here that there must be agreement between God and those who worship him. As the eye is fitted to receive light, and as the ear is made to receive sound, so the worshipper who wants to enjoy spiritual worship must be adjusted inwardly to receive the Holy Spirit. Then the Spirit intercedes in him and his worship is in spirit and truth.

Perhaps Christ wanted to teach us that the requirements of the New Testament worshippers are quite different from those of the Jews in the Old Testament. Worship for the Jew was based on "the letter of the law." The worship of the Samaritan was subject to many delusions. Christian worship, however, is in the spirit, that is, in contrast to Jewish worship and Samaritan thinking.

Actually the manner of worship which Christ laid down is logical and free from traditional rites which accompanied the Old Testament worship. In other words, true Christians worship God, not according to the rites of Mosaic Law, but according to spiritual precepts which place less importance on bodily practices. It is full of divine power and activity.

Surely, nothing encourages worship more than this verse, "For they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks." For if the spirit seeks to meet the God from whom it came, the God who sent the spirit seeks to meet it in worship.

How Should Prayer Be Offered?

Jesus, after he had given his disciples a living pattern for prayer, gave them another lesson to teach them that prayer should be offered out of a real thirst and desire for God. He illustrated this by means of a parable known as the parable of the "importune friend." He said, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' Then the one inside answers, `Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.` I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs" (Luke 11:5-8).

In another parable he taught that men ought always to pray and not to faint. He said, "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, `Grant me justice against my adversary.` For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, `Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!` And the Lord said, `Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.`" (Luke 18:1-8)

We learn from these two parables that there is a great difference between mere repetition of words in prayer and importunity. The prophet Isaiah said, "You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth" (Isaiah 62:6-7).

Jesus, in both parables, praises importunity and firmness of purpose, as if he wants to impress his word on our minds; "He who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and he who knocks it will be opened to him." (Matthew 7:8)

The parable of the "importunate friend" teaches us important lessons of the faith which works by love. The man went at midnight to ask bread for another. Pleading for another is a very admirable act because it stimulates in us the power of faith and urges to effective prayer. The prayer of intercession for others is the best mode of prayer for it invokes the name of the living Christ to do his work at the throne of God.

In the parable of the importunate widow, Christ teaches us that perseverance in prayer is among the things which God demands of us, and God cannot ignore the petitions of his own. If the importunity of the widow overcame the unwillingness of the judge, how much more effective will be the prayers of God's elect to their heavenly Father, whose mercy is great.

We learn also that the purpose of God might move slowly, but God has an appointed time in which to answer, according to his wisdom. He might delay his answers to prayer because he wishes to rouse in us expectancy and strengthen hope.

What Are the Conditions of Acceptable Prayer?

There are certain conditions for prayer to be acceptable, or there would be no value in it. Most important of these conditions are the following:

a) Prayer must come from the heart. The Lord, who searches the hearts, is in no need for words or outward appearances. Prayer which is not from heart does not please God, and he does not accept it.

b) It must be reverent and in keeping with his unbounded greatness and holiness, his knowledge and power. Since his divine will is the basic element in every true religion - even as it is among all those who know God and glorify his holy name and worship him with the reverence of the angels in heaven - we must not come to him with words lacking in reverence.

c) It must be in humility, seeing we are unworthy because of our depravity and uncleanness in God's sight. We must therefore follow the example of Isaiah the prophet who said, "Woe unto me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips."

d) It must be in a spirit of complete surrender to God. Whoever surrenders himself to God, and whatever his request may be, let him say, "Lord, not my will but Thine." If a child knows he must commit his affairs to his earthly father, how much more must we submit our wills to our Heavenly Father, who alone knows what is good for us?

e) It must be in faith, because only the prayer of faith is effective before God. A doubter cannot receive anything from God. The suppliant has to believe that:
I) God exists.
II) God is able to hear and answer prayer.
III) God loves to answer.
IV) God will surely answer if our prayer is according to his will and for our own good.

f) The suppliant must seek the glory of God, and not his own. Nor must he seek personal ambitions resulting from greed.

g) Prayer must be in the name of Christ, who is proclaimed by the Holy Scripture to be the one and only mediator and advocate of man.

h) Prayer must be in accord with God's purpose and claims.