At some point, if not at many, every Christian feels his prayer life is unfeeling, perfunctory, and joyless. Prayer does not come easily for most of us. The flesh seems to fight the hardest when we pray. We can use all the help we can get when it comes to our praying. Thankfully, God has much to say about prayer in Scripture, which if appropriated, will encourage us.

One of the greatest truths to overcome discouragement in prayer is that Lord has sent us the Great Helper, the Holy Spirit. He helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us. He makes up for my weakness in prayer (Rom. 8:26-27). So, while our prayers are weak and pathetic, the Spirit's aren't. He prays for us. Such are the benefits of Christ.

Yet we must pray. Indeed our praying is no minor theme in our walk before God. Not only does Jesus give us the model prayer (the Lord's Prayer) but He models prayer as well (John 17). He compares true prayer with the pseudo-prayers of the Pharisees and hypocrites (Matt 6:5-8). He calls for persistent and prevailing prayer in parables (Luke 11). He encourages prayer by telling us that we will have our requests that accord with His will. He wants to answer our prayer (Matt 7:7-11). Through His apostles He commands us to be devoted to prayer (Col. 4:2). One wonders: Did Jesus give as much attention to any other facet of the Christian life than prayer? Clearly, God cares about prayer a lot.

Prayer Is Asking God

James says-you have not because you ask not. He means "you are not praying," because to pray is to ask God. While prayer involves praise, lament, confession, and thanksgiving, it is primarily about requesting, a calling upon God, petitioning Him for things we and others need to live for Him.

The Hebrew and Greek words for prayer bear this out. They belong to same word groups as "request, ask, petition, supplication." In typical fashion, the psalmist cries out, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications! In Your faithfulness answer me, and in Your righteousness" (Ps. 143:1). So also Paul says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:6).

In addition to word meanings there are the specific teachings about prayer from our Lord, all of which focus on making requests to God. The Lord's Prayer, Christ's chief instruction on prayer, focuses on the right petitions and their ordering. There are six petitions. The first three focus on God; the remaining three are more manward. Jesus also teaches persistence in our requesting, when he says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?" (Matt. 7:7-10). In the parable of the importunate widow, Jesus taught that men ought always to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). A certain widow yearned for justice from a judge against her adversary, and she persisted until he finally granted her request. Again in John's gospel Jesus says, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you" (Jn. 15:7). Thus, the primary focus of our Lord's teaching on prayer is our petitions; what we are to pray for and what order, how they should flow from our abiding in His word, and how we are to persist in our asking and not give up.

The catechism reflects this understanding of prayer. God will give His grace and Spirit only to those who ask them of Him and give thanks for them (Q116). The believer must call whole-heartedly upon the Lord for those things He has commanded us to ask of Him (Q117). And Q118 queries, "What has God commanded us to ask of him?" Thus in the catechism, prayer revolves around our petitions-the diligent asking of them and rendering thanks for God's answers.

So, while prayer can be generically conceived as involving all the ways in which we speak to God, such as praise, confession, lament and so on, the bulk of examples and specific teaching of Scripture focuses on the what and how of making our petitions to the Lord.1 God's people are a praying people, meaning an asking people.

Why Should We Ask God?

Asking God for everything we need for both body and soul does not come easy to autonomous sinners. American culture doesn't aid us here either. The pick-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps mentality says we don't need anyone's help to reach our goals. This is often reflective of our relationship with God. American individualism says, "I have resources from within; I can do it." WRONG! Jesus, with all authority, declared "apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Two realities drive our praying.

We should ask God because we have an enormous need. Prayer arises from our sense of need. And this sense of need can be no greater than in the Christian. Why is this? Because the believer has been taught that because of sin, he or she is devoid of all good. There is none good, no not one. This means we are lacking the goodness and power to be good. We lack righteousness and the ability to be righteous. Stripped of all goodness, we cannot please God. Yes, the Spirit's regeneration brings new life and radical changes in our disposition. But regeneration does not fill us with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19). Lacking His fullness means that experientially we don't have all the wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and power that we need to do His will. We are impoverished; we must look outside ourselves for help.

We should ask God because we have all resources located in Christ. John Calvin speaks to this point superbly - He writes, "We are taught by faith to know that all the good we need and which we lack in ourselves is in God and in his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom the Father has established all the fullness of His blessings and abundance so that we may draw everything from there as from a very full fountain."2

God has placed all His fullness in his Son, but the fullness isn't just there-it's there for His people. For the Father has appointed the Son as mediator between God and the church. God intends for us to see our complete sufficiency in Christ. Thus salvation is in His Son. Our redemption is in Christ, our righteousness is in Him, so too our sanctification and wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ is the strength of His people; therefore, Paul says, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." We can't do anything of ourselves, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13). We lack wisdom, but in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). In short, we are empty bottles that only He can fill. And He is able and willing to do so. "He is able to do abundantly beyond all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20). He is a "very full fountain."

This consideration shows us how prayer serves to glorify our heavenly Father. If I am strong in myself, I will not pray. But if I am filled up with a strong sense of my weakness, I will go to Him who is my strength. I am laid low. He is magnified. Prayer glorifies God.

How Shall We Ask God?

Paul says, "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving" (Col. 4:2). How shall we come to ask more of God and hence grow in prayer as He wants us to? I offer a few suggestions below. Notice that the key to all of these is self discipline.

Maintain a humble perspective. I mean by this, remember your self-poverty and Christ's wealth as stated above. We need to constantly remind ourselves that He is our sufficiency. This will involve telling ourselves that "I can't live life" on my own.3 Though changed by the Spirit, we still lack. And then we must remember that Christ is "a very full fountain." These two perspectives will keep us depending on the Savior so that we will constantly make petitions for ourselves and others.

As to practice I suggest the following, and at the heart of them all is discipline.

1. Plan your prayer. If you are not purposeful here you will prayer only occasionally. Set aside a time and place for prayer. Mornings or evenings work best for most people. Once you've set a time, don't let it go by without praying. Be prepared to force yourself at times.

2. Pray whether you feel like it or not-very often you won't. Feelings ebb and flow; don't rely on them. If you don't feel like praying, pray anyway. When not in the mood, you may want to ask God to arouse your affections for Him and his Kingdom.

3. Read the Bible first-let God speak to you, then pray back what God has said.

4. Use a prayer list-not in a superstitious way, but simply as an aid to memory. We often forget others and their needs. A list of people and their needs can help. More can be added.

You may or may not find these suggestions useful. That's okay. One can dismiss such suggestions, but one cannot dismiss the command to pray earnestly and without ceasing. So take steps to fulfill that command to make your requests known to your heavenly Father.

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1. I would encourage the reader to look at the use of the word "prayer(s)" in the Psalms. You will find that almost all uses have to do with petitions.

2. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1541 French Edition, (English translation), 458.

3. An expression from Paul Miller in his book A Praying Life, 44. Miller writes, "If you know that you...can't do life on your own, then prayer makes complete sense."