If prayer is necessary for a Christian, then it is imperative that we know how we should pray. How then shall we know? Well, we must go to our Master and Mediator to learn. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible one of His great functions was to teach His disciples. Disciples are people who are learners. As learners we read our Bibles and we regularly attend worship services. So then, the disciples as learners came to Jesus and asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, "And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples'" (Lk. 11:1).
The disciples saw Jesus praying and so they realized that if their Master, their Lord, whom they were following was praying, they should pray too. Jesus teaches about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:1-2 we read, "His disciples came to Him, and opening His mouth He began to teach them." Then in Matthew 6:9 Jesus says, "After this manner therefore pray." Then He gives what we call the Lord's Prayer in verses 9-13.
Jesus instructs His disciples how to pray. He does that by giving them the Lord's Prayer as a model or pattern for them. And so no disciple of Jesus has an excuse for not knowing how to pray.
Ursinus in Heidelberg Catechism (Q117) has it right in his answer to the question, "What belongs to such prayer which is acceptable to God and which He will hear?" His answer is "First, that with our whole heart we call only upon the one true God, who has revealed Himself to us in His Word, for all that He has commanded us to ask of Him; secondly, that we thoroughly know our need and misery, so as to humble ourselves in the presence of His divine majesty; thirdly, that we be firmly assured that notwithstanding our unworthiness, He will, for the sake of Christ our Lord, certainly hear our prayer, as He has promised us in His Word."
To Whom We Pray
First of all, we need to know to whom we must pray. That one is the "one true God." Not every prayer is heard. Only those prayers which are directed to the God of the Bible are heard. He is the only true God. God simply does not hear prayers that are not offered to Him. There is an unbridgeable gulf between Allah and Yahweh. They are not two different names for the same God. One is an idol and the other is the true God. We live in a pluralistic world and have to remember that there is but one true God.
The Bible reminds us repeatedly of the "gods" of this world. In fact in Gen. 31 we read that even Jacob had "gods" that he and Rachel had stolen from Laban. False gods have been around since Gen. 3. Think how Moses and the prophets and the apostles warn God's people not to begin to follow the false gods of this world.
So we must be sure that it is indeed the God of the Bible to whom we pray. It is not a matter of just praying and believing in some higher power or just trusting yourself. I am reminded of the famous newscaster and TV anchorman who died recently and was called "the most trusted man in America." He was asked in an interview if he believed in God or a higher power and he answered with an unequivocal "No." Some apparently just trust in themselves and hope for the best. Sooner or later all men find out who the true God is, and it is most important to find out sooner rather than later. We have got to get it right before we die rather than after we die.
Jesus made sure that His disciples immediately got the most important thing right at the beginning when He taught them, Lk. 11:2, when you pray, address God as "Our Father who art in heaven."
Another point in this connection to recognize is that Jesus taught His disciples to pray after this manner. I made it a practice in my prayers in public, mixed audiences not to use the phrase "Our Father." God is not the Father in the usual soteriological sense of all people. He is the Father of His disciples. His disciples are those who have been saved by His blood and righteousness. Only such are the Father's children. They are the children of the kingdom by virtue of being the children of the King. In Jn.1:12 we read, "As many as have received Him to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name." In Gal. 4:6 Paul says, "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba Father.' "
Prayers that are not prayed to the one true God are in vain. In our prayers, as in all of our lives, we must be directed by biblical theology.
Why We Need to Pray
We are creatures made by the Creator God in His image, and as such we are totally dependent upon Him. Actually, prayer is acknowledging dependence upon God.
In prayer we recognize that God is absolutely sovereign. The whole book of Psalms is a book of prayers. How evident it is that they are prayers recognizing the sovereignty of God. It is amazing that Arminians who in effect deny the sovereignty of God immediately have to become Calvinists when they pray. Why else pray if God is not sovereign? And in prayer it is important to understand that we do not come to God in hope of changing God's mind. Maybe that is something we need to remind ourselves of often. Ursinus again reminds us that prayer is a humbling of ourselves in the presence of His divine majesty rather than to persuade God to do it our way. Did not Jesus teach us to pray "Thy will be done"?
We must thoroughly know our need and misery. That precludes us from coming to God to persuade Him to do my will. That can be difficult. It was difficult for the psalmists. It was difficult for Job. In Psalm 73 the psalmist looks at the wicked and sees them prospering while he is suffering, and he laments in verses 13-14, "Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence; for I have been stricken all day long, and chastened every morning." Job was so troubled that he said in Job 3:11, "Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?" In Job 38:4 God rebukes this saint and says, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth! Tell me, if you have understanding." In 2 Corinthians 12:8 Paul did not get his way when he prayed three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed. God answered in a better way. He gave Paul sufficient grace. What is better than grace? Does that mean then that we should not pray for healing when sick? Of course not. James tells us to even call for the elders in the church to come and pray for us. But we pray for healing if it is God's will. And so we pray with confidence.
Confident That God Hears Us
One of the very important things about our praying is to pray with confidence that God actually does hear us. Ursinus said, "that we be firmly assured that notwithstanding our unworthiness, He will, for the sake of Christ our Lord, certainly hear our prayer, as He has promised us in His Word."
God has promised us in His Word that He will certainly hear our prayer. Where has God promised that to us? Well, look at Jesus' promise in Matthew 7:8 where we read, "For every one that asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." That's a pretty great promise! But, you might say, I have often asked and not received, and I have often knocked and it was not opened to me. What we have to understand is that God does not always answer in the way we want. He answers sometimes in a different way because His answer is better for us than what we asked for. Remember what we cited above in 2 Corinthians 12:8 when Paul prayed for healing-God had a better answer. That better answer was more grace! And don't forget that it is grace that will eventually get you to heaven. Can God give you more than that?
Yes, it is difficult to always pray with complete confidence and never without any doubt. We do not always understand God's inscrutable ways. Though His ways are inscrutable to us, they are always in righteousness. And so the psalmist in Psalm 143:1 prays that God will in His faithfulness and righteousness answer him. And so God does.
God desires us to pray with perseverance and persistence. Consider the case of the parable of the widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18:1ff. Jesus introduced that parable by saying to the disciples "that they ought always to pray and not lose heart." And He says in verse 7, "And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?"
Yes, pray with persistence, with perseverance, not to change God's mind but to indicate that you do depend upon Him for all that you need in this life and in the life to come. We depend upon Jesus for our bodily needs and our spiritual needs, and forgiveness of our sins, for it is He who died and rose for us. Thus, when we pray, we pray in the name of Jesus, our Mediator, which is the only name given under heaven by which we are saved (Acts 4:12).
May God evermore work in us to be a more praying people and in so doing glorify Him. Yes, "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17). God hears! Amen!
