Excellent Article on Prayer

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The following article is written by Pastor David H. Petersen of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Ft. Wayne, IN and published in the current issue of Gottesdiendst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy (Volume 27, Number 3). I offer it for your edification. And as an aside, I highly recommend John Kleinig’s book referenced below.

Thoughts about Prayer

One of the explicit duties of Christian pastors is to pray. It is the very last vow in the LSB [Lutheran Service Book] Ordination rite: “Will you be constant in prayer for those under your care?” The vows also require that pastors faithfully instruct both young and old in the doctrine and practice of prayer, for it is among the chief articles of Christian doctrine. While not in the vows, it is also a duty of the ministry to lead the prayers of the Church. For all that, it is more difficult to find a comprehensive definition or description of prayer than might be expected, and yet how we think about prayer matters greatly. There is much popular literature on the topic, but it is mostly saccharine and cliché-ridden, often misleading the reader into the idea that Christian prayer is nothing more than thanks and praise with a few requests and that the efficacy of prayer is driven by the petitioner’s sincerity, strength of faith, or committed will. In search of a more dogmatic definition that would aid my own practice and teaching, I found two sources, in particular, most useful: John Kleinig’s book Grace Upon Grace (2008) and Peter Selby’s article on ‘prayer’ in The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship (1986).

John Kleinig explains that his own theology of prayer is mainly “some rather obvious lessons from bitter experience” (153). His “bitter experience” is largely disappointment and frustration that arose from being misled by popular piety. His bitter experience is that Christianity, in contrast to popular piety, is not meant to help us “live in the best of all possible worlds where God’s rule is largely unchallenged” (184).

Kleinig’s experience has led him to see prayer as more than just thanks and praise or to place its hope on anything in the Christian’s will or faith. He understands prayer as a greater reality than simply talking to God and even listening to God, but of actually being in the presence of God. The purpose of this presence is conversation. God speaks and we respond and He speaks again and so forth. God speaks, of course, in His Word. Kleinig asserts that the way that Jesus teaches us to pray “overcomes our fears about our performance and acceptability” (170). He unpacks this as follows:

In Mark 11:22–25, we find the most frequently quoted passage on the power of faith in prayer. There Jesus has this to say:

“Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive your trespasses.”

Here Jesus speaks about the connection between the proclamation of God’s performative judging and saving Word and prayer. Both depend on faith. In both the disciples of Jesus exercise their faith in God.

These words of Jesus are often misunderstood and misapplied in two different ways. First, people isolate verses 23–24 from verse 22 in order to stress the need for confidence in prayer. Therefore they misinterpret what is meant by faith. Faith is not some kind of presumptuous self-confidence that makes demands on God and expects to get what it demands, That would make the power of prayer dependent on our faith in our own abilities rather than on our faith in God. The issue is not whether we are confident enough in what we pray for and in how we pray, but whether we rely on God’s grace rather than on ourselves. When Jesus speaks about confident prayer, He directs our attention away from ourselves to the faithfulness of God. Both the certainty of faith and the consequent power of prayer derive from God and His goodness.

Second, people isolate verses 23–24 from verse 25 in order to urge people to be more confident in their prayers. Jesus admits that uncertain faith leads to hesitant praying. Such uncertainty impairs a person from praying with boldness and confidence. Jesus does not, however, urge the hesitant vacillator on to stronger faith as if faith depended on the willpower of the person. Rather, He gets to the root of the problem. Hesitant and uncertain prayer is the mark of a troubled conscience. It usually stems from resentment against those who have hurt us, and our reluctance to forgive them. Resentment and anger sabotage faith and prayer (see also 1 Timothy 2:8) and must therefore be rectified. So the power of prayer rests not only on our confidence in the grace of God but also on our graciousness to those who have hurt us. Prayer has nothing to do with any kind of presumptuous self-assurance and self-assertion. The faith that moves mountains does not come from our confidence in making our demands on God but on our self-effacing reliance on His grace in prayer. (195–196)

All of our prayers are prayers with Jesus, in His presence. He is our intercessor, loaning us His words and power so that we might approach the lather with boldness and confidence (160–162). Prayer isn’t simply formed in conformity with Scripture but is a response to the God who speaks in Scripture. This must therefore be rooted in the context of the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church. The power and grace that God gives in response to our requests in prayer is not distinct from prayer, the way that, say, a piece of bread is distinct from a hungry child’s request that his mother feed him. Rather, what God gives through prayer comes, according to God’s promise, through the means of grace, through Word and Sacrament, and is part and parcel of prayer because prayer is prayer with Jesus and by Jesus.

Kleinig doesn’t actually give a definition of prayer, but it is clear that he understands prayer to be a sweeping and all-encompassing reality of the Christian who is a temple of the Holy Spirit and who is in the presence of Jesus. Prayer is a synonym for faith. Christians are at prayer—rejoicing always, praying always—even when they are not conscious of it.

Christian prayer is not a conversation meant simply to obtain information or obtain favors but is a familial, intimate conversation, where all involved rejoice in one another and enjoy deep fellowship and comfort with one another. This is a conversation like that of parents and children, of husband and wife, and of friends in every kind of situation. Prayer must be conversation with God and not simply toward Him. So also, it cannot be merely passive listening. When God speaks, He demands a response. Thus, again, prayer must not simply be informed by Scripture but should include Scripture and meditation, listening, contemplating, questioning, searching, praising, complaining, listening again, and so forth.

While not as extensive as Kleinig’s chapter, Peter Selby’s article on prayer in The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship may be the most comprehensive and useful definition of prayer in English. He writes: “Prayer is the generic term for all aspects of humanity’s conscious relationship to God” (140). Selby also lays out a five-fold division of prayer: adoration, confession, petition, praise, and thanksgiving. Before going into the details of each, he writes that these acts are all relevant “whether they involve specific acts of prayer or not because they describe essential components of man's relationship to God” (441). Despite my glowing praise, it must be noted that Selby does not seem to tie prayer to the Word of God or meditation on the Word, nor does he name lament as a type of prayer.

Kleinig’s chapter on meditation in Grace Upon Grace deals with prayer as well. Here he advocates not for turning inward for meditation but, rather, for focusing on the Word of God. He writes: “When we meditate on Christ and His Word, the power of His Word and our attitude to it determine what happens to us as we meditate” (100). He uses an excerpt from Luther’s 1521 pamphlet “A Brief Instruction on What to Look for and Expect in the Gospels” as an example. In this way, without using the word ‘pray,’ he outlines out how to use a text for prayer. First, he says, the reader uses all five senses to imagine the scenario of the event. The reader pays attention to the details. He concentrates on the Word of God, what is described, or what the Word states. Next, he ponders the story or statement as he identifies himself with the characters, seeing how it applies to him and his situation, how he is like the humans in the story or the humans who made the statement—both in his sins and unworthiness, and also in his faith. Finally, he considers how he might respond in obedience to Christ (102–103).

Kleinig does not spell out what obedient responses might be, but it is easy to recognize that they will often be a confession of sins, a request for help, and thanksgiving to God for His mercy. This is to say that an obedient response will always, in some fashion, include petitions, but whether they do or not, they might be termed simply “prayer.”

Later Kleinig is explicit regarding the relationship of prayer and meditation and the particular usefulness of the Psalms. He writes:

The Psalms … link our meditations with prayer to God. Thus many of them either begin or end with prayer, They remind us that Christian meditation is always done in God’s presence, even when He seems far from us. As we attend to the Psalms, they place us before God and open us up to His gracious scrutiny. The words by which we meditate on God and His deeds are even regarded as a verbal offering to God that is pleasing to Him (Psalm 19:14; 104:34). So, the speakers in the Psalms move readily from speaking to God to speaking about God and from speaking to their enemies to speaking to themselves about all subjects. And vice versa! And this is how it is and how it should be when we meditate. Mediation begins and ends with prayer. Ultimately, it cannot be separated from prayer. In both we respond to God’s Word and exercise our faith in His word. (140)

A full prayer life is a life that is engaged in an ongoing conversation with God. It is possible only because the Christian has been made a child of God by the sacrifice of the Son for the life of the world and enjoys the familial privilege of real conversations, conversations that encompass the spectrum of human emotion and experience. Our prayers include petitions, intercessions for loved ones and others, thanksgiving, praise, and even complaining or lamenting. When God speaks, the Christian must respond. Prayer is necessary. Prayer is best understood as an activity or state of being that is closely connected to, and never apart from, the Word of God that God Himself initiates and encourages, not simply as an act of faith but as faith itself. It is conducted in God’s presence, with God, and not merely to or toward Him. It includes hearing, proclaiming, contemplating, and meditating on the Word of God, as well as asking and talking and even ruminating. For prayer to be full, it must be to the God who speaks and desires our prayers. For all this to be possible, Christians, like the disciples before them, must be open to being taught to pray. It does not come naturally to men on this side of glory, even after conversion. We must abandon the vanity that expects prayer to be easy, obvious, or natural to the Christian. We must learn to listen and learn to be honest. We must learn to wait in trustful obedience based solidly upon God’s promises.