In a recent Sunday School class on prayer, it was no time before the question was asked, “Why do we pray?” The insinuation is we cannot change the mind of God, so why bother? Good question.
To that point, George Bernard Shaw was quoted as saying,” Lots of people pray for me; and I have never been any worse for it. The only valid argument against the practice is the Glassite one that God knows his own business without prompting.”
So why do we pray? There seems to be plenty of Scripture to support Mr. Shaw’s sentiment. Jesus said to consider the lilies. They neither toil nor spin yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God can so clothe the grass that is alive one day and burned the next, why do we worry about clothing or food or drink? Your Father knows you have need of these things. Good point.
But regardless of the fact that God knows what you need and He knows the answer before the question, it is clear that praying is an integral and indispensable part of this relationship we have with God. Consider Jesus. He prayed–a lot. And he had a lot to say about prayer. Don’t think that you will be heard for your many pretty words. Enter privately into a closet and make your requests known. Never give up. Pray without ceasing.
I think to really understand what prayer is, we have to understand the prayer life of Jesus. To those who didn’t know how to pray, he gave the Lord’s Prayer which is very basic. His personal prayer life was on the other end of the spectrum, of a much higher degree. Have you ever wondered what he praying for or about in the wilderness for forty days or high in those mountains all by Himself? After all, He was the Son of God. Didn’t He just carry on a conversation with God like we do with each other? What took so long?
First of all, though the Son of Man, He was also human and His communion with God was no different than yours or mine. He had to seek the will of God just like we do, the old fashioned way. But right there are the operative words: prayer is about finding God’s will and bringing that into expression. It is not about making sure God knows our will and hoping and wishing He will bring it into being. Those prayers fall on deaf ears.
In the wilderness, Jesus firmed up the truth about Himself once and for all. He came away knowing His mission and the cup that was His to drink. After that, there was no going back. It was finished and He knew it. During His ministry, He often went into the mountains alone to center Himself in God’s will. When He came down, He was filled up. There was nothing more to think about–just bring the Father’s will into expression. There was no doubting, no questioning. He returned as the spontaneous expression of the Father. This is summed up in John 5:
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
And
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
Was He seeing visions or hearing voices as He ministered? No. He was saying that He and God were one Person. When He walked, God was walking. When He talked, God was talking. He understood union with the Father so much that He could say if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.
It is no different with us today. Once we understand the mystery which is Christ in us, once we understand that we live, yet not we, but Christ, it becomes clear. We are the will of God because we are one in union with Christ and Christ is one with God.
1 Corinthians 6:17 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Once we become “knowers” of this truth, we realize that when we walk, Christ is walking. When we talk, Christ is talking. We take no thought. It is now easy to pray without ceasing, without effort. There is no begging. Prayer is nothing more than Christ in us urging us, pressing us, to speak His will into expression; to birth it so to speak. We don’t change God’s mind. We fulfill it.
Read The Lost Coin by Samuel Hayes Sherwood. A young man’s journey takes him on a path revealing Total Truth, understanding the mystery which is Christ in us.
