Praying is Abiding

Praying was never very attractive to me. It was something religious people did. Holy, devout and righteous people prayed. For me, it was part of a routine - a chore associated with mealtimes, "saying grace", or a bedtime ritual, or before the sermon was preached at church, or at a wedding or funeral. I was always told that prayer was “talking to God", but I never knew what that meant. Indeed, it was one of the ‘correct answers’ in Sunday school. “How do you grow in your relationship with God?” the teacher would ask. The answer was obviously prayer and reading your Bible!

Maybe I wasn’t taught what prayer was or meant or why exactly we should pray. Maybe I didn’t ask the right questions in order to learn more. I wonder what would have happened to me if I didn’t come across my most recent experiences...

Over the last two years, praying has begun to shift from a chore to a mandatory, life-giving conversation with the Living God. I credit most of this change to my friend, mentor and faith leader at my campus' fellowship, Raphael Chan. He gave me a new perspective on prayer. He held prayer meetings on campus. (I didn't even know you could have organized prayer outside of meals and before sleep!) He recommended a book called Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home by Richard Foster that got me asking questions and thinking more deeply about what prayer was like and what it was for. It opened up my mind up to the possibility of talking to God about different things and in different ways. Another book by Oswald Chambers called If You Will Ask was also very shaping of my prayer life. (I wrote about it a bit in another blog post) Finally, and most recently, A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller, has by far been the most influential book for me on the topic of prayer. All in all, it was the act of praying itself that my heart started to change and become more inclined to pray. Perhaps it wasn't that I liked prayer any more or any less, but that I was falling more deeply in love with the Person behind it.

My circumstances also drew me desperately into prayer. The beginning of this school year was a wilderness season for my faith and it forced me to get on my knees constantly to cry out to God and seek His peace and comfort and wisdom. I often found myself on my knees straining my ear inwards as I tried to hear whispers from the Spirit. I also learned to pray through the Psalms as I found that the Psalmist would often have words for what I was experiencing that I couldn't utter myself.

Jesus Prayed

The author of Hebrews says, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears” (Hebrews 5:7). A quick skim through the Gospels confirms this to be true. “...rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35). He would also “withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:13). The most intense prayer Jesus ever prayed, in the Garden of Gethsemane, took place right before he went to the cross (Matthew 26:39-44). Finally, we cannot forget what has come to be known as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer found in John 17 - beautiful words.

From this small selection of examples, we can conclude that Jesus was a pray-er. He spent incredible amounts of time with God. Even though Jesus was God, he realized how desperately he needed to be connected to his Father. Jesus even admitted, “the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing” and “I can do nothing on my own” (John 5:19, 30). If the Son of God could not do anything apart from the Father how much more, us?

Why You Need to Pray

I was unsure what I should write about on this topic. I thought about writing on examples of prayer from the Scriptures. I thought about writing about prayer theory answering questions such as, How does prayer and the sovereignty of God synthesize. I even thought about writing about the different types of prayers that saints have practiced over the years - that would have been fun. However, I have settled on writing about why you need to pray.

“But that’s easy. The answer to the question, "Why do you need to pray?" is: “to grow in my relationship with God"”. I would not disagree. If you don't pray, you can't grow or even maintain your relationship with God. Prayer is necessary for deepening your relationship with God.

However, I want to suggest another answer to this question which is also brutally obvious but can be very revolutionary if I expound upon it properly.

We need to pray because we need God.

The key to understanding what that really means is to understand what “need” means. A Teacher once said that a branch must be connected to the vine to bear fruit. The branch needs the vine or it’s as good as dead.

Maybe you think you can do certain things in your life without God. This would be a hindrance to understanding your need for God, wouldn’t it? For example, if I believe I can get up in the morning without God, then the areas of my life that fall into the category “I Need God For This” excludes getting up in the morning. The same is true if I believe I can do well in school by solely studying hard or I can make an amazing piece of music by myself. The more we believe we can do on our own, the less we believe we need God. Therefore, if we want to need God more, we have to admit we can’t do anything on our own! Maybe that’s what Jesus was hinting to when he said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). Children know they need stuff so they are constantly asking.

Some of you reading this might be thinking: “We don’t need God for everything! I have skills. I can do stuff. I’m capable of doing at least some things by myself: laundry, making food, etc.” Ok. Then I’ll let Paul talk.

Paul says, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked...following the prince of the power of the air…[and] were by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:1-3). Good job...I guess?

More Paul: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:18-20). Wow, you really can do stuff!

Paul and the rest of the Bible would argue that we have a tendency to sin and indulge in fleshly desires. We are incapable of doing good. Only God is and can do good (Mark 10:18). Any good that Paul does, he credits to Christ working in him (Gal. 2:20). Elsewhere, Paul says, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). God gives us the life we have so that we can do laundry, make amazing food, etc.

I need Jesus.

I am a young fool. I can’t say I know the depths of my need for God, but I’m learning that I need Him in more and more areas of my life. I recently read some short and sweet reminders of my dependence on God. David in the Psalms says, “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me” (Ps. 3:5) and “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:8). It is clear to me that David truly believed that the reason he gets up in the morning is that the Lord, in his grace and mercy, allowed him to. I need God to wake up in the morning!

Friends, we need God in every part of our lives! We need God to wake up in the morning. We need God to provide food for us three times (or more!) a day. We need God to give us grace to "deal with people" during the day. We need God to help us complete our homework. We need God in this pandemic! We need God in all our relationships. We need God in our decision making (tough and simple decisions). We need God to sleep through the night without our breathing stopping abruptly or our heart pausing. Jesus says, "without Me you can do nothing" and maybe he wasn’t just talking about bearing fruit - he was talking about everything (John 15:5). I believe that if we truly believe that we need God for everything, we would be “praying always” (1 Thes. 5:17).

Practice #4

Let’s start being children. I think that means asking Father God for things. Start praying for small things. Pray that you would get good sleep tonight. Pray that you would enjoy and be thankful for a meal today. Pray that you would treat your friend or family member with love instead of ignorance or apathy. Pray that you would have food at your table. Throughout your day, lift up small prayers to God. Acknowledge that He is there. Ask him what He thinks about what you're doing. Allow Him to step into your life more and to be more involved.

In around the third century, saints within the Orthodox tradition practiced praying short prayers throughout the day like this. They called them “breath prayers”. They prayed the words in Mark 10:47: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”.

Perhaps this is something you want to start trying. Inhale. “Jesus Christ”. Exhale. “Son of God”. Inhale. “Have mercy on me”. It is an admission that you need God’s mercy on your life as the words are woven into the blessed breath that you’ve received from God.