In my years of Bible study, I’ve come to appreciate good dictionaries. Specifically, I mean dictionaries that are aimed at helping one learn more about the Bible. These include Bible dictionaries, theology dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, and similar resources. One helpful dictionary that I’ve been using for quite some time is the New Dictionary of Theology. Today I was reading the following entry on prayer by Edmund Clowney. This is a good example of how such a dictionary can be helpful in Bible study.
Prayer, Theology of. Prayer is communication with God in worship. Prayer is possible because the triune God is personal, and has so revealed himself that men and women, made in his image, may address him by name. Because God is holy, sin breaks the fellowship in which prayer is acceptable to him. God’s gracious work of salvation restores and renews that fellowship through Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, prayed to his heavenly Father in unbroken communion. He began his public ministry in prayer (Lk. 3:21). He prayed in solitude before dawn (Mk. 1:35), and marked the turning points of his ministry with periods of prayer (Lk. 5:16; 6:12; 9:18). Before he went to the cross he agonized in prayer, submitting to his Father’s will (Mt. 26:36–44). He who as the Priest prayed for his people (Jn. 17), became the sacrifice to die for them (Heb. 9:24–26). As the heavenly High Priest, the risen Christ lives to make intercession for the saints (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:24, 25; 1 Jn. 2:1). Only in the name of Jesus, and by that way which he has opened, do sinners have access to the Father (Jn. 14:6). The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, unites us to Christ in saving faith and gives us the confidence to call God ‘Abba’, Father, as Jesus did (Mk. 14:36; Rom. 8:14–17). We do not know the plan by which God wills all things to work together for our good; we do not know, therefore, how to pray according to that plan. Yet the Spirit aids our weakness: he prays for us with inarticulate groanings (Rom. 8:26–28).
The Lord promises to hear and answer our prayers as we pray according to his will (1 Jn. 5:14, 15). To pray according to God’s will means to make God’s word the guide for our prayers, to seek that his revealed will should be done on earth as in heaven. Prayer seeks God’s will in faith, believing in his power to answer in his created universe (Mt. 21:21, 22). Faith does not use prayer as a technique to alter consciousness, but as an address to the living God. On the other hand, prayer is not made pointless by the sovereign power of God. Our prayers, no less than their answers, are part of his design. It is God’s will and promise: prayer changes things in his world (Jas. 5:16–18).
Awareness of God’s presence shapes the response of prayer. In adoration we praise God for what he does and who he is. ‘Hallowed be your name’ asks that God be God, a petition that seeks blessing not for us, but for him. God’s holiness demands confession of sin; his grace invites supplication for pardon. We seek his will, not our own, as we bring our petitions for guidance, provision, deliverance, and vindication. The communion of prayer deepens faith and love for God, not only as we draw near to him, but as we reach out in intercession for fellow Christians and for a lost world.
God hears and blesses both individual and corporate prayer (Mt. 18:19). Since prayer looks to God alone, faith is its key (Mt. 21:22). By faith we know that our prayers in Jesus’ name are heard. In the communion of prayer we express our love for God and offer to him the tribute of our lives. Our awareness of God’s love and our understanding of his purpose draw us to pray with fervent urgency for the spread of the gospel and the coming of his kingdom of righteousness, both now, and with the return of Christ. Prayer is reverent, but also shameless and persistent, not because God is unwilling to hear, but because we struggle to ask according to his will and are driven by the eternal issues at stake.
Prayer is the living breath of Christ’s church. By prayer the church resists the assaults of Satan (Mt. 26:41; Eph. 6:13–20); receives fresh gifts of grace (Acts 4:31); seeks deliverance, healing and restoration for the saints (Eph. 6:18; Jas. 5:15; 1 Jn. 5:16); p 527 supports the witness of the gospel (Col. 4:3, 4); seeks the return of the Lord (Rev. 22:20); and, above all, worships him of whom, through whom and unto whom are all things.
The practice of prayer, its methods and forms have been considered through the centuries. The church has used the Lord’s prayer, the language of the Psalms and other fixed forms to pray in unison; the ‘richly indwelling word of Christ’ has produced a concert of prayer, formal and free, around the globe and across the years. Forms of prayer may be abused, as in ‘vain repetition’ (Mt. 6:7). An opposite danger is formless and wordless prayer that seeks mystical absorption into deity rather than living and personal fellowship with the Father through Jesus Christ. The witness of the Spirit grants inexpressible joy to Christians in prayer, yet prayer does not seek to gain ecstasy for ourselves, but to give joy and glory to God.
Shane Lems Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) Hammond, WI, 54015
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