“Do I really need to pray?” I’ve heard the question often enough. It is easy to get stuck in puzzles and paradoxes on the topic, even if we know in our hearts and our guts that we need to pray:
- If God knows what I need, and loves me too, why do I need to ask?
- If God’s “providence” is really guiding everything, why bother?
- Is God just wanting me to grovel before he provides what I need? Wouldn’t that mean God doesn’t really love me?
I’ve surprised myself by getting to my twentieth blog post before writing about prayer — having written a book on the topic it is definitely often on my mind! So it goes: turns out there are other things on my mind as well.
Recently @Dawn_Morris1 sent me a tweet asking about God’s providence and human responsibility, and it set me pondering the issues in the Heidelberg Catechism — which is celebrating its 450th birthday, and currently one of my favorite conversation partners on theological topics.
When Heidelberg turns to the topic of prayer it doesn’t mention sovereignty or providence — it talked about those topics early on, so it can assume we heard about them already. It does treat prayer as an aspect of our responsibility, though, in the final big section on the Christian life.
Heidelberg summarizes the whole Christian life under one word: “Gratitude.” Once we have faith, once we know salvation in Christ, we spend the whole rest of our lives saying “Thank you!” But in the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s great passion hymn, “What language shall I borrow, to thank Thee, dearest friend?”
Here’s how the Heidelberg Catechism starts its discussion of prayer:
116 Q. Why do Christians need to pray?
A. Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us.
Pretty emphatic.
The.
Most.
Important .
Part.
Have to say, I think that’s a bit of a stunner. Christians will find countless ways to thank God for his grace, but the key thing they all need to do is pray.
I think it is a stunning perspective because it is so counter-cultural today. It looks to me like for a lot of Christians today prayer is an afterthought — dessert, if you will, in the feast of life. According to the Heidelberg Catechism prayer is the main course. With apologies to Jack Canfield, this is Meat and Potatoes for the Soul.
John Calvin, the theologian who so influenced the branch of the Church which the Heidelberg Catechism comes from, got to the same point in a slightly different way. Calvin was convinced that faith was the way we receive the grace of Christ. The prophet Joel had said “Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2:32). Calvin saw this as expressing much the same thing. It works like this: If you have faith, you know you need God’s help, and you know God is listening, so you call out to God. It works the other way too: If you call out to God in prayer, it is very clear evidence that you have faith.
I’m convinced that the Catechism is right on this one.
- We need to pray, not to convince a reluctant God to provide, but because this is how we express gratitude and faith.
- We need to pray, not because God does not know what we need, but because God invites us into real relationship.
What kind of role do you think prayer ought to pray in the Christian life — and what gets in the way?
What kinds of problems do you think prayer raises as you think about Christian faith?
Gary, for me prayer is like breathing in & out. I don’t mean that in the sense that it is autonomic and not intentional, but rather being blessed with a mother who literally prayed what seemed to me as a child all the time, I learned at the knees of my mom to call on God for everything in my life. She gave me assurance before I could even read God’s word for myself that if it concerned me – because God loves me – it concerns Him. I love the intimate conversations reverently seeking God and knowing I can boldly come to Him clothed in Christ’s blood as a daughter of my king and am welcomed. The challenges come when in my pride I drift away from daily seeking God and realize it’s been x days since I’ve praised Him & told Him how grateful I am for all that he’s done for me. I’m really looking forward to digging into your book. I dearly loved and mulled over Calvin’s chapter on prayer for a few days. Meat & potatoes? Yes & amen.
Smhoney, What a wonderful gift to have such a mother! Have you ever read “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Br. Lawrence of the Incarnation? It is a classic on the kind of rich prayer conversation you describe. Very much like breathing — can’t get through an hour without it. Thanks!
Hi Gary, I really liked this blog post on prayer. I am currently in a season where I am trying to pray for longer periods of time on my knees, and also during the course of my day. It is very hard work, and I often get discouraged, but I am keeping with it. I had a dream last week that made me realize that my prayer attempts were like drilling for oil that was located deep underground, but the more I drilled, and the longer I drilled in various places, the more the oil was allowed to get closer to the surface. The dream helped me realize that there is a huge reservoir of oil available and all I have to do is keep praying and eventually the oil will surface. Presently it feels like I am drilling in limestone(lol), but I am keeping at it.
Larry, thanks for sharing your thoughts here. That is a great image from your dream! Keep drilling…
With your goal of longer times of focused prayer, the hard thing can be knowing just what you want to do, or might do fruitfully, in those times. If that is a live question, or if you want your imagination sparked to the range of possibilities, check out my book, “Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers.”
Role: prayer to me is a matter of our communicating with God and sharing with him what’s on our hearts and on our minds. Of course he already knows all of this but it’s our way of saying that we love you , and want you to be a part of our lives. I think it’s easy for folks to pray when things are bad or they need something, but I find it important part of my life to just simply communicate with God and I do this thru prayer. I once read that praying with God is simply talking to God, well, I say we need to talk more often!
Problems: at first glance my thoughts are that folks might think prayer has to be some formal way of communicating. Often times I’ll turn the radio off in the car and while eyes brightly on the road, just start talking to God (imagine what those in other cars must think?). If folks realize that prayer doesnt have to be on our knees (not against that at all, but it’ just doesnt always have to be that way), then maybe they would pray more often.
Thanks Joe. Sounds like you’ve found your way to a rich conversation with God. My hope for you is that prayer will become a well-rounded relationship– with ways to listen to God’s side of the conversation, and ways to simply dwell quietly in God’s presence.