Tag Archives: prayer

What Are We Doing When We Pray?

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In times of crisis, after we think we have done everything humanly possible to cope with desperate situation, we often declare, “All we can do now is pray.” Now to be fair, when we say this we are not saying, “Let’s do nothing.” Praying is doing something. But what are we doing when we pray?

Cups of Cool Water

Consider four areas where we can do something good for others. (1) If someone has a physical need and we have the knowledge and means to help, we can render that help. We can give a cup of cool water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, seek justice for the oppressed, feed the hungry, or help the insolvent with medical bills. (2) For the unskilled and uneducated, we can teach, train, and equip them with knowledge or skills they can use to make a living. (3) We can do something for those experiencing emotional distress or trauma by supporting them with our presence, by listening, and by expressing love and concern. (4) In a person’s relationship to God, we can explain and share our faith.

Before we turn our attention to prayer let’s think about what we are doing when we help people in the above ways. Are these purely secular activities we accomplish by our own independent choice and power? No believer thinks this. We thank God for giving us opportunities, wisdom, and strength to do good for others. And we know our work would not be effective apart from God’s cooperating help.

Hence when contrasting the ordinary ways we help people with (merely) praying for them it is not accurate to say that in the former ways we do not depend on God’s help at all whereas in prayer we depend wholly on God’s help. Clearly we depend on God’s cooperation in both, in acts of physical help and in the act of prayer. But I must ask a further question: when we pray for another person, are we cooperating with God in helping others or are we merely asking God to help the other person independently of us? Let me ask this question in another way. Does praying for someone do something for them in the way giving them a cup of cool water does something for them?

Natural Action in a Natural Medium

We think we understand how giving a cup of cool water helps another person, that is, we have the wisdom and power to direct nature’s forces in a particular direction so as to quench a person’s thirst. However with regard to prayer we see no direct connection to the other person that allows us to touch them by praying—no medium like physical nature in which we both exist and can interact. So, we think of prayer as working solely by evoking God’s favorable response in some way. That is to say, praying is like dialing a 911 hotline to God hoping God will supply the needed aide. Our act of praying affects God directly but it touches the person for whom we are praying only indirectly.

This understanding of prayer is illustrated by our common practice of letting people know we are praying for them. We feel an urge to make direct contact with those for whom we pray, and we cannot imagine a way to do this other than by communicating this information to them in the ordinary way. It helps people emotionally to know that others love them and are petitioning God on their behalf. And there is nothing wrong with this desire. But telling someone you are praying for them is not the same act as helping them through your prayers.

Spiritual Action in a Spiritual Medium

To even the casual reader, prayer emerges as a major New Testament theme. Some prayers appeal directly to God for him to act. But others seem also to exert a kind of influence in the spiritual realm on behalf of others in a way similar to the way the act of giving a cup of cool water works in the natural realm. Paul tells the Ephesians that since our enemies are not “flesh and blood” but “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12), we cannot fight them with physical weapons. We need spiritual weapons to wage a spiritual war (Eph. 6:10-17). We do not just pray for God to defend us, we also fight, using faith, hope, righteousness, and the Word of God to engage the enemy. And at the end of Paul’s description of the Christian’s spiritual armor he urges his friends to pray for him and all God’s people:

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should” (Eph 6:18-20).

For Paul, prayer is not only a weapon with which we can resist the enemy, it is also a tool with which we can help our brothers and sisters. How does this work? Paul says that we should pray “in the Spirit” (Eph 6:18). All who have God’s Spirit are present in the Spirit. And our spirits, which are in the Spirit, are present to all who are also in the Spirit. As we pray “in the Spirit” we touch each other in this spiritual medium as surely as we touch each other in the body through the medium of physical nature. When we pray in the Spirit for each other we stand together in the spiritual battle. We are really present to each other. Praying for each other is doing something for each other as surely as giving cups of cool water to each other is doing something.

Hence when I ask you to pray for me, I am not asking you merely to tell me that you are praying for me. Nor am I merely asking you to ask God to help me. I am asking you also to stand alongside me in the Spirit, to strengthen me, to encourage me, to fight with me, and to be present with me. And with God’s help, your presence will quench my thirsty spirit as much as your gift of cool water will help my thirsty body.

What is Worship? (Rethinking Church #21)

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Today we move from considering the organizational structures, finances, and the clergy systems that characterize most contemporary churches and shift our attention to the Sunday gathering. What goes on at a typical Sunday gathering of an evangelical, Bible, or community church? (I am not at this time addressing the theology and character of liberal, mainline, or liturgical churches.) And why do such churches gather? I think we can place the Sunday activities of these churches into three general categories: worship, instruction, and fellowship. Ideally, these three types of activity aim at forming the church as a group and as individuals into the image of Christ.

Worship

It would be worth our time to examine all the biblical words and activities related to worship, but I can achieve my limited purpose in this essay by working from a general idea of worship. Worship is a God-directed activity that attempts in thought, word, bodily position and movement, or symbolic use of elements of creation to express a fitting response to the being, character, and action of God—in expressions of admiration, gratitude, and submission. In worship, we place before our minds the greatness, goodness, beauty, generosity, and love of God. We don’t need to think of these qualities as general characteristics only. For God demonstrates these qualities in the wonders of creation, in acts of salvation and judgment experienced and told by the prophets and poets of ancient Israel, and most of all in the life, words, miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In worship we express awe at God’s greatness, gratitude for his generosity, praise for his excellence, longing for his presence, and amazement at his love.

Strictly speaking, worship is an individual act. It must come from the heart and express the true thoughts and affections of the individual worshiper. Certainly the presence of others of like faith can enhances our worship. We find others’ expressions of worship resonating with our own and increasing our sense of God’s presence and glory. Hearing others sing, pray, praise, witness, and explain the scriptures can enhance our perception of God’s presence, praiseworthiness, greatness, and love. Some are gifted to articulate in words what we can only feel. Many eyes and ears can perceive and many voices can express what one cannot. Hence corporate worship can be transformative. But the transforming power does not derive from the number of people praising God but from the vision of God that together we see. And for worship to be authentic and transformative, each person must see with their own eyes, hear with their own ears, and express their own hearts.

I understand completely the desire to attend worship at a large gathering in a state of the art facility to be lead in worship by talented professionals. The music is excellent, the lighting is perfect, and the stage presence of the worship leaders is impressive. The worship flows smoothly. Sound fills the room. Just seeing a sea of people standing to sing and raising their hands gives one feeling of confidence and spiritual power. But as someone who served as a church leader in one role or another for thirty years, I ask myself about the cost in financial resources and volunteer time to make this event happen. Is it worth it?

More importantly, does this impressive event accomplish the purpose of corporate worship better than less elaborate and costly gatherings? If the purposes is, as I stated above, to encounter God’s greatness and love and express our wonder and gratitude, all with the goal of transformation into the image of Christ, I don’t see any decisive advantage. Twenty believers gathered in a living room can accomplish the same goal. No doubt the large gathering, because of its greater resources, can do things a small group cannot.

But the reverse is also true. In an assembly of 2,000 people, 1,950 will be completely unknown to you. You will sit in rows looking at what is happening on stage. The senior pastor is like the celebrities you see on the screen. You feel like you know them, but you’ve never had a meal with them. And they don’t know you. In a small gathering you can hear from everyone, you can learn their stories, see their faces, and hear their voices. There is no stage, no spotlight, and no microphone. You know their names and the names of their parents and children. You know their concerns. You grow to love them in the concreteness of their everyday lives, and you are available to each other throughout the week. Worshiping with this church is really transforming.

Of course, these two models are not mutually exclusive. You can choose one or the other or combine them. Whatever you choice I hope you will measure what we actually do as churches against the essential nature and goal of church. I get the attraction of the big church in the matter of worship. But what about the other two reasons for gathering, instruction and fellowship? Next time we’ll think about that.

Saved From Suicide

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Recently I learned that 12% of current American college students admitted to having seriously considered suicide. I am not a psychologist, counsellor or sociologist. I am a professor, and I must walk into my classroom next Monday (August 27, 2018) to meet my new students. This statistic forces me to consider what silent despair may be hidden behind those youthful eyes. I teach about 100 students per year, and each one is a unique living, breathing human being, loved by God. Each is capable of so much good or evil, love or hate, hope or despair. And when I think that 12 of the 100 may be thinking seriously about taking their own lives I begin to seek for something to say that might replace their despair of life with hope.

As I said, I cannot speak as a psychologist, counsellor or sociologist. I can speak only as a fellow human being, from life experience and faith. I thought I would share with you what I think I would say to my students if I were to speak to them about suicide:

I know what it is to despair of life, to suffer inner pain and to feel that no one understands or can understand your suffering. I know what it’s like to be unable to think of a reason why I should expect tomorrow to be any different than today. When I was 17 years old, not much younger than you are today, I suffered such isolation and hopelessness that I concluded that it would be better had I never been born. I worked hard to hide my despair from others by an outward show of wittiness and from myself by staying busy. But when alone my thoughts would turn to my unhappiness, and my gaze only magnified my misery. I didn’t feel worth anything. I didn’t like myself, but felt unable to change or forget. And if I did not like myself how could I believe anyone else could? I saw no way forward and no way out. But I did not kill myself.

I said above that I saw no way out. And I didn’t. But I believed it was possible, though I could not imagine how. This slender thread of hope kept me from utter despair and suicide. Even in the depths of the pit I could still cry out to God and still believe he could save me, though I could not feel his presence or see his light. And he saved me. That little ray of light was God’s way of being present and of pointing toward the future he had planned for me. That period of near despair taught me two lessons I don’t think I could have learned any other way: (1) I am utterly dependent on God for my being, worth, meaning and hope. Without God I can do nothing. I have been in the pit. God was there. (2) I have great compassion for any one suffering from the despair I felt. I know what it’s like, and I know there is hope even when you cannot see it.

When I was in despair, as I said, (1) I felt alone and believed that no one could understand my pain, (2) I did not like myself and thought no one else could either, and (3) there is no reason to believe that the future will be better than the present. I was wrong on all three counts.

You are not alone. Many have suffered as you are, and there are many good and kind people who will listen as you express and deal with your fears and wounds. Don’t suffer in silence. I understand that the thought of letting someone else into your head and heart is terrifying. Please believe me, there are others who will understand; they will not gasp in horror or laugh in derision. Find them.

You are worthy of others’ love and respect. You are God’s creation, and God thinks you are worthy of life and joy. It doesn’t matter what you look like or what you have done. When I was in despair I was afraid to learn what other people thought of me because I suspected their thoughts would not be kind. I did not yet know the rule I have since learned: if you love others they will love you back, but if you determine only to get love from others they cannot love you in return. Love can’t be earned or forced but must be freely given. However little you feel it, however tiny that ray of hope may be, believe that you are loved already and are worthy of human love. Act on that faith and you will find it confirmed.

Things will get better! Even from a common sense point of view, things are always changing. The present is not fixed in concrete. Different stages of life bring different challenges and rewards. The weather changes! Moods change! Not all these changes can be bad. New opportunities arise. From the point of view of faith in God a wholly new perspective arises. God is in charge of the future. God may require hard things of us, but he will not ask us to face these challenges alone and unequipped. He will be there.

This life is not eternal sentence. This may seem strange advice to give to those tempted with despair of life. But listen. Life doesn’t always feel good. There is much evil in the world and many regrets and anxieties dog our paths. So, when you think of the troubles of life and the evil that seems to rule the world, remind yourself that it won’t last forever. There is a way out. I think I would go completely crazy if I thought I had to live forever in this world. Thankfully, we don’t! But let God make that decision. God is the only one capable of making the right decision at the right time.