🌱 Practical Theology — Unit 4: Prayer I — What Prayer Is

Introduction: At the Center of Our Time with God

We have learned to walk with God and to keep a daily time with Him. At the center of that time is prayer. But what is prayer, really? Many think of it as simply asking God for things, and others as the saying of certain religious words. It is far more than either. In this unit we ask three questions: what is prayer, how did the Lord Jesus teach us to pray, and what kinds of prayer does the Bible give us? The next unit will carry us further — into prayer in Scripture, praying together as a church, and fasting.

I. What Prayer Is — More Than a Conversation, Yet Like One

Some say prayer is simply a conversation. It is much more than that. Dr. Ted Rogers, who teaches a course on prayer at our church, offers this careful definition: prayer is to initiate communication with God for the purpose of intercession, supplication, praise, confession, and thanksgiving, with worshipful intent — communication that draws us closer to God and, for that moment, even sets us in the place of one who stands before Him for others. Notice three things in that definition. Prayer is initiated by us toward God: it is not chanting, nor thanking "the universe," nor speaking to any created thing, for the universe is made but God is self-existent. Already in the days of Enosh "men began to call on the name of the Lord" (Genesis 4:26, NKJV). Prayer is directed to God, with worshipful intent. And prayer changes us as we pray.

Yet though prayer is far more than mere conversation, it is meant to be carried on like one — like a conversation between friends. If we pictured the Lord Jesus sitting in a chair before us, we would not reach for stiff, artificial words; we would speak to Him plainly, as to a friend who loves us. (It is worth remembering that when the King James Bible was written, "thee, thy, and thou" were the everyday, informal words, while "you" was the formal speech of royalty. Today that is reversed — yet many of us still reach for old, formal-sounding words when we pray, as though God preferred a special religious language. He does not. Speak to Him honestly, in your own words.) And because prayer is a kind of conversation, we must also listen. "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10, NKJV). Do not be afraid of silence in prayer; God Himself may at that moment be speaking to you.

II. How Jesus Taught Us to Pray: The Lord's Prayer

When His disciples wanted to learn to pray, Jesus gave them a model. He had just warned, "when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do" (Matthew 6:7, NKJV) — so the Lord's Prayer is not a set of magic words to be repeated mechanically, but a pattern to follow. "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:9–13, NKJV).

Walk slowly through it. "Our Father" uses the word abba, the most intimate family word of that day — we come as a trusting child to a loving father; yet "hallowed be Your name" reminds us He is holy, set apart, utterly unique. Intimacy and reverence held together. "Your kingdom come, Your will be done" — before we ask anything for ourselves, we put God's kingdom and will first. "Give us this day our daily bread" — only now, halfway through, comes the first request for ourselves, and even it teaches us to depend on God as our Provider day by day. "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" — our debts are our sins, and our being forgiven is tied to our forgiving others. "Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us" — a plea that God would keep us and rescue us. Notice the order, for it is the opposite of how many are taught: adoration and God's will come first; our own needs and our confession come after. We do not begin with our shopping list, but with our God.

III. The Many Kinds of Prayer

The Bible shows that prayer is not one single thing but many. There is praise and adoration, telling God how great and holy He is. There is thanksgiving, thanking Him for what He has done. There is confession: the Greek word means literally "to say the same thing" — in confession we agree with God about our sin, as the tax collector who cried, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13, NKJV). There is supplication, which asks God to change our circumstances, yet even more to change our hearts, as the Lord Himself prayed in the garden, "not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39, NKJV). There is intercession, standing between God and others to pray for their needs — as Jesus prayed even for those who crucified Him, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34, NKJV). We may also ask for ourselves; this is not a lack of faith but obedience, for Scripture says plainly, "you do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2, NKJV). We may bring our honest questions to God, who is patient with all who sincerely seek to understand Him. And when we are so overwhelmed that we do not know what to pray, there is the prayer of groanings: "the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26, NKJV). After all our words, there remains the prayer of listening — being still before God.

Conclusion

Prayer, then, is not a religious form but a living communication with a holy and loving Father — far more than conversation, yet carried on like one; ordered as the Lord taught us, with God first and our needs after; and rich in its many kinds, from praise to groaning to silent listening. In the next unit we will see how the saints and the Psalms prayed, how the church prays together, and how prayer is joined to fasting — and we will learn to pray expecting that our God hears and answers.

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