Why do I struggle with prayer? Why is it that in many seasons of life trying to pray is like that dream where I’m trying to run but it feels like I’m waist deep in sea water?
We’ve heard many explanations. Some explanations—like a poor attention span due to electronics usage—are more geared toward answering, “why don’t I keep praying?” Here, I’m more interested in thinking about, “Why don’t I start? Why don’t I want to pray?” I’ve wrestled with many explanations myself. Proposed many myself here and elsewhere.
A prominent one: If we don’t pray it must be that we don’t really believe what we say we believe about God.
But is that actually the case? Certainly that may be true for some people. But I’ve started to question whether it’s true in every case. If we get alone with God, stripping away all pretense, and we go down the list of His essential attributes that we tend to say should draw us to pray — the short list is that God is good, sovereign, and wise — would we have to admit before God, “actually I don’t believe you’re good. I don’t think you’re wise and sovereign”?
Speaking for myself, as God is my witness, after honest self-reflection, I truly think I do believe those things at the core of my being. And yet at times I struggle to pray. You?
I have a theory to propose. It’s going to take a few posts to tease it out. Rather than stringing you along forever, I’ll go ahead and give you the payoff now, but explain it more fully in time.
For some of us, perhaps it’s not that we don’t believe the Bible, but perhaps we’re not as “Bible-focused” as we think we are (…Providence Bible Fellowship is a God-Centered, Bible-Focused, Gospel-Driven church…). That is, we agree with the Bible about essential truths, but these truths don’t govern our thinking on the daily. And thinking these things is what would lead to acting on them in the form of prayer.
For the sake of review, I’d like to spend the rest of this post briefly considering why those whose minds are Bible-saturated should pray.
Why Bible-Focused People Should Pray
First, the Bible tells us who God is. He is a God who creates and sustains (Gen 1:1; John 1:3; Col 1:16:17; Heb 1:3), forgives and judges (Exo 34:6-7), rescues and renews (Psa 34:17; Col 1:13; Rev 21:5). He is a God whose heart is inclined toward His people (Psa 32:7; Hos 11:8; Zeph 3:17). All that is to say, God is a powerful, wise, compassionate, righteous, faithful, eager-to-answer Savior.
Second, the Bible models prayer. The Old Testament saints prayed (Num 21:7; Ezra 10:1; Neh 2:4; Dan 9). The New Testament saints prayed (Acts 1:24-26; 4:23-30; Phil 1:3-4; 1 Thess 1:2). The Lord Jesus prayed and prays (Luke 6:12; 22:32; Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25). The Holy Spirit prays (Rom 8:27). Each of these references depict not just prayer, but prayer unto effect.
Third, the Bible commands prayer. Bible-focused people know that God’s entire salvific plan centers on returning estranged people to fellowship with Him. To that end, He commands a good thing—that we would come to Him in prayer. Matt 21:22; Luke 18:1; Col 4:3; Eph 6:18; 1 Thess 5:17, 25; 2 Thess 3:1; Heb 13:18.
Fourth, the Bible promises answer to prayer. The Bible is a book of promises made by a God who can’t break them (Jos 21:45; 2 Cor 1:20; Titus 1:2). He not only commands prayer, but promises that He will respond (Matt 7:7; Mark 11:24; John 14:14; 15:7; Jas 1:5; 4:2).
To these references and truths, many others could be added. Suffice to say, the more one’s thoughts are governed by the Scriptures the more they should pray. Do we believe these things? Likely most of the members at Providence do. Are our thoughts governed by them? That’s another question entirely and may suggest why some of us struggle to pray.
Next time, we’ll move on to thinking about thinking about the Bible unto prayer.
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