Bible Study Notes: What Happened To Prayer?
What Happened to Prayer?
QUESTION: Before we begin, if you are willing to be open about your struggles, what first comes to mind when you think about prayer or talking to others about prayer?
We are all told how powerful prayer can be. Why does it often feel more like a fairy tale than reality? We strive for all the advice given but remain confused and exhausted with the feeling of never getting anywhere. If prayer is that amazing, what have we done wrong to have these types of experiences? We have been so programmed for the last few hundred years by many sources outside the Bible that we don’t even realize we are re-interpreting the Bible when we read certain passages concerning prayer.
Many of you have experienced this already in other areas of your theology. Last week we unpacked what the biblical view of love is compared to the world’s understanding. The world sees love attached to an emotionally positive experience where there is a mutual benefit within the relationship. Human love is transactional. Both parties must equally be willing to give. Biblical love is removed from emotional or transactional prerequisites. Biblical love is to give without acceptance and with full sacrifice. What is the benefit of giving biblical love? Real supernatural satisfying joy from Christ. Human love only creates greater and greater levels of selfishness to protect its ultimate aim, fleshly satisfaction.
We have seen this play out with love, but what about prayer? Where have we gone wrong with prayer?
QUESTION: What are some unbiblical views of prayer you have seen over the years?
It is no surprise that Christians are frustrated with prayer. Satan cannot remove our status as children of God, but he does make it his purpose to keep us from talking and trusting in the Father. These are the two areas of our faith that have been influenced, causing us to doubt or be distracted from talking daily with our God: 1) A Worldly perspective of prayer, and 2) A distorted perspective of God and the gospel.
1)A Worldly perspective of prayer
Eastern mysticism has fascinated the American culture for decades now. Their ability to heal the body and channel the mind has always been a wonder to the western world. Meditation and quietism are two common Eastern practices that Americans embrace that are now more common today than ever before. Is meditation or simply being silent sinful? Of course not, and many have found help from these practices. But this is not what the psalmist, along with the apostle Paul, had in mind when they were calling Christians to hide God’s word in their heart or to be contemplating God’s promises daily. We will spend more time in the coming weeks on what the Bible is calling us to when it mentions the word meditate, but the ancient Eastern practice of seclusion and mindless meditation was not what it meant.
We repackage a lot of these mystic ideas into new forms of Christian lingo. “Quietism,” which is the practice of being alone and quiet to center oneself and find inner peace, is repackaged as one’s “quiet time” in the word. I only mention this practice because there is so much emphasis put into the practice of spending 5-30 minutes a day in mediation and prayer. Almost every book on prayer I read gave me helpful habits for creating a consistent 30-minute prayer life how to start with 5 minutes and then work my way into 30 minutes. But why 30 minutes? Why not 45, 2 hours, or all night? If there is benefit in just a little prayer, would there not be huge benefits with more time? From my own experience, we struggle with long periods of prayer because we expect our time to have some sort of an emotional experience or some sort of spiritual benefit towards the end. This goes back to why most people struggle to pray, no answers to prayer, no emotional or spiritual benefits.
QUESTION: What has been your motivation or expectation for daily prayer in the past? Have you been disappointed when you simply felt like God didn’t hear you or felt nothing?
The reason for the length of time is always connected to how one builds a relationship with God.
They always point to a marriage relationship. How successful will a marriage relationship be unless the couple spends time alone with each other? Their relationship will not grow and will continue to be superficial. Here is the problem––our relationship with God is not like other human relationships. I am not called to worship and serve humans like I am God. I also don’t have conversations with God right now like I do with people. I don’t learn from God like I do people. My relationship with God is nothing like a relationship with a human. On the contrary, God is not growing in a relationship with me. He knows me better than I know myself.
Psa. 139:1 ¶ O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
Psa. 139:2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
Psa. 139:3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Psa. 139:4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
God doesn’t need time alone with us to get to know us, but what about our time alone with Him to get to know him? How is it we hear from God? Prayer is not the way we hear from the Father. It is the way we receive from the Father, but not the way we hear from Him. What does the Bible teach concerning how we grow in knowledge and build a relationship with God?
2Tim. 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2Tim. 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Rom. 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Gal. 3:5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
Eph. 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
Eph. 4:12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
These are but a few examples we will look at in the future that the Bible gives us of how we are to develop our relationship with the Father. It is not in isolation in some mystical meditation but as a family gathered around His words given to us by His prophets and apostles.
QUESTION: To grow in a relationship with someone requires time and knowledge. Why do we disconnect from where we gain our knowledge about God to developing our relationship with him, mainly in the gathered church?
2)A distorted perspective of God and the gospel
We naturally humanize God and His nature to be like ours. We become very transaction with God. If we perform this, He will reward us with that. The gospel rips apart these human tendencies. Grace is not offered to this merit. Mercy has no steps to accomplish. We are the children of God because He chose to love us. And He simply calls us to take all of our hurts, desires, needs and cares to him. Not once a day, but constantly.
Prayer is the constant dependence on the Father’s promises. We come to Him when we are weak and strong. We depend upon Him for strength, and we praise Him when we see His comforts. Prayer is the second most precious gift to us sinners next to the gospel. Prayer is what allows us to ask the Father for more of the grace we have already received. There is no limit to God’s grace.
QUESTION: How does the gospel help clarify the purpose and benefits of prayer to you?
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PRAISE, PRAYER, AND CONFESSION:
•What can you offer to the Father in praise?
•What is a sin you need to confess?
•What is a burden we can carry?
•What can we take to our Father in prayer?