Earnest and Expectant Prayer
This post is the next in our series looking at the Seven Foundations at Christ the King. You can also read about our new Mission and Vision statements.
Today, we will consider our fourth foundation: Earnest and Expectant Prayer
The Nature of Prayer
Prayer is not something that is unique to the Christian faith. Virtually all religions have some form or concept of prayer—petitioning their god(s) to intervene in their lives and wellbeing. What differentiates Christian prayer from all other religions is that our prayer is made to the living and true God. The false gods and idols of pagan religions are deaf, dumb, and blind. Our God is alive, and always hears our prayers.
In God himself we have all the reason we need to offer up prayers to him. So, what exactly is prayer? The catechisms of the Reformed churches help summarize the biblical teaching for us.
Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 178, describes prayer this way, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God (Psalm 62:8), in the name of Christ (John 16:23), by the help of his Spirit (Romans 8:26); with confession of our sins (Psalm 32:5-6; Daniel 9:4), and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies (Philippians 4:6).”
The Heidelberg Catechism asks in Question 116, “Why is prayer necessary for Christians?” And gives this answer, “Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness which God requires of us (Psalm 50:14-15). Moreover, God will give his grace and the Holy Spirit only to those who constantly and with heartfelt longing ask him for these gifts and thank him for them (Matthew 7:7; 13:12; Luke 11:9-13).
The Bible is full of examples of prayer like this. Psalm 116:12-13 asks “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” How are we to respond to God for all his benefits that belong to us in Christ Jesus? We call upon his name in prayer.
Prayer, then, is our active communion with the living, Triune God, who redeems us and reconciles us back into relationship with him. Like the air we breathe, prayer is indispensable for the Christian.
But how are we to pray? That brings us to our fourth foundation.
The Attitude of Prayer
Our prayers are made to the living God, and because that is true, what kind of prayers ought they be? And what should our posture or attitude be while praying? Two adjectives help describe our prayer.
Earnest
Our prayers should first of all be earnest. In Psalm 27:4, David writes “One thing have I asked for, that [thing] will I seek after—that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”
Notice that David begins with the request (he asks the Lord for something), but that request immediately leads to action (he seeks after it). Earnest prayer then directs us toward our chief or highest desire—which must be God and him alone. And then earnest prayer connects our desires to our actions. We ask and then we also seek. Both of these are important.
Expectant
Our prayers should also be expectant, knowing that God promises to use our prayers to accomplish his purposes. There are many examples of this in Scripture. In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus tells his disciples a parable about prayer. A persistent widow kept coming back day after day to an unrighteous judge who would not hear her case. Yet, because she persisted, he eventually gave in to help her. Through an argument from the lesser to the greater, Jesus tells us that if an unrighteous judge will be willing to help this poor woman who kept praying to him night and day, how much more will the Righteous Judge of all the earth come to the aid of his people when they ask? The question answers itself, of course God will help his people! In fact, Luke tells us that Jesus told them this parable so that “ they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Isn’t it helpful when the Bible tells us exactly what the purpose of the parable is!
Again, because of who God is—a good heavenly Father who delights to bless his children—that is our basis for praying to him earnestly and expectantly. We pray earnestly,knowing that he always hears us, and expectantly, knowing that he is powerful to answer our prayers.
But what does it mean that God answers our prayers? What do prayers actually accomplish? We don’t have time to discuss all those important questions in this short post. In brief, our prayers don’t change God’s mind—our prayers change us as we are more and more conformed to the image of Christ. In prayer, God aligns our will with his will, and he uses our prayers to accomplish what he has ordained before the foundation of the world, all things that are simultaneously both for our good and for his glory. For a helpful, short introduction to this important topic, I recommend Does Prayer Change Things by R.C. Sproul.
The Practice of Prayer
Finally, how do we pray? There are three points to be made here. We pray corporately as the church, together as families, and personally as individuals.
When we gather for corporate worship, our services is full of prayers. We pray at the beginning of the service and ask for God’s blessing. We pray together and silently as we confess our sins to God. One of our elders leads us in a time of pastoral prayer where we lift up all petitions to God for one another. We pray before and after we receive his means of grace—the Word preached and the Sacrament—asking God to bless us in and through them. We pray a lot! Prayer is not an afterthought, but is a central element of our worship.
We also should be praying together as families, especially in family worship. This does not need to be overly complicated! But as a family, we encourage our folks to spend time (usually around the dinner table) to read one chapter of Scripture, talk about, and then pray about it. Those five minutes, multiplied over the course of days and months and years, will pay dividends in the future.
Finally, we must pray individually. At this point it should be noted that this foundation, like all of our foundations at CTK, are not things that we have already attained. They are values that we are striving toward together. None of us, especially myself, would say that we are happy with the progress we’ve made in our prayer lives. With that, I’ll conclude with a few tips and reminders that have been helpful to me, and I pray will be helpful to you.
First, stay consistent. Set time for prayer in your schedule and stick to it. If you’re like me, if it’s not in the calendar, it doesn’t exist. Make prayer a habit.
Second, keep a structure to your prayers. Maybe you start your time of prayer by reading aloud a Psalm. Or you start with the Lord’s Prayer. I have been praying through The Valley of Vision to begin my prayer times. Couple that with the ACTS method of prayer (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) and you have everything you need to spend quality time with God in prayer.
Third, remember that a guilty conscience is not a barrier to communion with your God. If you feel guilty for your lack of prayer, or for any other sin that you might be struggling with, God already knows. And he is your heavenly Father, so go to him and confess your sins. He promises to forgive you (1 John 1:9)
Fourth, remember that God is your Father. I already said this, but it bears repeating. We can sometimes think that God will hear other people’s prayers, but he isn’t too keen to listen to mine. No. God shows no favoritism. He is your Father in heaven as well.
Fifth, remember that your Father is sovereign. He knows what you need, and he will also provide for you your daily bread. But we must remember that “give us our daily bread” comes after “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” When we pray, we must hold God’s sovereignty close to our heart. In this we have confidence that he will hear our prayers, is also powerful to answer our prayers, and because he is our good Father will also do what is right for us, even if we can’t always see it ourselves.
I hope this encourages you in your prayer life to seek after God earnestly and expectantly. My prayer for our church, for Christ the King, is that we would be known for our devotion to God in prayer. May God make it so!
