why pray?

BY COLONEL HEATHER RODWELL

What was it about Jesus’ way of praying that prompted his disciples to ask: ‘Lord, teach us to pray’ (Luke 11:1)? Did they see something in Jesus’ posture, his language or his perpetual habit that contrasted with their own? Or was it that prayer seemed to be a natural part of life for him, integrated with the everyday? Whatever it was, it was different enough from what was familiar for Jesus’ closest friends to ask him to teach them to pray.

This request prompted Jesus to give them an example of prayer and what we now refer to as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. I’m not so sure that Jesus’ intention was to provide a prayer to be memorised and repeated on regular occasions, but many people have found it helpful to do so on their own prayer journeys.

In the foreword to Pete Greig’s book, How to Pray: A Simple Guide For Normal People, Nicky Gumbel describes prayer as the most important activity of our lives. He goes on to say: ‘It’s the way in which we develop a relationship with our Father in Heaven. Jesus prayed and taught us to do the same.’ And therein lies the rub for many of us. We are in little doubt that prayer is important, but find it difficult to sustain a practice of prayer in our daily lives, even though many of us will utter a prayer at certain crisis points of our lives. Failure to regularly pray can leave us feeling guilty or dissatisfied. This overflows into our relationship with God. But imagine with me how this could change.

Legacy of prayer

As parents or grandparents we are entrusted with training our children in practices or behaviours that align to things we value. For example, children don’t automatically learn to clean their teeth regularly, but they can be taught to do this with a little encouragement and by establishing a routine for this to happen. Similarly, encouraging our children to value prayer is something that may begin with us talking with them about their day as they prepare for bed, and then concluding with words of thanks or requests to God. As they grow, they don’t need us to always pray, but we can encourage them to pray themselves. This bedtime routine becomes something that not only encourages the act of praying, but provides a wonderful time of connection and strengthening of relationship together. At the same time, it’s establishing an intentional understanding of God who created and loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Prayer may come easily or hesitantly, but, over time an expanded vocabulary grows and, with this, trust and understanding.

Children can teach us so much about how to relate to God. Their natural fascination and wonder with a ladybug that’s found on the underside of a leaf, or the sparkle of the sun as it glistens on the water, are both an expression of prayer that needs no well-formed words. When they are tired or hurt, coming to curl up close for a cuddle and to rest against us, simply to be and know we are there, is another expression that mirrors what God welcomes from us. It’s another image of prayer that we must not lose sight of: simply to seek his comfort and presence at times when we’re hurt, upset, afraid or tired—that’s prayer.

Aligning with the Spirit

Recently on the 24-7 Prayer Facebook group on which I am administrator, I asked the questions: ‘Why pray? Why do you pray?’ Not surprisingly, the majority of responses focused on a person’s relationship with God—someone trusted with the questions and quandaries of life, and someone from whom we seek guidance. Another strong theme related to prayer is an expression of our desire to join with God’s desire to see the Kingdom come. Praying in this way brings alignment of our heart with the heart of God. All of the respondents expressed in a variety of ways the absolute importance of knowing that there is someone beyond our limited earthly framework who is able to influence and intervene in matters too large for us to fully comprehend or know how to deal with.

Confidence through prayer in 2021

Here we are at the commencement of a new year. Last year presented us with more challenges than we ever dreamed of twelve months ago. Our lives are forever changed, and so is our understanding and relationship with this world. Many of our certainties and convictions have been shaken, and they are yet to fall into place again. We approach this new year with a caution arising from all that unfolded in 2020, yet this place of caution also challenges us to reaffirm what we remain sure of. The essence of our faith remains unshaken even though our experience of what it means to live by faith has been given a masterclass. We are not the same people anymore, and so we’re invited by God to approach 2021 with all our newfound knowledge and wonderings.

We are invited to leave behind certainties we had—where we attached enduring hope to things that were always going to pass away—and embrace new possibilities as we undertake a journey that will lead us into deeper places that are just waiting to be discovered. Prayer is like this: a fathomless, immeasurable sea of immense possibility that can never be fully known and yet can be intimately experienced if we would just yield ourselves to its power.

Teach us to pray

Perhaps you relate personally to the disciples’ request of Jesus: ‘Teach us to pray’. You’re feeling diffident and uncertain that your experience of prayer up until now fully meets the need of these times in which we live. I highly recommend the Pete Greig book, How to Pray: A Simple Guide For Normal People which is associated with The Prayer Course. This usefully walks through ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ as a basis for teaching us how to pray. This is not a journey we need to take on our own. Invite others to join you, because you can be sure that there’s more to this prayer thing than you could ever imagine!