Weekly Blog - 8 December 2024 - Prayer
Considering the crucial importance of prayer in our lives and in God’s mission in our world.
Prayer
Every week as part of Arise’s weekly action we pray for crucial needs around the world. This week Arise’s weekly blog goes a bit deeper, and takes a look at what the Bible says about prayer, and what part it should play in our lives as Christians. Prayer is one of the fundamental areas that the Arise Manifesto (Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world) considers when it looks at our walk of discipleship with Jesus (Arise Manifesto, pg 47 – 49).
The foundation of our relationship with God, and the primary way communication flows between us and God, is prayer. Throughout the Old and New Testament, the people of God are instructed to pray regularly to God, for we hear how they should “in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil 4: 6). They did this when they met together as a community, like the early Christians in Jerusalem who “all joined together constantly in prayer” (Acts 1: 14). They also did this privately as individuals, one-to-one with God, often going away to find a quiet place where they wouldn’t be interrupted, as Jesus regularly did. We frequently read how “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1: 35). A practical way to do this today is to ensure that we all have a daily ‘quiet time’ in prayer, ideally first thing in the morning. Jesus then gave us a wonderful model to follow in the Lord’s prayer: “This, then, is how you should pray …” Our quiet time should include giving thanks and worship (“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” ), prayer for others and the world (“your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” ), prayer for ourselves and our day ahead (“Give us today our daily bread” ), repentance for anything we have done wrong since we last repented (“forgive us our debts” ) and prayer for protection from spiritual attack (“lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” ) (Matt 6: 9 – 13).
We should not just broadcast our wishes at God, but include a time of listening to anything he may want to say to us. We may get a general sense God is saying something, see pictures, or be given passages of scripture or particular words. In just one example from the Bible, David made a constant practice of listening to God for his will. We hear how “David inquired of the LORD. ‘Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?’ he asked. The LORD said, ‘Go up.’ David asked, ‘Where shall I go?’ ‘To Hebron,’ the LORD answered” (2 Sam 2: 1). We should also read our Bibles in our quiet times, a practice of studying scripture, which once again was strongly followed by the people of God throughout the Bible, for “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3: 16 – 17).
As well as praying with others as a community, and alone as individuals in a daily routine, the people of God in the Bible prayed throughout their days, calling out to God in ad hoc ways as the need arose. In just one example, Nehemiah tells us that despite being “very much afraid”, in the middle of a conversation with the Persian King Artaxerxes, “I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, ‘If it pleases the king … let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.’ … And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests” (Nehemiah 2: 2- 8). Prayer is never far from the lips of God’s people throughout the Bible. Whenever they pray, they are instructed to keep their prayers simple and short, as Jesus said “when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Matt 6: 7). They are also told to persevere in prayer, as we do not always see immediate results. Jesus explained this to his disciples with the parable of the persistent widow, “to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18: 1).
So, in summary, Arise would suggest that prayer forms the fundamental foundation of our lives of discipleship and growing ever closer to Jesus, and as Christians we should …
- Have a daily ‘quiet time’, ideally in the morning. This should involve …
- Going to a quiet place where we won’t be interrupted
- Thanking and worshipping God
- Repenting of anything wrong we have done since we last repented
- Reading the Bible
- Spending a few minutes asking God if there is anything he wants to say to us and quietly listening
- Praying for others and our world
- Praying for ourselves and our day ahead
- Praying for protection
- Pray in ad hoc ways throughout our day as we need to
- Pray together with other Christians in church and when we meet
- Pray simple and short prayers
- Persevere in our prayers
Find out more
Arise Manifesto – Find out more about the crucial importance of prayer in the Arise Manifesto, Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world.
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