Prayer plays a major part in any Christian's life. It is something that we are all used to doing, that we even categorise sometimes (intercession, contemplative, thanksgiving, forgiveness, etc.). Yet while we sometimes know what we're doing when praying - while it is possible to rationalise our action - the way prayer works is one of the greatest mysteries.
There is a tendency to view prayer as relational, almost conversational. It is indeed a privilege that we can talk to God, that He will hear our prayers and listen to them. Should prayer, then, be informal? Should it be silent, or vocal?
More puzzlingly, what happens in a prayer of petition? When we ask God to do something, either for ourselves or for others? Here's a conundrum I grappled with for over eight months [1] :

  1. If God has a plan for us [2]
  2. If God is good
  3. If God's actions can be influenced by our prayers

Then:

by praying, we are asking for a variation from God's original plans. Praying is therefore damaging.

Unless our prayer is part of God's plans, but that both negates free will and makes prayer seem pointless.
This is highly theoretical so far, so a couple of examples should help [3]:

  • Three days after praying for my heart to be opened up, a friend calls me, about to commit suicide (he doesn't, thankfully). This in turn leads to me being an emotional wreck for a while, but also allows me to rebuild a heart that's more open to God.
  • A friend is unemployed; but it is possible that that unemployment is part of God's plan to build them up as a stronger, more loving person. Should we pray for a job?


This leads to the central question every Christian should ask themselves.

Should we pray? If so, how and why?

1. Should we pray?
Fortunately, the answer to that is very clear: it is a resounding YES from all over the Bible. The more famous examples are in the New Testament: 1 Thess 5:17, Rom 12:12, and with a tiiny bit more detail James 5:13-16.
Less often quoted, yet possibly more interesting, are the following two Old Testament verses:

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. 1 Sam 12:23

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7


So not praying is a sin, and prayer is a continuous process, where we should give the Lord no rest (until Jerusalem is established, in the case of Isaiah). This latter verse is reminiscent of the Pray Until Something Happens wristbands you can find nowadays. Except that in those, the instruction is weakened to a piece of advice.

2. Does prayer work?

The answer to that is also very clear: it is a YES, IF. Matthew 21:22 sums it up very clearly:

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

Mark 11:24 stresses the importance of belief in the power of prayer for it to be powerful. Luke 11:9 carries the same promise (without mentioning the caveat).


There are plenty of practical examples of answered prayers in the Old Testament. One striking example is found in Genesis 18:22-33, where Abraham is seen to "bargain" with God in order to save Sodom. This (despite the final outcome being the same) is an occasion where God's plans were "changed" through prayer.


Yet is a simple belief the only condition for prayer to work? The Old Testament seems to tie in with prayer the condition of obeying the Lord's command: this is most striking in Proverbs 28:9:

If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

The Old Testament contains another few mentions of this: Isaiah 56:6-7, indirectly; but more directly in 1 Sam 12:14-15. Obedience was key, seemingly - but does the new covenant change that? 1 Peter 3:12 quotes Psalm 34, indicating that "the face of the Lord is against those who do evil".


Yet when you think about what it means to pray earnestly (Matthew 9:38), or not as hypocrites (Matthew 6:5), it means acknowledging that God has power and authority over all things, and thus can effect change. In this acknowledgement, we also place ourselves under God's authority and law.
To go back to Proverbs 28:9, there is a difference between not respecting the law and deliberately turning one's ear away from hearing the law, in a gesture that denies it authority.

3. So how should we pray?

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:26

This sums up where we're at: we know we should pray - we also know that in prayer, we should place ourselves under God's authority. However, we do not know how to pray, nor what to pray for.
Letting ourselves be guided by the Spirit is of course what we should do. Someone told me that our free will resides in deciding whether to pray, rather than what to pray for.
However, this is not practical advice for everyone, as who's to say that something is inspired or not? Still, the Bible (especially the New Testament) provides more information about this. Here are two important things to learn from the Gospels:
1. The Lord's prayer is not just liturgy. The order in which it is given also shows how we should tackle prayer: firstly, acknowledging God's power ("Hallowed be your name"), as we saw above. Secondly, praying for God's will to be done before ours. Only then do we ask for our daily bread. 2. This chimes with Jesus's prayer in the gardens of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39). God's will comes first in all that we pray for.

So this is how to pray. With forgiveness in our hearts, and by placing ourselves totally under God's authority.

This does not give a definite answer to the situations I mentioned at the start of this entry - simply because there is no definite answer to the question of prayer. Nor does it tackle questions of spiritual warfare, which might find their place in a follow-up entry. However, here's an encouraging thought to finish off:
When I started thinking prayer was dangerous, I stopped praying. It was a hard time. But recently, similar issues resurfaced - and I went straight to prayer. It may not lead to what we want in the way we want it, but it is what we are instructed to do. Prayer builds you up and builds up your trust in God; and its power is such that you are drawn to it, even if you think you don't know how to pray.

Notes

[1] until I let go of some of my pride and decided to look for answers in the Bible rather than try and work it out by myself! But the authority of the Bible and hermeneutics is a matter for another entry...

[2] without going into the debate on predestination. That matter is banned from this blog for now!

[3] they are both drawn from personal experience