This Saturday you might like to look into the Old Testament for language for your current intercessions. The Psalms are an obvious place to start but the interaction of God and His people are certainly not limited to there. A taster below for the coming week:
1. Psalms for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: Psalms 44; 45:3-5; 65; 67; 80; 83; 85; 86; 90:13-17; 102:12-22; 110:1-5; 132; 137.
2. Other intercessory prayers: Isaiah 63:15-64:12; Ezra 9:5-15; Habakkuk 3:2; Daniel 9;Nehemiah 1:4-11.
3. Personal defeat and need for help: Psalms 6; 13; 25; 51; 69.
4. Personal devotion: Psalms 25; 26; 27; 40; 41; 42; 43; 45; 63; 65; 69; 84; 96; 88; 130; 138.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
God’s Plan Activated Through Prayer
13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. James 5:13-18
As the leader of the Jerusalem Church, James, the brother of Jesus, knew that it was essential for the members of his church to be praying regularly – asking God for each of their needs. In this passage he gives them some specific examples of ways in which they might bless one another through prayer and then refers them to the example of Elijah.
We see in 1 Kings 17 & 18 that God had a plan for Israel. He wanted them to turn from their worship of Baal and acknowledge the sovereignty the one true God who had chosen them as His people. He needed to convince both the people and the King of this truth and He chose to do that through Elijah. God spoke to Elijah and Elijah spoke to the King to announce the coming of a long draught. During the draught there was the famous showdown between Elijah and the Priests of Baal. Following this Elijah announced that he could hear the “sound of a heavy rain” and the draught broke as promised. A great story of God’s power but why did James then use it to teach the Jerusalem Church about prayer?
Dutch Sheets, in his excellent book, Intercessory Prayer, How God Can Use Your Prayers To Move Heaven And Earth, explains:
“Why, if it was God’s will, idea and timing, did it take a human’s prayers to ‘birth’ the rain? (Elijah was in the posture of a woman in that culture giving birth, symbolizing the concept of travailing prayer.)
“Why did Elijah have to ask seven times? Seven is the biblical number of completion, and I’m sure God was teaching us that we must pray until the task is accomplished. But why would this or any other prayer endeavour require perseverance, when it was God’s will, idea and timing?
“The only logical answer to the question of why Elijah needed to pray is simply that God has chosen to work through people. Even when it is the Lord Himself initiating something, earnestly desiring to do it, He still needs us to ask.”
James wants his people to understand that the way in which God works on this earth is through human beings. While He is capable of sovereign activity, for some reason He prefers to engage with us in the accomplishment of His plans. As I understand it, the process works something like this: He chooses a person, touches their heart, develops relationship with them, instills His character in them and shares with them the desires of His heart – His plans and purposes. He then expects the person to turn those plans back to Him in prayer. In answer to the prayer God will act and sometimes involve the original person praying, who then, in prayer needs to ask God for guidance and empowering. The process is: prayer, relationship, prayer, understanding of God’s plans, prayer, guidance, prayer, empowering, prayer, perseverance, prayer, accomplishment, prayer, thanksgiving & worship – more prayer….
Andrew Murray, the South African Missionary, wrote at the end of the nineteenth century: “By intercession we boldly tell God what we desire for others. We seek to bring down blessings from God. We seek the power of eternal life with all its blessings upon one soul or perhaps upon hundreds and thousands. Intercession! Do you believe that this can be the holiest practice of your boldness as God’s child? Do you practice intercession as the highest privilege and enjoyment connected with your conversation with God? Do you know the joy and power of being used by God as an instrument for His great work of making people His habitation, of showing forth His glory? The Church should count intercession as one of the chief means of grace. She ought to seek above everything to cultivate in God’s children the power of an unceasing prayerfulness on behalf of the perishing world!”
Perhaps today while meditating on this passage from James, or even the story of Elijah in 1 Kings, you might ask God to show you more about intercessory prayer and the way in which He can partner together with you in achieving His purposes. You might begin by asking for things on others’ behalf which you believe might be part of God’s plan and then looking to see the results.
Mike Clarkson
17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. James 5:13-18
As the leader of the Jerusalem Church, James, the brother of Jesus, knew that it was essential for the members of his church to be praying regularly – asking God for each of their needs. In this passage he gives them some specific examples of ways in which they might bless one another through prayer and then refers them to the example of Elijah.
We see in 1 Kings 17 & 18 that God had a plan for Israel. He wanted them to turn from their worship of Baal and acknowledge the sovereignty the one true God who had chosen them as His people. He needed to convince both the people and the King of this truth and He chose to do that through Elijah. God spoke to Elijah and Elijah spoke to the King to announce the coming of a long draught. During the draught there was the famous showdown between Elijah and the Priests of Baal. Following this Elijah announced that he could hear the “sound of a heavy rain” and the draught broke as promised. A great story of God’s power but why did James then use it to teach the Jerusalem Church about prayer?
Dutch Sheets, in his excellent book, Intercessory Prayer, How God Can Use Your Prayers To Move Heaven And Earth, explains:
“Why, if it was God’s will, idea and timing, did it take a human’s prayers to ‘birth’ the rain? (Elijah was in the posture of a woman in that culture giving birth, symbolizing the concept of travailing prayer.)
“Why did Elijah have to ask seven times? Seven is the biblical number of completion, and I’m sure God was teaching us that we must pray until the task is accomplished. But why would this or any other prayer endeavour require perseverance, when it was God’s will, idea and timing?
“The only logical answer to the question of why Elijah needed to pray is simply that God has chosen to work through people. Even when it is the Lord Himself initiating something, earnestly desiring to do it, He still needs us to ask.”
James wants his people to understand that the way in which God works on this earth is through human beings. While He is capable of sovereign activity, for some reason He prefers to engage with us in the accomplishment of His plans. As I understand it, the process works something like this: He chooses a person, touches their heart, develops relationship with them, instills His character in them and shares with them the desires of His heart – His plans and purposes. He then expects the person to turn those plans back to Him in prayer. In answer to the prayer God will act and sometimes involve the original person praying, who then, in prayer needs to ask God for guidance and empowering. The process is: prayer, relationship, prayer, understanding of God’s plans, prayer, guidance, prayer, empowering, prayer, perseverance, prayer, accomplishment, prayer, thanksgiving & worship – more prayer….
Andrew Murray, the South African Missionary, wrote at the end of the nineteenth century: “By intercession we boldly tell God what we desire for others. We seek to bring down blessings from God. We seek the power of eternal life with all its blessings upon one soul or perhaps upon hundreds and thousands. Intercession! Do you believe that this can be the holiest practice of your boldness as God’s child? Do you practice intercession as the highest privilege and enjoyment connected with your conversation with God? Do you know the joy and power of being used by God as an instrument for His great work of making people His habitation, of showing forth His glory? The Church should count intercession as one of the chief means of grace. She ought to seek above everything to cultivate in God’s children the power of an unceasing prayerfulness on behalf of the perishing world!”
Perhaps today while meditating on this passage from James, or even the story of Elijah in 1 Kings, you might ask God to show you more about intercessory prayer and the way in which He can partner together with you in achieving His purposes. You might begin by asking for things on others’ behalf which you believe might be part of God’s plan and then looking to see the results.
Mike Clarkson
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Purpose in Prayer
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8
7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery." Psalm 2:7-9
We have been thinking of prayer these past few weeks as one of the building blocks of our relationship with God, as sustenance and as the development of us into “little Christs”. But prayer is not only that which nourishes the builder, it is also the work of the Kingdom itself. God places the power in our prayer and then in turn uses these empowered pleas to generate His love to others. John Wesley said, “God does nothing on the earth save in answer to believing prayer.”
E. M. Bounds says: “Prayer, in one phase of its operation is a disinfectant and a preventative. The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon the earth. Men are to pray – to pray for the advance of God’s cause. Prayer puts God in full force in the world. To a prayerful man God is present in realized force; to a prayerful church God is present in glorious power.”
Psalm 8 above, and the creation story in Genesis before it, makes clear that the God-given role of humanity is to care for the earth, its environment and its inhabitants. We are given the earth in trust to manage for God. He sees the process of this governance as a partnership between God and mankind. But how can we possibly add anything to the partnership? All that we are, all that we have and all that we can do are only derived from God’s goodness. Like children working in the workshop with a patient father, if we ask Him he will give us all that we need. He will show us how to do it. He will work together with us so that we can learn, so that we can be rightly productive and so that our relationship with Him will develop in the process. This is another role of our prayer lives.
We hear stereotypes of men who will not ask for directions at the petrol station or women who refuse assistance in the kitchen, but these contain a grain of truth for many of us. We are all brought up to be independent, self-sufficient people who are not a burden to anyone and a help to many. But God’s plan is for us to move from dependency through independence to a mutually dependant relationship with each other while allowing God to provide the resources required as necessary.
For this to be effective we need to ask God for what we are lacking, for guidance as to how to proceed; we need to partner with Him in His work in order to be effective. This is why God, through the Psalmist in Psalm 2 above, says “ask me!” Are you facing frustrations at work, unsure of goals for your life, unable to break through in a relationship, lack resources, feel insecure or undervalued, cannot seem to achieve what you believe God is calling you to? Pray and ask Him. There is power in our prayers. He wants to answer the prayers of His children and to uphold His part of the partnership but He needs our cooperation to do so.
Mike Clarkson
2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8
7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery." Psalm 2:7-9
We have been thinking of prayer these past few weeks as one of the building blocks of our relationship with God, as sustenance and as the development of us into “little Christs”. But prayer is not only that which nourishes the builder, it is also the work of the Kingdom itself. God places the power in our prayer and then in turn uses these empowered pleas to generate His love to others. John Wesley said, “God does nothing on the earth save in answer to believing prayer.”
E. M. Bounds says: “Prayer, in one phase of its operation is a disinfectant and a preventative. The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon the earth. Men are to pray – to pray for the advance of God’s cause. Prayer puts God in full force in the world. To a prayerful man God is present in realized force; to a prayerful church God is present in glorious power.”
Psalm 8 above, and the creation story in Genesis before it, makes clear that the God-given role of humanity is to care for the earth, its environment and its inhabitants. We are given the earth in trust to manage for God. He sees the process of this governance as a partnership between God and mankind. But how can we possibly add anything to the partnership? All that we are, all that we have and all that we can do are only derived from God’s goodness. Like children working in the workshop with a patient father, if we ask Him he will give us all that we need. He will show us how to do it. He will work together with us so that we can learn, so that we can be rightly productive and so that our relationship with Him will develop in the process. This is another role of our prayer lives.
We hear stereotypes of men who will not ask for directions at the petrol station or women who refuse assistance in the kitchen, but these contain a grain of truth for many of us. We are all brought up to be independent, self-sufficient people who are not a burden to anyone and a help to many. But God’s plan is for us to move from dependency through independence to a mutually dependant relationship with each other while allowing God to provide the resources required as necessary.
For this to be effective we need to ask God for what we are lacking, for guidance as to how to proceed; we need to partner with Him in His work in order to be effective. This is why God, through the Psalmist in Psalm 2 above, says “ask me!” Are you facing frustrations at work, unsure of goals for your life, unable to break through in a relationship, lack resources, feel insecure or undervalued, cannot seem to achieve what you believe God is calling you to? Pray and ask Him. There is power in our prayers. He wants to answer the prayers of His children and to uphold His part of the partnership but He needs our cooperation to do so.
Mike Clarkson
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Prayer Through The Spirit
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Eph 6:18-20
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Col 4:2-6
This week we have been looking at prayer as our communication with God: the dance which involves both leading and following, the flowing together in constant movement while only focussing on the wonder of the partner in our arms - prayer as conversation, as listening, as imagining. Later we will look further to some of the purposes to which God puts prayer and we will begin to experience intercessory prayer and touch on the role of the prophetic in prayer. But before moving on I would like to remind ourselves that our prayer is really three dimensional. We pray to the Father, with the Son and through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Our dance partner is three in one.
For our prayers to be effective we must pray “in the Spirit.” It is the Holy Spirit who shows us how to pray. It is the Holy Spirit who gives utterance to our hopes and directs our thoughts to God’s purposes. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to find the time and to stay focussed in prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers our prayers and makes them more than the discouraged whimpers that they sometimes appear to us. It is the indwelling Spirit of God who helps us to see the work of God around us that is often the fruit of our efforts. The way in which we do this is merely to ask the Holy Spirit to direct us as we begin to pray and then to look for small signs that He might be nudging us as we proceed.
The theologian, Tom Smail, in his book The Giving Gift shows how St Paul encourages his readers to see prayer: “He neither offers us new techniques by which to discover God’s will nor exhorts us to new faith to let it be effected. Instead of being told to do something, we are directed to a source of help in prayer that comes to us from outside ourselves and our human resources, namely the Holy Spirit. We are invited to see prayer not primarily as a duty required of us, but much more as a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit: God on our side of the relationship. That does not mean that there is no need for planned and disciplined activity by us in prayer and worship, but it makes that discipline a hopeful and expectant exercise, because at its basis is not our own effortfulness but our reliance on the divine help of the Spirit.”
I am constantly being reminded by what you tell me God is doing in your lives that God is, by His Spirit, dancing with us – answering prayer, sometimes before it is even recognized or uttered. That He is in our daily pains and frustrations, in our brokenness, in our joy and thankfulness and in every other aspect of our lives. This morning Henry Selby and I led the monthly Family Communion at Cross Schools and afterwards I engaged in five conversations – each one of which presented evidence of the working of God’s Spirit in someone’s life or circumstance. Sometimes this “Prayer through the Spirit” is initiated by His Spirit and we become both petitioner (participant) and recipient.
I believe that the wonder of the simple service this morning was a direct result of the willingness of God’s people to ask Him to work in their lives and to put themselves at His disposal to accomplish His will. A simple thing and yet one of the most important gestures we can ever do for each other. I have no doubt that the effect of these simple Spirit led, action prayers are far greater than we will ever realize. No wonder St Paul asks for the prayers of his readers. Let us take time for the rest of this week to do the same for ourselves and others whom we know.
Mike Clarkson
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Eph 6:18-20
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Col 4:2-6
This week we have been looking at prayer as our communication with God: the dance which involves both leading and following, the flowing together in constant movement while only focussing on the wonder of the partner in our arms - prayer as conversation, as listening, as imagining. Later we will look further to some of the purposes to which God puts prayer and we will begin to experience intercessory prayer and touch on the role of the prophetic in prayer. But before moving on I would like to remind ourselves that our prayer is really three dimensional. We pray to the Father, with the Son and through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Our dance partner is three in one.
For our prayers to be effective we must pray “in the Spirit.” It is the Holy Spirit who shows us how to pray. It is the Holy Spirit who gives utterance to our hopes and directs our thoughts to God’s purposes. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to find the time and to stay focussed in prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers our prayers and makes them more than the discouraged whimpers that they sometimes appear to us. It is the indwelling Spirit of God who helps us to see the work of God around us that is often the fruit of our efforts. The way in which we do this is merely to ask the Holy Spirit to direct us as we begin to pray and then to look for small signs that He might be nudging us as we proceed.
The theologian, Tom Smail, in his book The Giving Gift shows how St Paul encourages his readers to see prayer: “He neither offers us new techniques by which to discover God’s will nor exhorts us to new faith to let it be effected. Instead of being told to do something, we are directed to a source of help in prayer that comes to us from outside ourselves and our human resources, namely the Holy Spirit. We are invited to see prayer not primarily as a duty required of us, but much more as a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit: God on our side of the relationship. That does not mean that there is no need for planned and disciplined activity by us in prayer and worship, but it makes that discipline a hopeful and expectant exercise, because at its basis is not our own effortfulness but our reliance on the divine help of the Spirit.”
I am constantly being reminded by what you tell me God is doing in your lives that God is, by His Spirit, dancing with us – answering prayer, sometimes before it is even recognized or uttered. That He is in our daily pains and frustrations, in our brokenness, in our joy and thankfulness and in every other aspect of our lives. This morning Henry Selby and I led the monthly Family Communion at Cross Schools and afterwards I engaged in five conversations – each one of which presented evidence of the working of God’s Spirit in someone’s life or circumstance. Sometimes this “Prayer through the Spirit” is initiated by His Spirit and we become both petitioner (participant) and recipient.
I believe that the wonder of the simple service this morning was a direct result of the willingness of God’s people to ask Him to work in their lives and to put themselves at His disposal to accomplish His will. A simple thing and yet one of the most important gestures we can ever do for each other. I have no doubt that the effect of these simple Spirit led, action prayers are far greater than we will ever realize. No wonder St Paul asks for the prayers of his readers. Let us take time for the rest of this week to do the same for ourselves and others whom we know.
Mike Clarkson
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
The Prayer of Life
12While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
13Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him.
14Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."
15Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:12-16
Emerson said that, “Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.” Philips Brooks claimed that, “A prayer at its simplest definition is merely a wish turned heavenward.” Donald Coggan, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, said that, “To pray is to stand at attention in the presence of the King and to be prepared to take orders from Him.” These are all correct, of course, but I sometimes believe that praying is not some type of “spiritual exercise” which like a daily vitamin ensures better health; or like a special skill which through practice we can hone to perfection. Prayer is both of these but also something deeper and simpler. What I call the “Prayer of Life” or “Ordinary Prayer” is more closely woven into the very fabric of our existence. When we are in tune with God we are praying with much of what we do and most of the time. Without such prayer we would be as unable to live as without water or air.
This type of prayer is almost unconscious and the sustenance of a soul preoccupied with God and His work. It is the easy and natural outworking of the Holy Spirit within our bodies, operating to turn every action into God’s purposes. The great Victorian preacher, C.H. Spurgeon puts it this way: “I cannot help praying. If I we not allowed to utter a word all day long, that would not affect my praying. If I could not have five minutes that I might spend in prayer by myself, I should pray all the same. Minute by minute, moment by moment, somehow or the other, my heart must commune with my God. Prayer has become as essential to me as the heaving of my lungs and the beating of my pulse.”
In the passage above we see the essential nature of prayer to Jesus. He made everything look so easy – after all He was the Son of God! But perhaps it was not all as easy as we sometimes seem to think with modern perspective. I believe that the teaching, the healing, the persecution of the religious officials, the inexorable pull of the cross must have been draining at the best of times and sometimes completely exhausting. Prayer was for Jesus the opportunity to take time away with His Father and to recharge. He could offload on the only one who could truly understand him.
We see only snippets of this prayer time in the gospels so we have to look carefully: Jesus returning to the disciples after having been up early praying, a quiet break by the well when the disciples went ahead to prepare lunch, a pause before facing the distraught sisters of the diseased Lazarus. Was Jesus praying as he drew in the sand while the Pharisees cried for the stoning of the woman caught in adultery? Did he send up an arrow prayer when the blind man required more than a single healing touch? Did he need to ask for patience as Peter misunderstood once again?
In any event, we do see signs, as in the passage above, of the continual dialogue between Jesus and his Father. A dialogue not confined to particular times of the day; not confined to particular geography or even a particular pattern of prayer. Jesus needed as much of the Holy Spirit as he could contain - being filled and refilled. Jesus needed constant communication and spiritual nourishing from his Father throughout the day and throughout his ministry. If he needed this, how much more should we also need the same?
Mike Clarkson
13Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him.
14Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."
15Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:12-16
Emerson said that, “Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.” Philips Brooks claimed that, “A prayer at its simplest definition is merely a wish turned heavenward.” Donald Coggan, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, said that, “To pray is to stand at attention in the presence of the King and to be prepared to take orders from Him.” These are all correct, of course, but I sometimes believe that praying is not some type of “spiritual exercise” which like a daily vitamin ensures better health; or like a special skill which through practice we can hone to perfection. Prayer is both of these but also something deeper and simpler. What I call the “Prayer of Life” or “Ordinary Prayer” is more closely woven into the very fabric of our existence. When we are in tune with God we are praying with much of what we do and most of the time. Without such prayer we would be as unable to live as without water or air.
This type of prayer is almost unconscious and the sustenance of a soul preoccupied with God and His work. It is the easy and natural outworking of the Holy Spirit within our bodies, operating to turn every action into God’s purposes. The great Victorian preacher, C.H. Spurgeon puts it this way: “I cannot help praying. If I we not allowed to utter a word all day long, that would not affect my praying. If I could not have five minutes that I might spend in prayer by myself, I should pray all the same. Minute by minute, moment by moment, somehow or the other, my heart must commune with my God. Prayer has become as essential to me as the heaving of my lungs and the beating of my pulse.”
In the passage above we see the essential nature of prayer to Jesus. He made everything look so easy – after all He was the Son of God! But perhaps it was not all as easy as we sometimes seem to think with modern perspective. I believe that the teaching, the healing, the persecution of the religious officials, the inexorable pull of the cross must have been draining at the best of times and sometimes completely exhausting. Prayer was for Jesus the opportunity to take time away with His Father and to recharge. He could offload on the only one who could truly understand him.
We see only snippets of this prayer time in the gospels so we have to look carefully: Jesus returning to the disciples after having been up early praying, a quiet break by the well when the disciples went ahead to prepare lunch, a pause before facing the distraught sisters of the diseased Lazarus. Was Jesus praying as he drew in the sand while the Pharisees cried for the stoning of the woman caught in adultery? Did he send up an arrow prayer when the blind man required more than a single healing touch? Did he need to ask for patience as Peter misunderstood once again?
In any event, we do see signs, as in the passage above, of the continual dialogue between Jesus and his Father. A dialogue not confined to particular times of the day; not confined to particular geography or even a particular pattern of prayer. Jesus needed as much of the Holy Spirit as he could contain - being filled and refilled. Jesus needed constant communication and spiritual nourishing from his Father throughout the day and throughout his ministry. If he needed this, how much more should we also need the same?
Mike Clarkson
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