Martin Luther
At the heart of the Reformation, Martin Luther spent the best two hours of each day alone with God. On one occasion, facing particularly difficult labors on the coming day, he told his friends: “I have so much scheduled for tomorrow that I must arise an hour earlier to have an extra hour alone with God.”
John Welsh, the God-fearing son-in-law of John Knox, kept his robe close to his bed because a night seldom went by in which he did not rise to pray to his God. Often his wife would find him praying and weeping after midnight. She would ask the cause and receive the answer: “Oh my dear wife, I have three thousand souls to answer for, and I know not how it is with many of them!”
Considering these forefathers and other saints of God, truly we do not know how to pray as we ought.
Prayer is necessary for the believer for at least three reasons. God demands it, and this is certainly sufficient in itself (Matt. 7:7–8; Luke 18:1; 1 Thess. 5:17). Our own nature demands it, as we are needy and dependent by nature, even after receiving grace to believe. Every person needs a prayer-giving, prayer-hearing, and prayer-answering God for both natural and spiritual blessings, for in God alone do we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). And the route to fulfillment of right desires demands prayer. As a rule, it is upon prayer (not because of prayer) that God gives His grace and Spirit to those who ask Him.
One of the best definitions of prayer is that of John Bunyan: “Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to his Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.” This definition highlights for us a number of things that are part of true prayer.
Sincerity and affection to God. Prayer must be sincere because, as Bunyan says, “sincerity carries the soul in all simplicity to open its heart to God, and to tell him the case plainly, without equivocation; to condemn itself plainly, without dissembling; to cry to God heartily, without complimenting.”
Prayer must be affectionate. We must disclose our thoughts and feelings before God and pour out our hearts in sighs and groans. We must say with David: “All my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee” (Ps. 38:9).
Faith in Christ. Christ is the way through whom we have access to God; without Christ it is impossible that any petition would even reach the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. He says, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). So we first must believe in Christ and know Him, then come to God in prayer through Him, trusting in Christ’s meritorious righteousness.
This is why we pray for the sake of or in the name of Jesus Christ. Our prayers and life contain no merits or foundational grounds with God in themselves; only Christ can meritoriously and foundationally claim the ear of God (Matt. 3:17; John 11:40–41). He is the great High Priest and Intercessor of His church before the Father (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 4:14).
Assistance of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God also touches the wellspring of our affections, provoking and stirring up prayer within us. He touches the strings of the believer’s heart and creates a sort of music within the heart. The consequence is that we cannot but pour out our desires to God in a manner consistent with Scripture.
Romans 8:26 teaches us that in true prayer the Holy Spirit groans within us groanings which cannot be uttered—they are beyond expression. Without the Spirit, our prayers are mere empty words; but with Him, prayer becomes the effectual unbosoming of our hearts to God.
Respect for the boundaries of Scripture. Bunyan says, “Prayer is only true when it is within the compass of God’s Word; it is blasphemy, or at best vain babbling, when the petition is unrelated to the Book.” You know that your prayer is not true when you can’t affirm that it is scriptural. Using Scripture as our guide keeps us from much false prayer.
Submission to the will of God. True prayer is submissive, from the heart, to God. It says, “Thy will be done.” In true prayer, Bunyan says, “the people of the Lord in all humility lay themselves and their prayers, and all that they have, at the foot of their God, to be disposed of by him as he in his heavenly wisdom sees best.”
This is what we see pictured for us in the biblical postures that are used in prayer: kneeling, showing reverence (2 Chron. 6:13); standing with a bowed head, showing humility (Luke 18:13); prostration, showing surrender (Luke 5:8, 12); and bowing, showing submission (Gen. 24:26). The attitude of reverence overlaps into a reverential posture.
May each of us seek the Lord daily, asking: “Lord, teach us to pray.”
