Meaningful Prayer: Why, What, and How We Should Pray

By R.C. Madison

Prayer was the center of Jesus's life with God. It was woven into the fabric of his day to day existence, into his morning routine, his weekly schedule, and into very essence of his humanity. He made time for it. Even when he was really busy, he would stay up all night because for him prayer was even more important than sleep.

 

Can you say the same? Why not?

 

For most of us, prayer does not feel exciting, but more like a religious guilt trip or duty or obligation that you have to check the box.

 

How do we change that?

 

The Prayer Book will teach you:

• How to pray more and more effectively
• Why you should pray and what you should pray
• Different styles of prayer
• How to hear from God
• Why prayers aren't answered
• What to do with suffering and pain
• How to rest and be renewed in Jesus during prayer

If you want to open up a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus, and cultivate a rich and open prayer life, this book will help you do just that.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Renewal Books
• Release date: Apr 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393037415

Book preview

Basics of Prayer

For Jesus of Nazareth, prayer was the center point of his life with God. It was woven into the fabric of his day to day existence, into his morning routine, his weekly schedule, and into the very essence of his humanity. He made time for it. Even when he was really busy, he would stay up all night because for him prayer was even more important than sleep.

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"15 

But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.  ¹⁶ But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray." Luke 5:15-16 ESV

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¹² 

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God." Luke 6:12 ESV

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²⁸ 

Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹ And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white." Luke 9:28-29 ESV

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"34 

As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.  ³⁵ And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; [ a ] listen to him!" Luke 9:34-35 ESV

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Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." Luke 11:1 ESV

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But if I'm reading the story right, it doesn't seem like it's a drag for Jesus or a list of things to do to check off in order to get rid of guilt or shame. It seems like he really enjoyed the Father's company. Maybe I'm reading that in, but I don't think so. It seems like he really enjoyed prayer and in times of prayer we read that story. He would literally encounter God and be transformed. I mean literally in that story, he was transformed.

Now, the reality is for most of us, this is just not our experience when it comes to prayer. If I were to take a poll or a survey of your church and ask one simple question, How many of you would feel like you are killing it at prayer? What would be your answer?

Do you wake up in the morning out of excitement and without the need for an alarm clock, because you just can’t wait to get out of your bed and pray? The reality is that very few of us would check the Yes box if we are brutally honest. For most of us, prayer does not feel that way at all. If anything, it feels really boring, especially, when you have Netflix. In fact, it would feel like a bit of a drag like there's a religious guilt trip or duty or obligation thing and you have to check the box.

And when you finally actually make time for prayer, you pray for everything you can think of – world peace, Donald Trump, and so on. And then, after a minute or two, you have nothing else to say and your mind starts to wander. And it feels like you’ve done so much hard work already and you're tired and you can’t help but think of the fact that the season three of your favorite new show is on. And then, you feel like you are lousy at this. After a while, you get over it and unlock your phone and just go do your thing.

Our day and age is one of the most difficult times in all of human history to pray for all sorts of reasons. Of course, there are the digital distractions. We literally have multinational corporations spending billions of dollars on marketing, and on research and development with the singular goal of distracting you for their profit.

Remember back in the early 2000s and before, there was a thing called boredom. These were those little time slots where you were like stuck in line at trader Joe's for three minutes and you had nothing to do. Or you were on a plane before the age of iPad and you finished your book when you were just over Missouri and you’re already bored. Do you remember that?

It was like 10 years ago when there used to be these little moments in the day that were potential portals to life with God. Now, all of those moments are gone. We reach for our iPhone, pull it out and we check the news. Or we look at the weather forecast. Or we send an email or catch up on Instagram or search random things on Google. The digital economy means wealth for many. In fact, we have more money than any other generation. So, why would we pray when we have a good job and health insurance? Money can do what prayer can do, but for the most part it's easier and a lot faster.

In addition, with more money comes more activity. After paying your rent, you still have a little bit extra. And so, you go out, have a beer, eat a fancy dinner, or maybe go over to the beach or take a short vacation. We're busy, and so much on the go. It's not all bad, but most of us just don't have time to pray anymore. And then more than anything else, secularism is now in the air. We breathe full on agnosticism if not atheism. Now we all have an inner cynic. So, when you go to pray, do you feel like you are reading a shopping list to the sky? And even when your prayer is answered, do you ever think that that would just have happened anyway? Was that God or was it me or was my boss actually nicer than I thought? For most of us, prayer is a weak point in our apprenticeship to Jesus. Can we agree on that? We have to figure this about because prayer is more important than anything.

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So, what is prayer? When I say that word, a lot of you, with all due respect, think about an 80-year-old woman in a church basement with a Styrofoam cup and really bad Folgers coffee, praying for a missionary in Indonesia. Now, that is prayer, but prayer is so much more than that. Put simply, prayer is talking with God. Take note that it’s not just talking to God but talking with God. Prayer is life with God.

Paul Miller once said, Prayer is simply the medium through which we experience and connect to God. Prayer is a practice, but like all the practices, it's a means to an end, not an end in itself. The end is our relationship with God, just like I have a weekly date with my wife. During that date we will have a conversation; and conversation as you know, is an art form that takes practice.

But the end goal of the conversation isn't to talk, it's to experience and to connect with my wife. Similarly, the practice of prayer is an art form. Yes, it takes a little time to figure it out, but the end goal is life with God.

There are four gospels; four first century biographies of Jesus in the New Testament. The one and only time in all four that we read a question about prayer is in Luke. Jesus did a whole lot of amazing stuff like healing the sick, casting out demons, preaching the gospel that we never read. One time the disciples were asking Jesus to teach them how to heal the sick.

Jesus teaches how to cast out demons. Jesus teaches us how to preach. And this is the one and only time where Jesus teaches us how to pray. I don't know why, all I have is a speculation. My guess is that it's because they started to catch that Jesus’ entire kingdom works through prayer.

All of his work was rooted in his life with the father was rooted in his prayer and so they started to ask Jesus to teach them how to pray and look what he has to say.

  ² And he said to them, When you pray, say:

"Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

³ Give us each day our daily bread,

⁴ and forgive us our sins,

    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation."

Luke 11:2-4 ESV

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Now, I want to say a short word in each line, but really I want to focus on the first half of what has come to be called the Lord's prayer, because in the first half we get Jesus’ framework for what prayer is and how to do it or not to do it.

Before we start, notice that Jesus does not ask God for needs and wants until halfway through the prayer. In verse three, it says, Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins and lead us not into temptation.

What Jesus is showing us is that our relationship with the Father is way more important than asking for things. In fact, as we will see, how we respond to and think about our relationship directly impacts the rest of our prayer life.

Four Basic Truths About Prayer

Now, most of us start our prayer with, God, I need this, I need that... That's not bad, but it feels at times like reading a Christmas list to Santa up in the sky or for Jesus. But before you ever get there, first things first, there are four things that you need to know.

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First Truth: God is Your Father

First is this, that God is your father. Father is being quoted in line one. That was Jesus' favorite name for God. He used it all the time in his prayers. Jesus thought of God as his father and he wants you to do the same. He wants you and me to think of God as our father.

Now, before we move on, I know that this is really hard for some of you. Some