Prayer is faith. Prayer transcends mere words to embrace the unspoken communication between God and the believer. It can take the form of words, but it is first and foremost an expression of faith.
The disciples were perplexed, and perhaps not a little bit frightened, when they failed to drive an evil spirit out of a young boy. The spirit, according to the boy’s father, had afflicted him most of his life, robbing him of speech, and making him fall to the ground, foaming at the mouth. Unlike other cases, the disciples seemed unable to cast the spirit out, and a crowd was forming around them, arguing.
Jesus came upon this scene and asked what was happening. The father explained the situation, and pleaded with Jesus, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” In answering, Jesus explained that “Anything is possible for him who believes.”
The boy’s father replied with words which resound even now in our ears and our hearts. “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”
Jesus went on to cast the demon out of the boy. When the disciples later asked him why they had been unable to drive it out, Jesus’ answer was both simple and cryptic: “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
Nowhere in the account does Jesus pray; he simply commands. But what Jesus does which the disciples did not do, and the father could not do, was to believe. Jesus harbored no doubts, and even as faithful as the others in this story may have been, they did not have his level of faith. Jesus prayed to the Father simply by believing, by being in constant communion with him. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he prayed aloud, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” Jesus and the Father were never distant; they could always hear one another. And so when Jesus prayed, it was a prayer that transcended words, for the father already knew the prayer, and was already responding. This is a prayer that comes only through faith, pure faith. It is a prayer which is within our grasp, but to take hold of it, we must first let go of so much else.
Once we give ourselves up to God, prayer becomes the root of our ministry. Only through prayer can we maintain our strength and do anything constructive for others. Prayer is not magical, but it is miraculous. Prayer is not part of a cause and effect formula; it transcends such logic, because prayer is faith. Prayer is an expression of love not between, but among – among the believer, God, and all others. I do not need to pray to God to tell him my needs or the needs of others, as if he didn’t already know. But when I pray I am adding my love and my faith to the great communion of which Christ is the head. My prayer does not help something happen as if I were voting or adding a brick to a wall, but instead my prayer becomes a part of the miracle that God can and will cause to occur. That the miracle rarely appears to be extraordinary does not make it less miraculous. Even a smile is a miracle when God makes it happen.
The first prayer in the Bible, or the first mention of a prayer, belongs to Abraham. After having entered Gerar he feared for the safety of himself and his wife, Sarah, so he told the people there that she was his sister, not his wife. The king, Abimelech, took Sarah as his own. But before he could unknowingly commit adultery, God intervened and told him the truth. God also demanded that he give Sarah back to Abraham, and have Abraham pray for him, so that no harm would befall him. Having given Sarah back and having made every effort to make Abraham welcome, Abraham did indeed pray to God, and God healed Abimelech and his household.
Abraham’s prayer was not needed in a material way in order for God to save Abimelech. In other words, God could do as he wished, and Abraham’s prayer would not in and of itself cause God to act (or not to act). However, Abraham’s prayer, his expression of faith, was a necessary sign of forgiveness and communion between the two men, bonding them together and bonding them to God. The most important lesson for us is that Abraham was empowered to pray despite being at fault himself. Having told everyone that Sarah was his sister, Abraham had made an opportunity for Abimelech to unknowingly sin. And yet Abraham’s prayer was still valid and, in fact, God ordained it. Our own sinful nature and our own wrong actions do not preclude us from praying, either for others or for ourselves. In a way, that fact is part of the miraculous nature of prayer.
In praying, in exercising our faith, we move closer into the embrace of God. Without prayer we are susceptible to our spiritual enemies. With prayer we ward off temptations and doubts. Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God. He calls upon us to wear the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and to wield the sword of the Spirit. But above all this, he tells us to “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.” Only through prayer can we defend ourselves against the Evil One, and only through prayer can we become worthwhile ministers to the people of God.
Prayer is the seminal tool which we can use to care for others, for when we pray we share our very love with others through the intercession of Christ. The greatest mistake Job’s friends made when they came to comfort him was that they did not pray for Job. Upon arriving they were amazed by his condition and his suffering, and they sat in apparent silence with him for seven days and nights. But nowhere are we told that they prayed for him. Their malicious comments to him, their certainty of his guilt, were not as malignant as the fact that they did not pray. In prayer, they would have been together; without prayer, they remained apart. At the end of Job’s story God renounces the three friends for speaking wrongly of the Lord, and he demands their contrition. But just as with Abraham and Abimelech, God states that Job will pray for his friends, and the prayer will be accepted. In the end, Job himself does the only true human ministry in this story, praying for those who did not know how to pray for him.
James explains to us the power of prayer:
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 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. 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. 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.
This short exhortation tells us so much. We are to pray at all times, for our needs as well as for our joys, and for the needs of others. We must pray in righteousness and in faith, because prayer is faith. And, we are told, prayer works. But perhaps James would add that the power of prayer is simply a manifestation of God’s love for us, oftentimes reflected in our love for each other.
Paul told the Thessalonians, “Pray continually,” and he backs up this command with his own practice, telling them also, “We constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling.” But what does it mean to pray continuously? Some have implemented this command in their lives by keeping a particular prayer always on their lips – The Jesus Prayer. But perhaps Paul’s statement is about something deeper than mere words, or even mere thoughts. If prayer is faith, then by being always faithful, we are always in prayer. When we place our life and spirit into the hands of God, he will open us up as a living prayer, just as the sun opens a flower in the morning to release its beauty and its scent. Spoken prayers may come of this submission, but a deeper prayer is always in our heart, one which words cannot express.
After Paul, or Saul, had been stricken blind on the road to Damascus, he prayed. Simultaneously, the Lord called to a man named Ananias is a vision. God’s command to Ananias is startling: “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.” For he is praying. In seeking guidance from God, God gives Saul guidance, and he does so through the instrument of another believer. The fabric of faith is revealed in prayer.
Our prayers and our faith are commingled and joined with the love of God. Paul tells the Ephesians, “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.” Our prayers are to be universal, for all persons and all situations. Our prayers are joined with those of other believers and are recognized in heaven. John of Patmos in his vision encountered “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints,” and an angel with a golden censer, who was “given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.” To consider our prayers as incense before the throne of God is to put their importance and depth in an entirely new light. They are more than messages to God, they are offerings to him. Together, the combined prayers of all believers are the greatest, and perhaps the only, gift we are able to give to the Lord. They represent the gifts of our love and faith, which are themselves first a gift to us from God.
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