Biblical Prayer: Attitude, Fervency, and Purpose

We're going to be looking in part two at three specific topics, the attitude of prayer, fervency in prayer, and the purpose of prayer. And first we're going to look at the attitude of prayer. R .C. Sproul opens his book on prayer with this question, what is the goal of the Christian life?

It is godliness born of obedience to Christ, and obedience unlocks the riches of the Christian experience. Prayer prompts and nurtures obedience, putting the heart into the proper frame of mind to desire obedience.

And of course knowledge is important because without it we cannot know what God requires, and this is where we we start talking about knowledge and truth remain abstract unless we commune with God in prayer, and the Holy Spirit teaches, inspires, and illumines God's Word to us.

God's Word and prayer go hand in hand. You can't do one without the other, and it's mutually beneficial, and before the class is over you'll see one thing. A big misconception in prayer is I speak to God in prayer and then he speaks to me in a still quiet voice.

That's not the way it works. You speak to God in prayer and he speaks to you through his Word, which the Holy Spirit will illuminate to your mind and to your heart so that you know what he is saying to you.

If you're basing on just that still quiet voice, that could be almost anything, and there's no way of regulating it whereas we know the Word of God is truth. That's the the final word we have from God, but we'll get to that probably in 2024.

He mediates the Word of God and assists us in responding to the Father in prayer. We need help even in our praying. Remember, the disciples made that very clear. Lord, teach us to pray. Simply put, prayer has a vital place in the life of the Christian, and look at these next couple of quotations.

One might pray and not be a Christian, but one cannot be a Christian and not pray. There's just no such thing as a prayerless Christian. Romans 8 15 tells us that the spiritual adoption that has made us sons of God causes us to cry out in verbal expressions, Abba, Father, and it's that relationship that we have.

How can you be part of God's family and have no communication with him? It just makes no sense. I mean even on a practical standpoint. Prayer is to the Christian what breath is to life, yet no duty of the Christian is so neglected.

You'll probably see this as another theme throughout this series, is that most Christian leaders will acknowledge most pastors that one of the biggest problems is the church does not pray as it ought to, and then we wonder why the church is powerless in the community when we're not communicating with God in the way that we should, and I don't just mean asking him for things.

We're going to get into that a little bit later, too. John MacArthur, that was R .C. Sproul we were looking at. John MacArthur agrees. Look what MacArthur says. He says, for Christians, prayer is like breathing.

You don't have to think to breathe because the atmosphere exerts pressure on your lungs and forces you to breathe. That's why it's more difficult to hold your breath than it is to breathe. You ever think about that?

It's more difficult to hold your breath than it is to breathe. At some point, you know, just the pressures of the biological makeup causes you to breathe. Similarly, when you're born into the family of God, you enter into a spiritual atmosphere wherein God's presence and grace exerts pressure or influence on your life.

God will put you in circumstances which will drive you to your knees and make prayer an absolute necessity and actually give you the desire to pray. Prayer is the normal response to that pressure. As believers, we have all entered the divine atmosphere to breathe the air of prayer.

I like the way he puts it. Let me read that again. As believers, we have all entered the divine atmosphere to breathe the air of prayer. Only then can we survive in the darkness of the world. Many Christians who come for counseling, who have been going through difficult periods of time, when questioned, we find out that they have no consistent regular prayer life, and then we wonder why.

You know, it'd be like an athlete coming saying, you know, I can't run a hundred yard dash anymore. Well, are you training for it? No, I can't run a hundred yard dash anymore. I don't even want to walk a hundred yards anymore.

Prayer, then, is not optional for the Christian. We're commanded to pray. Prayer is both a privilege and a duty, and again, if you have a wrong view of it, if you're only looking at prayer as a duty, the tendency is going to be to fall down and not do it because we don't, our sinful nature is we don't like to be told what to do, but it is also a privilege.

But prayer requires work, even under the best of circumstances. The natural fellowship and communion man had at his creation was hindered by the fall, and though that fellowship is restored by new birth, it is still affected by sin.

In other words, it's not easy to pray because we still have the remnants of sin that we're putting to death, the deeds of the flesh, and therefore it's hard. You ever start to pray, and all of a sudden, what do you do?

You just start nodding out. It's part of who we are. We can zone out, and unfortunately, a lot of that comes because we're not praying when we should pray, and I'm not an advocate of any time of the day.

For me, the very worst time to pray would be first thing in the morning because I don't wake up until noon. I mean, I get up by 9, but I don't wake up until noon, so for me to have early morning devotions would be an effort.

I would start to doze off because I'm still half asleep, and I know we have pastors who say you should pray in the morning, or you pray at night, or you should do this. My suggestion, pray when you can give God the best part of your day.

Whatever the best part of the day is for you, use that as your prayer time because doesn't God deserve the best part of our day? So that's just, it's not a biblical command, but I think it's a suggestion.

John MacArthur, picking up on him again, he says our fellowship with God is not meant to wait until we are in heaven. He says there is no greater expression or experience of fellowship than prayer. Now think about this.

If prayer is discourse with God, then it's like conversing with a friend, but an important friend. Okay, I'm not a big fan of this casual praying. Yeah, hi God, it's me again. I think there should be a certain respect, but if you have a best friend and you never talk, how is it going to remain your best friend?

How is it going to remain a friend? Because what makes people friends is you know each other, you talk to one another, you know each other's the problems, the joys, what makes you happy, what makes you sad, when do you need help, when you don't need help, and it's the same thing with prayer.

There's no greater expression or experience of fellowship than prayer because that's discourse with God. E. M. Bounds wrote in his classic work on prayer, and this is an older work going back to the early 20th century, prayer is not a meaningless function or duty to be crowded into the busy or the weary ends of the day, and we are not obeying our Lord's command when we content ourselves with a few minutes upon our knees in the morning rush or late at night when the faculty's tired and with the tasks of the day call out for rest.

He says God is always within call, it is true, his ear is ever attentive to the cry of his child, but we can never get to know him if we use the vehicle of prayer as we use the telephone. For a few words of hurried conversation, intimacy requires development.

Yes, what he's saying that both of those things are not enough, all right. I think most Christians have an awareness of God all day long and are shouting out little prayers, but is that the intimacy that you need with God where you can pour your heart out because you're focusing on other things when that comes.

There comes a point where you have to put God at the foremost and focus on him in your prayer. If I'm talking to you and you're doing all kinds of other things, how well are you going to be able to hear what I'm saying to you?

And I wouldn't, if I was saying something important to you and that's what you're doing and you're doing all kinds of other things, you know, I would probably say, would you put your pencil down? You know what I mean?

So there's, look, there's a time for, I've even said it before when I worked as a homicide detective. There would be times where I'm praying, doing 55 .5 miles an hour down the expressway, just within the limit, okay.

Screaming red light and siren and I'm going to the crime scene, and I'm praying. Rightly so, and that's a good time to pray, but that doesn't make up for the time that I need to spend in communion with him where I'm focusing on him and him alone.

Yeah, Bounds would definitely agree that Paul says we should pray without ceasing. What does that mean? It means always being in an attitude of prayer. That doesn't mean you're always praying, but you're always in that attitude of prayer.

That's important, and that should be kind of second nature to a Christian, but you can't say that's enough. You need to focus on prayer time, especially when we get into later on when we look at the examples of biblical praying, alright, and the example of Christ praying.

We're going to look at all of those things as examples, and so it'll become very obvious that you can't do that just in passing. It's going to take time. When Jesus, Jesus is probably our greatest example of, not probably, Jesus is our greatest example of prayer, and when the disciples would find him, what was he doing?

He was away on his knees in prayer, and we know what his example for prayer was, alright, and yet he was in constant communion with his father, yet he took time specifically to pray, okay. So what he's saying is it's not, you can't just, what he's saying, well look at what he says.

You can't just rely on the weary ends, in other words, where you're having trouble to stay awake one way or the other. Does that make sense? You don't look convinced. Okay. God is always within call, it is true.

His ear is never attentive, is ever attentive to the cry of his child, but we can never get to know him if we use the vehicle of prayer as a telephone, in other words, just casual conversation. For a few words of hurried conversation, intimacy requires development, and I think that's just, that's a principle of any relationship, and human relationships, how do you develop a good close friend?

By investing time in each other, and that's really what he's saying here. You can't just be these quick little prayers, oh yeah, just help me God, oh thanks a lot, you know. Oh by the way, praise the Lord.

It can't be, it's almost flippant. We can never know God as it is our privilege to know him by brief and fragmentary and unconsidered repetitions of intercessions that are requests for personal favors and nothing more.

That is not the way in which we can come into communication with Heaven's King. The goal of prayer is the ear of God. Now here he's just saying it again, it's, it's, we have a, and he's even getting into something that we're going to cover later on and in the coming weeks.

Most, most people unfortunately in the Christian Church today only look at the intercessory side of prayer, and that'll come in. I'm just going to hold that thought for a minute because I'm going to cover it a little bit later.

Fervency in prayer, I stuck that in here after the attitude in prayer, and it says, since communication with God is to occur throughout the day, don't imagine that precludes the need for passion in your prayers.

Paul commanded the Colossians, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it. What he's talking about here is spending time where you're very intentionally focusing on praying to God, and not just, Lord give me this, Lord give me that, the Lord help me with this, Lord help me with that.

There are other aspects to prayer that can only be done. I mean, if you're, like I said, driving down the expressway, red light and siren, what was my prayer? Lord give me wisdom, help me solve this crime, pray that nobody's, you know, none of my men are getting hurt, you know, that type of thing.

And that's fine, but that can't be the sum total of my prayer life. If I'm relying on that, I'm really hurting myself. All right, and then he says, and he warned the Ephesians to be on the alert with all perseverance and petition as they prayed.

The words alert, perseverance, gives the attitude of our prayers should be fervent. In other words, there should be passion behind it. I mean, just again, look at the apostles, look at Jesus, and we're going to be looking at some of those prayers, which I think are very instructive for us.

For prayer to accomplish what God wants in our lives, it must be an all-consuming practice that makes alertness and perseverance its most valuable commodities. Okay? Purpose for prayer. R .C. Sproul raises two questions concerning prayer in his book, and this is the title of his book, Does Prayer Change Anything?

First, if God is sovereign, then why pray? How many times do you hear that objection? Second, does prayer really change things? These are the two questions that he raises right in the very beginning of the book.

The answer to the first question is simple. God's commanded that we pray. Therefore, prayer is not optional, it is required, and this is my saying, not R .C. Sproul's. Even if prayer accomplished nothing, we are still commanded to pray, and therefore we should be praying even if it did not accomplish anything in this realm.

Does everybody follow that? If God commands something, you do it. However, we are told that prayer is effective. James 5, 16, Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.

And here it's, I mean, crystal clear, the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. So if you're a believer in Jesus Christ and you're praying, you have to believe that what you're praying is going to accomplish something.

Even if you don't get the answer that you want, that prayer is accomplishing something, alright? You follow that? Because we want what we want when we want it, and so when we pray for something, we expect, well God should just give it to me then.

No, because sometimes he says, no, I'm not giving you that, I'm going to give you this instead. Why? Because that's what you need. But still, the prayer is going to be effective in some way. James, again, you do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Two things. One, you may not be asking. Two, you're asking for the wrong reasons, and that's not praying in the name of Christ.

By the way, praying in the name of Christ does not mean I can pray for anything I want, and then at the end of it say, in Jesus' name, amen, I prayed in Christ's name, therefore I'm obligated. No, praying according to the name of Jesus is praying in the will of God, because that's the way Christ prayed, and you have to be willing to pray that prayer.

John Calvin addressed this in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. He said, but someone will say, does God not know, even without being reminded both in what respect we are troubled and what is expedient for us, so that it may seem in a sense superfluous that he should be stirred up by our prayers, as if he were drowsily blinking or even sleeping until he is aroused by our voice.

But they who thus reason do not observe to what end the Lord instructed his people to pray, for he ordained it not so much for his own sake, but for ours. Okay, I'm going to continue. Now he wills, as is right, that his due be rendered to him, in the recognition that everything men desire and account conducive to their own profit comes from him, and in the attestation of this by prayers.

But the profit of this sacrifice also, by which he is worshipped, returns to us. Accordingly, the Holy Fathers, the more confidently they extol God's benefits among themselves and others, were the more keenly aroused to pray.

Okay, and he continues, still, he says, it is very important for us to call upon him. And then he goes from here, first, that our hearts may be fired with a zealous and burning desire ever to seek, love, and serve him, while we become accustomed in every need to flee to him as to a sacred anchor.

Notice he's not just talking about, oh, so you can get the stuff that you want. Secondly, that there may enter into our hearts no desire and no wish at all of which we should be ashamed to make him a witness, while we learn to set our wishes before his eyes, and even to pour out our whole hearts.

And then thirdly, that we be prepared to receive his benefits with true gratitude of heart and thanksgiving, benefits that our prayer reminds us come from his hand. And then prayer, like everything else in the Christian life, is for God's glory and for our benefit in that order.

And that's where I think a lot of people start going astray right there. Everything that God does, everything that God allows and ordains, is in the supreme sense for his glory. It is also true that while God seeks his own glory supremely, man benefits when God is glorified.

Again, it's putting the priorities in the proper order. We pray to glorify God, but we also pray in order to receive the benefits of prayer from his hand. Prayer is for our benefit even in light of the fact that God knows the end from the beginning.

It is our privilege to bring the whole of our finite existence into the glory of his infinite presence. Again, notice all of these guys, Bounds, MacArthur, Sproul, they're all pointing at everything. First and foremost, we're praying to God for his glory, and then everything else is secondary when it comes back to us.

So we continue to answer the first question in light of the purpose of prayer that we've discussed so far. Remember the question, if God is sovereign, then why pray? Those who ask this question either have a low view of prayer or a lack of understanding of the sovereignty of God.

And R .C. Sproul continues on this topic in his book. He says, one of the great themes of the Reformation was the idea that all of life is to be lived under the authority of God, to the glory of God in the presence of God.

Prayer is not simply a soliloquy, a mere exercise in therapeutic self-analysis or a religious recitation. And we find that abuses of prayer go in either direction. Prayer becomes nothing but a ritual, and that's what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for, was praying like the Gentiles, you know, with meaningless repetition, thinking that they're going to be hurt.

And the other hand is that God is some sort of a genie. If I just pray to him and ask him for something, he's obligated to give that to me, okay? And that's what he's saying here. Prayer is discourse with the personal God himself.

There, in the act and dynamic of praying, I bring my whole life under his gaze. He says, yes, he knows what is in my mind, but I still have the privilege of articulating to him what is there. He says, come, speak to me, make your requests known to me.

So we come in order to know him and to be known by him. Notice this is, everything that they're saying here is to move us away from the idea that prayer is nothing but, Lord, give me this, Lord, give me that, Lord, do this for me, Lord, make this easy for me.

Not that we can't pray some of those prayers, but that's not the priority, and those prayers are not what's going to bring you close and in communion with God, and that's what one of the major purposes of prayer is, is that we have that communion with God.

There's something erroneous in the question, if God knows everything, why pray? The question assumes that prayer is one-dimensional and is defined simply as supplication or intercession. That's where most Christians live, in supplication and intercession.

On the contrary, prayer is multi-dimensional. God's sovereignty casts no shadow over the prayer of adoration. There comes a point, in fact, we'll see this much later on in subsequent lessons, that a good part of our prayer should be praising God, adoring God, confessing to God, and not asking for anything, and that should, if that's not a part of our prayer life, we're missing out and wondering why our prayer life doesn't accomplish the purpose which the Scripture says it should.

Does everybody follow that? God's foreknowledge or determinate counsel does not negate the prayer of praise. How often do we neglect praising God for things in our personal prayer life? The only thing it should do is to give us greater reason for expressing our adoration for who God is.

If God knows what I'm going to say before I say it, his knowledge, rather than limiting my prayer, enhances the beauty of my praise. We know what that's all about, even on our sinful, carnal level. If you've done something that is worthy of praise, and as we can do, and somebody comes over and starts saying, oh, that was great, and praising you for it, don't you feel good?

And it's helping the person who is doing the praising as well, and so Sproul follows that discussion with another pertinent question, and listen carefully to this one because I misread it when I first saw it.

In what way could God's sovereignty negatively affect the prayer of contrition or confession? In other words, in what way, when I'm coming to confess my sin, will understanding God's sovereignty may have a negative impact?

Anybody want to take a stab before I show it? How could acknowledging God's sovereignty have a negative impact? Oh, come on. We have a tendency of saying, well, I did that, God ordained that I do that, he decreed that I did it, so it's really his fault when I'm confessing.

How many times have you heard somebody say, just come in and sit in the counseling room with me for a little while, and I can tell you how many times people come in and say, well, you know, I couldn't help myself, and God did decree it.

Perhaps we could draw the conclusion that our sin is ultimately God's responsibility, and that our confession is an accusation of guilt against God himself. And lest you think, I mean, ask anybody who's done any amount of counseling if that doesn't happen more often than we like.

Every true Christian, however, knows that he cannot blame God for his sin. I may not understand the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility, but I do realize that what stems from the wickedness of my own heart may not be assigned to the will of God.

So we must pray because we are guilty, pleading the pardon of the Holy One whom we have offended. I'm just going to close with the prayer of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Listen to how he prays. Lord Jesus, cause me to know in my daily experience the glory and sweetness of thy name.

Then teach me how to use it in my prayer, so that I may be even like Israel, a prince prevailing with God. Thy name is my passport and secures me access. Thy name is my plea and secures me answer. Thy name is my honor and secures me glory.

Blessed name, thou art honey in my mouth, music in my ear, heaven in my heart, and all in all to my being. That's a prayer. Questions? No? Good?