Prayer

"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." James 4:3. If we can pray wrongly we can pray rightly. How do we know? We begin to pray to think God's thoughts after him: to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves, to will the things he wills. Progressively we learn to see things from his point of view.

Occasional joggers do not suddenly enter an Olympic marathon. They prepare and train themselves over a period of time, and so should we. When such a progression is followed, we can expect to pray a year from now with greater authority and spiritual success than at present.

It is liberating to understand that prayer involves a learning process. We all know of situations where we prayed for years with intensity but with marginal success. But if we understand we might be doing some things wrong and we can learn differently.

When we read Jesus' teaching on prayer we see nither the excuses and rationalizations for unanswered prayer we have be taught or Jesus' words are wrong.

When Jesus prayed for others he never concluded by saying "If it be thy will" neither did the apostles or prophets when they were praying for others. They obviously believed that they knew what the will of God was before they prayed the prayer of faith. They were so immersed in the Holy Spirit that when they encountered a specific situation, they knew what should be done. Their prayer was so positive that often it took the form of a direct, authoritative command: "Walk," "Be well," "Stand Up." When praying for others there is no room for indecisive, tentative, half-hoping, "If thy will" prayers.

… let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. James 1:6

When seeking guidance we have to rely on "If it be the will or God."

To understand that the work of prayer involves a learning process saves us from dismissing it as false or unreal. If we turn on our television set and it does not work, we do not declare that there are no such things as electronic frequencies in the air or on the cable. We assume something is wrong, something we can find and correct. We check the plug, switch, circuitry until we discover what is blocking the flow of this mysterious energy that transmits pictures. We know the problem has been found and fixed by seeing, whether or not the TV works. It is the same with prayer. We can determine if we are praying correctly if the requests come to pass. If not, we look for the "block"; perhaps we are praying wrongly, perhaps something within us needs changing, perhaps there are new principles of prayer to be learned, perhaps patience and persistence are needed. We listen, make the necessary adjustments, and try again. We can know that our prayers are being answered as surely as we can know the television set is working.

Sometimes we are afraid we do not have enough faith to pray for this person or that person. Frequently our lack is not of faith but compassion. It seems that genuine empathy between the pray-er and the pray-ee often makes the difference. We are told that Jesus was "moved with compassion" for people. Compassion was an evident feature of every healing in the New Testament. We do not pray for people as "things" but as "persons" whom we love. If we genuinely love people we will desire for them much more than it is within our power to give, and that will cause us to pray.

We should not make prayer too complicated. We are prone to do so once we understand that prayer is something we must learn. Jesus taught us to come like children to the Father. Openness, honesty, and trust mark the communication of children to their father. The reason God answers prayer is because his children ask.