What is Prayer by Mark Driscoll

Pray Like Jesus By Pastor Mark Driscoll

Day 1 of 21 What is Prayer?  Prayer. Does just reading that word make you feel at least a little bit guilty? Talking about our prayer life often makes us feel scrutinized or nervous. We're easily embarrassed to talk about it, or apologetic for it. Some of us don't know how to pray, or we don't pray enough, or we only pray at the last minute when it's some kind of emergency. I can't remember ever meeting anyone who thought they prayed often enough, earnest enough, or faithfully enough.  Making matters worse, maybe we don't understand prayer, or no one's ever told us how to pray. In any event, this devotional series is not meant to guilt you or make you feel bad. Talking with a Father who loves you and wants to hear from you should feel like a delight and not a duty.  Prayer is not something you have to do. Prayer is something that you get to do! God invites us to pray by promising in Jeremiah 29:12, "…call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you." In its most general sense, prayer simply means communicating with God. This can be done audibly as God hears our words, or silently as God knows our thoughts. Prayer is the primary way we engage in relationship with God, and just as communication is key to interpersonal relationships, it is vital to our relationship with God. That's what prayer is: having a conversation with God. Moreover, because communication is designed to run two ways, prayer can include both speaking to God and hearing from God.  This conversation can be done anywhere and in a variety of ways, whether in a traditional posture of bent knees, bowed head, and clasped hands or in more natural ways, as when we're driving the car, mowing the yard, or shopping for groceries. We can journal our prayers, or pray through the writing of songs or poetry. We can shout our prayers, or we can maintain a receptive silence, listening for the still, small voice of God. Sometimes prayer moves the hand of God, but it more often changes our hearts as we capture something of God's heart and are brought into agreement with and trust in him. We were created by God, in the image of God, and we were designed to be in relationship with God. Therefore, the primary purpose of prayer is nurturing and growing our relationship with our Father, not unlike a child who has frequent conversations with a parent who loves them.  While there are times when we pray to God the Son (as Stephen did in Acts) or to the Holy Spirit, most prayer is Trinitarian. This means that the primary mode of Christian prayer is reflective of the interpersonal relational community of the Trinity. When we read Jesus' prayers in the Gospels we are seeing glimpses of the inner life of the Trinity, of the Trinity's communication and relationship with each other. This makes Jesus' prayers the perfect examples for our prayers.  Practically speaking, we generally pray to the Father, through the Son, by the presence and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. In this way, our prayers as Christians exemplify our participation in the life of the Trinity. Do you have a favorite way to pray (e.g. silently, out loud, alone, in a group, journaling, singing, etc.?) Jeremiah 29:12 Jeremiah 29:12 NASB 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.