Prayer is a wonderful force that changes everything, and as John Calvin concluded, it is the chief exercise of faith – the most important thing for a life of faith.
Alfred Tennyson, the famous poet, wrote that “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” And it was Jesus who taught his disciples to pray. Jesus said in Luke 18:1 – “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”
The Bible also tells us to pray without ceasing.
That doesn’t mean we walk around with our eyes closed it means we are always in conversation with God. God is always in our awareness and we are continually aware that he knows and hears us. But some people are concerned that their prayers are not heard because they are not very good at prayer or that they are not worthy enough to have their prayers heard.
They ask: How do I know how to pray? Jesus gave his disciples a model prayer which we sometimes refer to as the Lord’s prayer or the “Our Father”. It covers both the content and attitude in prayer and if we are looking for words which we can’t find, praying the words he taught while focussing on our concern is a way to pray in confidence our prayer will be heard since these are the words he gave his disciples to pray.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian martyr from the Second World War, says:
“It matters little what form of prayer we adopt or how many words we use. What matters is the faith which lays hold on God, knowing that He knows our needs before we even ask Him. That is what gives Christian prayer its boundless confidence and its joyous certainty.”
But even if we use the right words acceptable to God we can question whether our faith is too small or we are overwhelmed by the truth of our own impurity or sense of unworthiness. We can think God will take no interest in us or our concerns.
In answer I say that the scriptures are full of assurances like this one: “That if we confess our sin God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In fact the whole message of the bible – the gospel of grace- is about believing that truth.
So if we use the right words as the Lord taught and if we by faith accept that by faith we are made whiter than snow because of Jesus washing away our sin.
John Calvin, the great Christian Reformer, reminds us that “Our prayers, which otherwise would be polluted are sanctified by the intercession of Christ.” We should grow in confidence our prayers will be answered.
Finally we can grow confident God will answer our prayer if we pray for the desires of God’s own heart.
This takes the holy Spirit working in us but is clearly taught in the writings of the holy scriptures. 1 John3:19-24 19 This is how We know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.