Lord, Help Me to Pray!
I have a confession to make: I find it a challenge to pray. It is not something I can easily do. It is hard also to be consistent in praying daily and regularly throughout the day. Prayer cannot be formalized or systematized. For me prayer exposes my weakness and at times my raw unbelief but maybe that is not so bad. If we come to prayer with a sense of our sufficiency to pray then are we indeed praying? When we pray it seems that at the core of what should be occurring in our minds and hearts is just how needy and messy we are. Often I feel like the man who brought his demon possessed son to the disciples for deliverance. They were not able to heal the boy and when Jesus arrived the father explaining the dire and heart breaking burden said to him, “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus responded to him, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” Yet, these words rather than discouraging the father seemed to expose his deepest need and he cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:22-24)
No one has to help me see my need when I pray. I am cognisant of how desperate I am. I also know that I have been given saving faith and I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior and through him I do believe that in prayer I am addressing my heavenly Father but I need help with remaining unbelief. Where I struggle with prayer is believing that I am in fact communing with God and that he hears me. I also struggle to know what and how I am to pray. My mind tends to wander down well worn paths of distraction plagued by what appears on the surface to be more urgent concerns than prayer.
However, I have found help for more determined and eager prayer from three realities that I turn to everytime I pray.
First, when I begin to pray I always bring the Gospel before my mind and heart. I think this is embedded in how Jesus taught us to begin praying when we address God as “our Father.” Apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God is not our Father. He is our creator and due to our sin he is our judge. The only way we can appeal to him with such filial yearnings is that in Christ he has forgiven us, justified us and adopted us as his children. This adoption is of grace and applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit who enables us to cry, “Abba, Father.” He bears witness with our spirits (our inner being/heart) that in Christ we are indeed children of God. The Gospel clears my mind of the fog of unbelief and helps me to be assured that my heavenly (sovereign) Father welcomes me to come to him.
So, I thank God for sending his only (unique/begotten) Son into this world. I thank him for the incarnation of the Son who was born of a woman, born under the law. I thank him that his incarnate Son the Lord Jesus Christ lived an obedient life for me and then offered that obedient perfect life as payment for my sins in his penal sacrificial death. I praise the Father for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ascension and exaltation at the Father’s right hand. I thank him that he has subjected all rule and authority under Christ for the sake of the church. I thank him that in Christ, I have been forgiven, justified, reconciled and adopted as his son. I praise him that he has sealed me with the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of my future bodily resurrection fitting me for my eternal home on an earth made new. I don’t rush through this meditative reflection but I seek to pause here and let the grace of the Gospel roll over me until my heart’s affections change and prayer becomes awakened in me. Some days I don’t move much beyond this when I pray.
Second, I use Scripture to help me to pray. I mentioned the Lord’s prayer and this has become a pattern for my prayers. After reflecting on the meaning of God in Christ being my heavenly Father, I find I am able to unpack what it means when I pray “hallowed be your name.” By asking him to hallow his name I am asking him to help me honor him with praise and worship and follow through with obedience aimed at his glory. This means that from my heart I am asking him to help me see the uniqueness and glory of his holiness and infinite greatness. I use the rest of the prayer in guiding me in my prayer for the advance of his kingdom, that I submit to his will, that he forgive me of my sins. I pray for his deliverance from temptation, enabling me in Christ to take my stand against the evil one and his minions as I resist the pull of the world and remain guarded against the evil that resides in my own heart. I thank him for his daily provision and pray that I be a faithful steward over the gifts he has given. Here I include thanksgiving and intercession for my family and church.
I find that having the Lord’s prayer as a pattern helps me to stay focused but I also have personalized many of the Psalms and Paul’s prayers in Ephesians and Colossians. I fall back again and again on the Scriptures to help me as I pray. However, I don’t want my prayers to be simply a rote monologue. When I find that I am simply following a pattern (even a good one) I slow down and simply ask Father to help me to pray. I am helped by what Paul teaches in Philippians 4:6-7. So, I follow my anxieties and allow them to aid me in prayer. There is liberty in Christ to go to the Father seeking his help and peace to deal with one’s anxieties. Prayer is the Gospel antidote for our cares and worries and Jesus himself taught us that our heavenly Father cares for us so deeply that he wants us to seek his help with the pressures of life that can so easily overwhelm us. So, there are times (even seasons) when I use Philippians 4:6-7 to give me guidance for my prayers. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Third, I remind myself that I never pray alone. There are two other persons who are always praying with me and for me. This is true of every believer! When you go into your closet to pray you are meeting the exalted Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, who intercede for you as you pray. In Romans 8:27 we learn that no one condemns us because Jesus Christ died for us and more he was raised and is at God’s right hand (position of prominence and sovereign authority) and he is also interceding for us. This is further confirmed in Hebrews 4:14-16 and 7:25. His priestly work on our behalf of offering himself as our sufficient sacrifice is finished, yet his priestly work for us in presenting his obedient life as our righteousness before the Father and interceding for us before the throne of grace continues. In the hymn “Arise My Soul Arise” the third stanza includes these wonderful words:
Five bleeding wounds He bears,
Received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers;
They strongly speak for me.
Forgive him, O forgive, they cry,
Nor let that ransomed sinner die!
Since Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God he is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. In his full and glorified humanity he intercedes with compassion for us and as the omnipotent Son of God his pleas are most effectual. So, Jesus Christ intercedes for us before the Father’s throne of grace and the Father welcomes his intercessions for us.
Yet, from our hearts (our inner being) the Holy Spirit intercedes for us too. In Romans 8 Paul speaks of the groaning that occurs due to the weight of our fallen condition. He states that creation groans (Rom. 8:22) due to it being subject to futility. He states that we as believers groan as we await our adoptions as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23). Yet, amazingly he declares that the Holy Spirit groans as he intercedes for us. (Rom. 8:26-27). The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. This weakness concerns our inability to pray. If we are going to handle the pressures of this fallen world we need to pray but alas we are weak and we don’t know what to pray for as we ought. We don’t know what to pray for and we do not know how we should pray.
Twice Paul declares that the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints. He does so with inexpressible groanings. We don’t hear the Spirit any more than we hear the exalted Christ pray for us. Yet, the Holy Spirit intercedes and the Father, who searches hearts, knows what the Spirit is praying and he always intercedes for us according to the will of God.
So, I remind myself as I pray that even though I am often confused and distraught I am not praying alone. When I pray I am always in a prayer meeting! There is comfort and encouragement here.
I don’t think the Lord necessarily wants prayer to be easy - a simple walk in the park. Neither does he desire that we be discouraged in our praying. We do not go to a reluctant heavenly Father when we pray. In the Gospel we have every reason to be assured that the Father welcomes us to come boldly to the throne of grace. So, what is prayer? It is communion with the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. In that communion we offer worship and praise to God, we give him thanks for his grace and mercy and we make our requests and intercessions for others. In so doing we receive from His gracious hand help. Help to live by faith in his gracious promises and it is by prayer that we mine those very great and precious promises.
John Calvin likened prayer to a shovel by which we dig up those promises of Gospel grace so we can live as faithful sons and daughters of the Father. He wrote in his Institutes
“We see that nothing is set before us as an object of expectation from the Lord which we are not enjoined to ask of Him in prayer, so true it is that prayer digs up those treasures which the Gospel of our Lord discovers to the eye of faith. The necessity and utility of this exercise of prayer no words can sufficiently express.” (3.20.2)
Indeed, prayer is a gracious gift the Father grants to his children. So, help me Father to pray for I so desperately need you! Help me to pray for I long to know ever deeper communion with you.