WORSHIPS AND PRAYERS

Prayer is an Act of Worship

Prayer plays a key role in our worship of God. What are the worship choruses we sing, if not prayers set to music? What are the praise-filled Bible passages we read aloud on Sunday morning if not prayers recited in unison?

The apostle Paul places prayer at the center of the Christian discipline of maintaining a continuous spirit of worship. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18). There are several reasons that prayer plays such an outsized role in worship. Understanding these reasons can help us maximize the impact of our worship.

Prayer brings us into God’s presence.

The author of Hebrews writes, “Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). His point is that because of Christ’s sacrifice, we have direct access to God. He urges us to make the most of our access by approaching God in prayer with a sense of confidence and boldness, knowing that our prayers will be heard and answered.

By the same token, we should not be so bold that we lose sight of our surroundings. Prayer ushers us into the throne room of God. If we don’t take a moment to absorb the implications of that, we can’t fully appreciate the magnitude of the event. Prayer grants us a personal audience with the One who created the universe, who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, who kept Daniel safe in the lions’ den, who sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, who sacrificed His only Son, and who raised Him from the dead. It’s an astonishing opportunity when you think about it. So we must think about it. For best results, the boldness that the author of Hebrews recommends for approaching God in prayer should be mixed with a deep sense of awe and appreciation.

Prayer directs our focus on God.

Understanding who we’re talking to—and what a privilege it is—helps us keep our priorities straight when we pray. The first fruits of our prayer belong to God. Ideally, then, the bulk of our energy, passion, and creativity will go toward praising God and thanking Him for His work—in our lives and in the world around us.

The psalmists offer a master class in extolling the virtues of God.

“But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory, and the One who lifts up my head” (Psalm 3:3).

“We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near” (Psalm 75:1).

“The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy” (Psalm 145:8).

We can draw from their example or use our own experiences and creativity to place our primary focus on God when we pray.

Prayer helps us recognize our place—and our purpose.

Often when we turn to God in prayer, it’s in response to circumstances in our life—a medical crisis, a broken relationship, a job loss, a sense of helplessness or hopelessness. We pray in times of desperation, imploring God to do something on our behalf. More often than not, we have a pretty clear idea of what we want Him to do. In such cases, prayer becomes an “assignment.” We give God a job and wait for Him to complete it.

God is gracious; He will respond to “emergency requests,” though not necessarily in the ways we want Him to. However, when we pray in such a shortsighted way, we limit prayer’s potential in our lives. Prayer, in its most potent form, is a daily (or twice-daily or hourly) acknowledgment of God’s place in our lives—and of our place in His will.

Focusing our attention first on God helps us maintain a pleasing (to Him) sense of humility and obedience. As we extol His virtues and praise Him for His power, His wisdom, His love, and His ability to bring ultimate good from any situation, we can see our own circumstances for what they are—that is, firmly within His grasp.

The apostle Paul understood what it means to recognize our place, relative to God, in prayer. Acts 20:36 tells us that “he knelt down and prayed.” Paul’s kneeling posture reminded him that he approached God as a servant, a beggar. We should approach Him in the same way. Even if we don’t have the opportunity to kneel physically when we pray, our hearts should be bowed to God, seeking His purpose and not our own.

Prayer aligns our hearts with God’s

The most profound example of seeking God’s purpose in prayer comes from Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, just before His arrest, Jesus felt the full weight of what He was about to endure. He begins His prayer by saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39). It was certainly an understandable request from someone who was being pushed to the limits of human endurance.

But it’s how Jesus ends His prayer that resonates with us. He follows His anguished plea with these words: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Even in His vulnerable state, Jesus’ first priority is to align His will with God’s. Our aim must be to follow His lead in our own prayers. After we pour our hearts out to God, it is essential that we pray, in effect, “No matter how urgent or important these things seem to me, they pale in comparison to the urgency and importance of Your will. That is my first priority.”

That is the essence of worship and the essence of prayer.

Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer during His earthly ministry. He prayed for Himself (see John 17:1–5). He prayed for His disciples (see John 17:6–26). With His dying breath, He prayed for His enemies (see Luke 23:34).

The apostle Paul was a prayer warrior as well. In almost every one of his New Testament epistles, he talks about praying for the recipients of his letters. In 2 Timothy 1:3 he writes, “Without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, he instructs the Thessalonian believers to “pray without ceasing.”

From a certain perspective, then, the conclusion seems obvious. Neither Jesus nor Paul would have invested much time and energy in a pursuit that ultimately made no difference. So prayer must change things, somehow.

On the other hand, anyone who’s ever lost a loved one or struggled for years—despite continuous, fervent prayers—may question whether prayer changes anything at all. Perhaps the best way to reconcile these opposing positions is to say that prayer can change things in one of three ways.

Prayer Can Change Things in Bold, Dramatic Ways

In Matthew 17:20, Jesus says, “For assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Occasionally, God gives us stark evidence of prayer’s extraordinary power. His demonstrations rarely, if ever, involve a displaced mountain. Instead, they involve everything from a sudden cancer remission to an unexpected job offer to a reconciliation that seemed impossible.

These answered prayers tend to have a polarizing effect. On the one hand, the people whose prayers are answered have something for which they can praise God for the rest of their lives. They have evidence on which to build their faith. Other people, whose prayers seemingly weren’t answered, may wonder why God refuses to work in such a dramatic way in their lives.

As time passes, even the people who did experience a dramatic answer to prayer may wonder why God doesn’t answer other requests in a similar manner. That may explain why such sudden, dramatic answers to prayer are relatively rare.

Prayer Can Change Things in Increments

Prayer can change things in gradual, sometimes imperceptible, ways. The apostle Paul, as we mentioned earlier, prayed for the believers in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica, and elsewhere. Based on certain passages in his letters, we can conclude that his prayers were answered. Yet the changes he prayed for in people’s lives didn’t happen overnight. They occurred as part of their spiritual growth.

Likewise, when you pray to become more like Christ, God doesn’t immediately imbue you with a dozen Christlike qualities. When you pray for patience, courage, or discipline, He doesn’t immediately gift you with the patience of Job, the courage of David, or the discipline of Daniel. Instead, He gives you opportunities to grow in a particular area. He allows you to face circumstances that call for patience, courage, or wisdom, and He guides you through them.

Sometimes we fall into the trap of praying for just enough from God to become independent of Him. We ask Him to answer our prayers fully and immediately so that we won’t have to turn to Him again. But that’s not what He wants for us.

Look at the way He answered the Israelites’ prayers for food in the wilderness in Exodus 16. He didn’t fill their tents with a year’s supply of manna. Instead, He sent a day’s worth for them to collect and enjoy. God’s desire is for His people to turn to Him daily for our provisions. So He often answers our prayers in ways that bring us back to Him day after day.

Prayer Can Change Us

This is the aspect of prayer that largely goes unexplored in our search for answered requests. When we pray, our ultimate aim is to align our will with God’s. The problem is, that we often go about it by trying to bend His will to fit ours. When that doesn’t happen, we question the efficiency of prayer or accuse God of not caring for us.

However, if we stay faithful to Him and continue to pray, in time He will bend our will to fit His. He will work in and through us to change our hearts. He will open our eyes to His work. He will give us the wisdom to recognize the perfection of His plan. He will loosen our grip on our own expectations.

Look at Matthew 26:36–39 for context. After Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for God to remove the cup of suffering from Him, He was ready to face what lay ahead. Yet God had not removed the cup of suffering from Him. The physical and spiritual agony of the crucifixion still awaited Him. Jesus’ prayer had not changed His circumstances, but it had changed His spirit.

The reason is that Jesus’ other request had been granted. After He prayed for the cup of suffering to be removed, He added these words: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” His second, and primary, request was that God’s will would be accomplished through Him. And that’s exactly what was going to happen through His crucifixion.

That’s all the assurance Jesus needed for His spirit to be revived. His prayer created a change because His will was aligned with God’s.

Have you ever wondered if your prayer life looks like the prayer lives of the people in the Bible? Though I grew up in church, I haven’t often stopped to consider the way the leaders prayed in the Bible.

Prayer Is a Very Important Habit

Prayer is mentioned throughout the New Testament hundreds of times, and the Scripture tells us that prayer should be an integral part of our lives as followers of Jesus.

“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 4:2)
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18)
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18)
“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” (James 5:13)
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14–15)

Prayer Was Important to Jesus

The Bible also shows us prayer was an important habit in the life of Jesus:

“And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.” (Matthew 14:23)
“It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12 nasb)
“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place, and there He prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
“So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” (Luke 5:16)

If Jesus prayed this much, how much more do we need to pray?

We Can All Use More Prayer

Prayer isn’t just for the “most spiritual” Christians. Prayer is something all of us can learn to do well, and the more we learn the better off we will be. Henrietta Mears once said, “Christianity isn’t adding a burden to your life, it is adding power.” The power that belongs to God comes to us through reading the Bible, seeking Him in prayer, enjoying fellowship at the local church, and submitting our hearts to God’s will.

Let’s Learn to Pray More Like the People in the Bible

We see how important prayer is in the Bible, but how should we pray? I have been surprised to think of some of my prayers in comparison to the prayers of the early leaders of the church. The more we learn to pray like the people in the Bible, and to pray the way the Bible teaches us to pray, the more effective we will be.

Consider some of the ways Paul prayed in the New Testament.

Paul thanked God for people often. (See Romans 1:8–10)
Paul prayed for our knowledge of God to grow. (See Ephesians 1:17)
Paul prayed for our joy, peace, and hope. (See Romans 15:13)
Paul prayed we would live in peace and unity with other believers. (See Romans 15:5–6)
Paul prayed for us to experience God’s power in our lives. (See Ephesians 3:16)
Paul prayed that our love for others would grow. (See Philippians 1:9)

This is just a sampling of the powerful apostolic prayers in the New Testament. As we read more about the ways people prayed in the Bible, we can begin to model our prayer lives after theirs!