My Theology On Prayer...

"He told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not to be discouraged" (Luke 18:1, HCSB).   

We don't need to understand all the intricacies of correct prayer etiquette, format, or go by some template to pray effectively; what we do need is faith in God's will and to walk with Him in fellowship--unconfessed sins block prayer.  The better we apprehend God's will, the more we can accomplish with God.--that's the key.  Some people are too inclined to posture out of religiosity and don't realize that we can pray with ease standing on our heads if we so desire.  But there may happen a crisis that may force us to our knees in humility.

We must realize God sees the heart and our motives in prayer too.  It's much better to have a heart and not be able to articulate it than to be fluent and not have a passion for one's prayer life.  Men seem to not be able to overlook the semblance of prayer and the verbiage, but God is able to translate our feeble utterings into divine words on our behalf.  In other words, it's not so much how we address and approach God, as to how sincere we are and the faith we express.

What I'm saying is that there is no prefabricated M.O. or theology on prayer, in that if you know all the answers, it entitles us to answered prayer.   God isn't going to give us a blank check if we pray in a certain methodology.  We can be right and dead wrong in our hearts; for instance, praying to the Lord means we ought to own Him as our Lord and not be paying lip service. The Pharisees were known for being showoffs with long prayers and praying that others may see--flaunting it in public--they might've prayed correctly. 

But the true prayer warrior prays in his prayer closet or sanctuary where there are no witnesses but God. The measure of prayer is how effectual it is in achieving God's will, not our own felt-needs.  We don't come to God with a wish list as if He were Santa or a genie at our disposal.  The closer we get to God, the more we see prayer as an experience with God, gaining entree into His  throne room and into God's dimension, and then realizing the purpose of prayer is prayer!

James 5:16 says that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.  This is so and we ought to not trust so much in our own righteousness in times of need but seek out the aid of the body of Christ.  The best of us aren't too proud to ask for prayer.  There is a direct correlation between results and righteousness.  But note that our righteousness is God's gift to us and not our gift to God.  We don't need a sermon on prayer, a lecture, or to read another book on prayer as much as we need to pray and exercise its muscle in our discipline--we need practice what we do know and not be critical or judgmental of other's or too introspective of ourselves.

There is proper prayer etiquette if one wishes to be nit-picky:  Ephesians 2:18 says to pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, in the power of the Spirit.  But that doesn't mean other prayers aren't heard, for God hears all His children.   Actually, all members of the triune God are and ought to be involved.  Jude 21 says to pray in the Spirit--practicing God's presence is paramount.  I have witnessed many types of prayer from attending many churches in my spiritual journey and pilgrimage and have witnessed prayers being answered that I wouldn't pray or not done according to the template of the Lord's prayer:  Our heavenly Father...

Jesus did say we can ask anything in His name and that is the key, but we must have faith and not be double-minded.  Merely saying the wording "in Jesus' name" is no magic formula or guarantee of being heard (neither it is an excuse for unanswered prayer), for it means we are praying His will and seeking His glory, not ours.  Most unanswered prayer may be due to just not continuing in prayer and giving up, taking a "No" too readily.  But we ought not to ever pray amiss for our own selfish desires and not God's will.   Find your voice, be real, know your genre or even the key that fits your talents:  You cannot sing the blues from the back of a limo.  As an illustration, there's no prefabricated prayer for salvation, God must judge the heart.  

Finally, prayer is a litmus test of our faith and heart, not of our indoctrination; that is, when we feel least like praying, we should pray all the more.    Soli Deo Gloria! 

Who Do You Say That I Am? ...

"My heart says of you, 'Seek his face!'  Your face, LORD, I will seek.  Do not hide your face from me, ..." (Psalm 27:8-9, NIV).   "That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from any one of us" (Acts 17:27, KJV).  

Peter is known for answering this in saying Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah to come, is not just some great leader, prophet, or teacher--which doesn't do Him justice.  He was right in his confession, but Christ wasn't right with him quite yet, and Peter had a lot to learn before he could own Him as Lord.  Christ was nigh to his lips but not tied to Christ's will as of yet, seeing the purpose for his calling as an apostle.  He wasn't aware of what he was getting into.  Of course, we have the vantage point of the full counsel of God to put this into perspective.  

But Peter was of the inner circle with James and John, Christ's bosom buddies, and witnessed the glory of Christ and heard the witness of the Father, Moses, and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration.  Besides, the three that bear witness are the Spirit, the water, and the blood and these three are in agreement (cf. 1 John 5:7).

It is said that we perceive His deity by His character and personal credentials: in that, He committed no sin; in His signs or miracles that bore witness with purpose; and in the testimony of the prophets being fulfilled.  Normally we don't believe people claiming deity (and He made claims like no other man and spoke like no other), but when someone lives like Jesus did and makes this kind of impact we tend to believe His virgin birth and resurrection are consistent with it ad confirm it.   After all, the miracle of the resurrection proves His deity once and for all. 

Hezekiah had to destroy the "Nehushtan" or the "bronze serpent" that the people of Israel had begun to worship because he saw it had become a fetish and idol.  We must focus on Christ to see His glory and not get sidetracked or major on minors.  Glory naturally exudes from Him and the good news for us is that we can share in it and reflect His glory to others.  We worship "the God who is there" and glory is a sign of His presence.   In other words, it doesn't matter what we think of the king or of the president, but only what we think of Christ concerning our souls--we must keep the main thing the main thing.  Even Moses reflected God's glory too in coming down from Mount Sinai he hid his face from the people.

Normally, Christ hid His glory. But someday we shall all see Him as He is.  This vision of Christ showed that Christ is the light of the world and doesn't reflect the glory of God, but is the glory of God in His own right.  In His light we see light! He lights all who come to Him.   Jesus had to make this point to disclose Himself fully, for it didn't matter what they thought of the leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees or Sadducees, nor even Herod, but what they made of Jesus would determine their eternal fate.  They had to come to the realization to preach Jesus and stay focused on Him: knowing it's all about Jesus!  Everyone had to come to their own climactic decision and decide for themselves who Jesus is.  We recognize Jesus due to His glory and from then on should have known that everything Jesus does is full of grace, truth, glory, and purpose. 

Richard of Chichester quipped quite pertinently that we should know Christ more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly.  Indeed, Jesus' reputation preceded Him and everyone knew that He went about preaching the good news and doing good deeds, including healing the sick, but Jesus didn't want to be known as a miracle worker or a healer but as our Savior.  Note that Jesus had done works to bear witness of His deity and told the people to believe in Him for His very works' sake.  We may know Him as the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas "Lord" refers to His exalted position, "Jesus" to His purpose to save us, and "Christ" as to His promise as the anointed One. There is no other name by which we can be saved and we must bow to, and Jesus is the one who claimed to be the only way Himself (cf. Acts 4:12; John 14:6). 

Even though the disciples had this mountaintop experience, the life for the believer wasn't going to be that way, walking on cloud nine or in the memory or glow of some spiritual experience.  We need to learn from Reality 101 and apply our faith, turning creeds into deeds, living it out--not just professing it.  Our daily walk needs to be renewed daily and every day we must surrender to His will and renew our faith as we progress from faith to faith and from glory to glory.

We all must have some comfort zone to retreat to, some inner sanctum, or prayer closet that we can find God in private retreat--it's something to be privatized, not flaunted or publicized.   I like what Francis Schaeffer said, "God is there and He is not silent."  We must not be ashamed of Christ, but we don't wear our religion on our sleeves either. Wearing crosses as a chic accessory or fashion item doesn't do His glory justice nor even our testimony.

In sum, seeking the face of the LORD (cf. Psalm 40:8) is the "main business of the Christian life" (Jonathan Edwards), and "begins at salvation" (R. C. Sproul).  "... [I]n thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore" (cf. Psalm 16:11, KJV)).    Soli Deo Gloria!