What Is Prayer?

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

James 5:16b–18

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

What is prayer?

Sometimes the more we think we know about something the more difficult it is to grow in our understanding. I think this is how it is with prayer.

There are so many ways to go about defining it and various angles of approach. How about we begin with a story?

I grew up on a farm. Here I watched my father and his men tirelessly and endlessly labor to raise those crops only to see them come to the brink of the disaster a drought can bring. If you know anything about farming or have ever been around it, you know the terrible feeling of that kind of injustice—putting everything on the line in faith and facing the real prospect of losing it all. 

One of my most treasured memories happened in the hottest and most drought-stricken summers on the farm. I remember in those days how he would load my two younger sisters, Missie and Erica, and me into the truck on some of those hot afternoons and drive us around the farm, field to field. As we circled each field he would lead us in prayer. It was a way of prayer characterized by loud singing, in a faith-filled way of pleading for rain. Here is our song:

We need a rain. We need a rain. We need a rain. Have faith it will.

When it really got desperate, Dad would interject in the midst of our song something like this: We need a rain (about an inch and a half). We need a rain (about an inch and a half). We need a rain. Have faith it will. (If you want to hear the tune you will have to listen to the audio today.) 

I think I learned more about prayer from the farm than I did the church. Maybe it’s because the church taught prayer more from a place of religious duty and devotion. On the farm, we learned prayer from a place of dirt and desperation; not of the anxiety-ridden variety but a confident desperation—yes, even a holy desperation. My Dad was (and remains) a humble farmer and a holy man. 

So what is prayer?

Over time, this way of holy desperation teaches us prayer is not so much a disciplined duty or fervent activity as it is a comprehensive way of walking and working with God. Prayer is neither preparation for the work, nor something we tack on after the work is done for good measure. Prayer becomes the very character and nature of the work itself. 

Prayer was the arc of the song to the sound of the thunder. And my when it rained—and sooner or later it always did—we elevated Dad to the rank of Elijah. Maybe that’s what I’m reaching to say here, that prayer can’t be reduced to a technique or a formula or a getting of the words and practice right. Prayer is the life-long process of becoming a peculiar kind of person who learns to exercise a particular kind of power. Prayer begins at the place of our personhood. Isn’t that what James was getting at when he said this:

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16b)

Remember, though, this righteousness doesn’t come from prayer as a form of religious behavior. This is the righteousness that comes—first to last—by faith. It is the righteousness of Jesus Messiah, imputed to us as we believe him and imparted to us as we behold him—who alone can teach us to pray. And there is much to learn. But this learning does not come by information through the endless reading of endless books. It comes by revelation through the very reality he teaches which is prayer itself. This lengthy and challenging process, which is nothing more or less than the way of holiness, leads to a particular kind of power scarcely known in our age. It’s why James called his star witness to make his case:

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:17–18)

Summarizing now: Prayer is the lifelong process of becoming a peculiar kind of person who learns to exercise a particular kind of power for other’s gain, our good, and God’s glory. 

Are you ready to sing? We need a rain! We need a rain! We need a rain! Have faith it will. 

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 

I receive your given life of prayer and release my striving after a better prayer life. 

Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

THE QUESTION

How does this definition resonate (or not) with you? Prayer is the lifelong process of becoming a peculiar kind of person who learns to exercise a particular kind of power for other’s gain, our good, and God’s glory. What confirmation does it bring to your spirit? What surprise might it bring to your prior understanding? 

THE HYMN

Today we will sing one of the great anthems of prayer, “I Need Thee Every Hour.”  It is hymn 340 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

Subscribe to get this in your inbox daily and please share this link with friends.