To Whom Shall We Go?

Where does prayer come from? [Who thought it up?] Why do I often not pray at all, but I always feel that I should? I think one answer that J. I. Packer might give is this: “It is not too much to say that God made us to pray , that prayer is (not the easiest, but) the most natural activity in which we ever engage, and that prayer is the measure of us all in God’s sight.” (Emphasis added) Prayer is at least communicating with God. And any genuine communication is two way. Thus when we long to pray we are seeking to fulfill that innate desire to receive and respond to revelation. The great catastrophe of the human fall into sin (see Genesis 3) is that it was a failure to "take God at his word." What he had promised to Adam and Eve was revelation: of truth, of beauty, of Himself. When we pray we say, "Lord, show me who you are and why that matters in my life right now." God's revelation to us in 2009 is through his Son and through his Word. So we must let t...

I recently finished " Praying the Lord's Prayer " and thought it would be useful to walk through some of the more helpful quotes from the book over the next few days. My aim is simply to spark some new thoughts on prayer: the whys, whats, and hows. I will pose a question (either my own or one directly from Packer's book), and present the quotes as answers to these questions, perhaps with some of my own reflection. I'll start with a doozie. Why is prayer sometimes the hardest thing in the world for a Christian to do? Here's one possible answer: People feel a problem about prayer because of the muddle they are in about God. If you are uncertain whether God exists, or whether he is personal, or good, or in control of things, or concerned about ordinary folk like you and me, you are bound to conclude that praying is pretty pointless, not to say trivial, and then you won’t do it" (p13). The knowledge of who God is and what he is like is right at the hea...

Randy Alcorn has helpful thoughts and quotes on prayer over at his blog. I really like this one from John Bunyan: "He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day." I strongly encourage you to read the whole thing. I also highly recommend his book called The Treasure Principle . I've yet to read the fuller version called Money, Wealth, and Possessions, though it is on my list!