I've been thinking about some things to keep this blog going even when I have nothing specific to respond to, so today I shall start a short series on Prayer. As of right now, I'm not sure how long it will be. That will probably depend on how much time I have and how many points I come up with.
Prayer is a topic of lots of debate and, in my opinion, a lot of wrong thinking. I've heard a great many people completely misunderstand a lot of things about prayer, and I'm going to try to hit on the ones that have stuck out most to me. Basically, it seems that people like to put God in a box with prayer, and that doesn't ever work out well - for the people.
I don't claim to have it all figured out, or to understand fully how prayer and God's sovereignty work together so beautifully, but there are some things of which I am convinced that they are Biblical and right.
One: We pray only to God; and specifically, we are to pray to the Father. (John 16:23-24)
This is an interesting thing, and a new thing for me, because for most of my formative years, I didn't distinguish between one Person of the Trinity and another. I knew that Jesus died, not the Holy Spirit, but I also thought that Jesus came to live within me (He doesn't; the Holy Spirit does). The roles of the different Persons of the Trinity were confused in my understanding, but God is gracious.
For about the past two years, my home church has been going through the gospel of John, and two weeks ago, we went over chapter 16 and the verses mentioned above jumped out at me. We pray in Jesus' name but we're supposed to be praying to the Father. I didn't realize when I was little and my mom taught me to begin my prayers addressing the Father that there was a good reason behind it. There is.
Something else about this struck me quite squarely. The reason we don't pray to Jesus (or anyone else) is because God the Father is the One Who answers (James 1:17). Jesus doesn't send every good and perfect gift; that's not His role. In fact, the ONLY good gift that I believe the Bible mentions Jesus sending to us, is the Holy Spirit. He's more than able, but that is something that the Father does. They each have their jobs and roles. It's God the Father Who answers prayer, and we don't pray to Jesus because the Father loves us enough to answer our prayers by virtue of us being His children. He answers us because He loves us!
The only reason that our prayers might not be answered the same way that God the Father answered Jesus' prayers is because we aren't praying like Jesus did - not because the Father doesn't love us enough to give it to us without someone else asking as well.
This flies in the face of Catholicism, which teaches it's practitioners to pray to Mary and other saints. Not only do they misunderstand that it's the Father Who gives all good gifts, and say that we should pray to Mary because Mary undoubtedly has the ear of Jesus (as if Jesus is the One answering our prayers); but they also misunderstand that the Father loves US enough to answer our prayers without anyone else praying for it, not even God the Son!
Part of the reason that Jesus died was so that we could have direct access to God the Father through prayer. There is no priest we need to go through now. Not only are we neglecting to make use of this great gift that we've been given if we pray to someone else, we are also distancing ourselves from God the Father by not speaking directly to Him! Think about always talking to your best friend through a messenger - that's a pretty blah relationship. If I could only talk to my husband or my mom (or anyone really) through someone else, that would be horrible! Good relationships are open; good relationships are communicative; good relationships are direct.
And we've been given the opportunity for a good relationship with GOD, if only we will make proper use of prayer.
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