(BACK TO PRAYER) 7- What is Prayer?

Muslims pray 5 times a day, while Jews have traditionally prayed 3 times a day. Each branch of the Christian church has different types of prayer whether it’s prayer from a book or just from one’s heart.

Buddhists use prayer wheels which fling prayers for compassion into the atmosphere. Hindus pray to gain union with the Supreme Being and escape the cycles of reincarnation.

People through other cultures like many Native American tribes pray through singing.

“Prayer is one of the most common phenomena of human life.” - Keller

One 2004 study found that nearly 30 percent of atheists admitted they prayed “sometimes” and another found that 17 percent of nonbelievers pray “regularly.”

Efforts to find cultures, no matter how small or remote or isolated, without some form of religion and prayer have failed. There has always been some form of attempt to communicate between humans and divine realms.

All of this Prayer is not all basically the same thing.

“Prayer presents a dizzying variety to the eye of the observer. Just look at the religious trances of Native American Shamanists; the chanting in Benedictine monasteries; devotees doing yoga in Manhattan offices,; the hour long pastoral prayers of the 17^th century Puritan ministers; speaking in tongues in Pentecostal churches,; Muslims engaging in sujud, with forehead, hands, and knees on the ground toward Mecca; Hasidim swaying and bowing in prayer; and the Anglican priest reading from the Book of Common Prayer. 

This leads to the question: In what ways are all these kinds of prayer the same and in what ways are all these kinds of prayer the same and in what ways are they different?”

Most prayer can be divided into two main types according to Keller: Mystical and Prophetic.

Mystical prayer is praying with the intention of becoming one with God, looking inward instead of outward seeking inner peace and a change of consciousness, to remove the boundary between you and God and to become part of Him or part of the spiritual force, this mystical hard to explain meditation.

Prophetic is closer to the type of prayer that we are familiar with in Christianity, it is prayer that is not focused on some inward meditation but is focused outward on God, this is a talking to God.

“The aim of prophetic prayer is not absorption into God but nearness to God.”

“While mystical prayer tends toward the loss of the boundary between the self and God, prophetic prayer leads to a much greater sense of the difference between the self and the majestic God, an awareness of sinfulness.”

From the Biblical perspective, prayer being a nearly universal phenomenon is not surprising.

John Calvin, “There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity, …. therefore the seed of religion is planted in all.”

Romans 1:18-20

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Have you ever heard someone say, “God doesn’t believe in atheists”? In a sense that is true. The Bible tells us that EVERYONE, whether they admit it or not, knows in the depths of their soul that there is a God, and those who pretend not to are “suppressing the truth.”

To get an idea of the image Paul is painting with that phrase, think of when you were young and playing in the pool. Did you ever grab a big rubber ball and try to hold it under the water? The whole time, you were having to fight against that ball as it moved in every direction trying to get back to the surface. 

This is the picture the Word paints for us of those who don’t believe in God. They spend much of their lives fighting this truth that they know is true.

“We can define prayer as a personal, communicative response to the knowledge of God. All human beings have some form of knowledge of God available to them. Prayer is seeking to respond and connect to that being and reality.” - Keller

Since we understand prayer as a response to the knowledge of God, that means that prayer is profoundly different based on the amount and the accuracy of that knowledge.

We will discuss this more in our next article.

Grace and Peace 

(TEASER, THERE WILL BE A TAYLOR SWIFT VIDEO INVOLVED IN THE NEXT ARTICLE)