Learning to pray

Speaking with the Father

Prayer is talking with God. New believers often hesitate, not knowing what to say. But Christian prayer does not begin with fine words; it begins with a child calling to a father. Paul writes that believers have "received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’" (Romans 8:15). Adoption is being taken into a family as a child, and Abba is the Aramaic word for ‘Father’ that Jesus himself used in prayer (Mark 14:36). The Holy Spirit, who is God, one with the Father and the Son, puts that cry in our hearts.

So churches, the gatherings of people who belong to Jesus, everywhere pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus the Son, with the help of the Spirit. Jesus promised, "whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you" (John 16:23). To pray in Jesus' name is to come trusting him, not our own worthiness. And when we do not know what to ask, "the Spirit helps us in our weakness" (Romans 8:26).

In ancient Israel the high priest went before God for the people. Hebrews calls Christ our high priest, tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin, and urges:

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:16

Grace is God's kindness to people who have not deserved it; mercy is his pity on us in our need.

Christians ask one another for prayer, as Paul did: "Brothers, pray for us as well" (1 Thessalonians 5:25). Catholic and Orthodox Christians also ask this of the saints, those the church remembers as examples of faith who have gone before us to be with Christ, and above all of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Pointing to the "great cloud of witnesses" that surrounds us (Hebrews 12:1), they believe that the church in heaven and on earth is one family in Christ. They give worship, the honour due to God, to God alone, and ask the saints to pray with them and for them. The saints, Catholics teach, pray for us through Christ alone Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Protestant churches, which come from the sixteenth-century Reformation, a movement to renew the church by Scripture, pray to God alone and come to him through Christ alone: "there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). A mediator stands between two parties to bring them together.

The prayer Jesus taught

The disciples asked, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Prayer is learned. Jesus told them not to pray to be seen, but to "pray to your Father, who is unseen" (Matthew 6:6), and not to pile up words as if God heard us for their number, "for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" (Matthew 6:8). So short, stumbling prayers are welcome. Then he taught them:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Matthew 6:9-13

This is the Lord's Prayer. To hallow God's name is to honour it as holy. The prayer asks first for God's name, kingdom and will, and then for our bread, our forgiveness and our protection.

The Reformed churches grew from the Reformation, in the line of teachers such as John Calvin. Presbyterians are the best known; the Reformed churches of continental Europe are another branch, and among Baptists the Reformed Baptists confess the same faith. They set out their faith in confessions and taught it in catechisms, by question and answer. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) explains:

Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies.

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 98

Its next answer names the Lord's Prayer as ‘the special rule of direction’ Q. 99. The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) speaks of prayer in its part on the thankfulness of those who have been saved. Why is prayer necessary for Christians?

Because it is the chief part of the thankfulness which God requires of us

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 116

Prayer is not a way of earning salvation; it is the thanks of those saved by grace. Prayer that pleases God, it goes on, calls from the heart on the one true God alone, knows our need and humbles us, and is firmly assured that for Christ's sake he will hear us, unworthy as we are Q. 117. The Westminster Confession (1646) likewise confesses that worship is given to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone, through the mediation of Christ alone ch. 21.2. The Heidelberg's Q. 119–129 go through the Lord's Prayer phrase by phrase. Calvin called prayer the chief exercise of faith: by prayer, he said, we dig up the treasures the gospel has pointed out to us Calvin, Institutes 3.20.

Praying every day

No one pattern is required for prayer, but at first a simple one helps: praise, telling God who he is and rejoicing in it; confession, owning our sins to him honestly; thanks for what he has given; and asking, for ourselves and for others. It is a help, not a rule. Paul writes, "in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6), and "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding" will guard our hearts (Philippians 4:7).

The Psalms, the prayers and songs of Israel, are a school of prayer: "Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him" (Psalm 62:8). When a line of a psalm speaks for you, pray it as your own.

Prayer is shared, too. The first Christians "devoted themselves … to prayer" (Acts 2:42), and Jesus said, "where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20).

Set a time to pray, morning and evening, and through the day pray short prayers as you go. "Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in every circumstance" (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18) means keeping your heart open to God in whatever you do.

Sometimes what we ask for does not come at once. Jesus told a parable "about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). He told us to ask, seek and knock, for the Father gives good gifts, above all "the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him" (Luke 11:9-13). See Does God answer prayer?, How should I pray? and, in the doctrine course, Worship and prayer.

This week

Pray the Lord's Prayer slowly, one phrase a day. On the first day take only ‘Our Father in heaven’, and pray it remembering that in Christ God has become your Father. On the days that follow take, one at a time, his name, his kingdom, his will, our daily bread, forgiveness, and protection from temptation and evil. You can read the Heidelberg Catechism's question for each phrase alongside, from Q. 120 on.

Find someone to pray with. Ask a Christian at your church to pray for you, and pray for them too. The next lesson is about worship and the Lord's Day, the day on which Christ rose.

Practice