AS WE see our congregations in the attitude of prayer and waiting for the words we shall speak to God in their presence we should be awed with an overwhelming sense of the responsibility that rests on us when we summarize in a few words what is moving all our hearts at that moment. However, there is a real danger that we as ministers may become conventional and mechanical in our public praying.
Recall the Lord's words: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23). Prayer requires the person who is praying to surrender his whole personality. We should put our souls into our prayer, and it should come from the fullness of our hearts. We have confidence to believe that the heartfelt prayer of faith is heard in heaven and answered on earth.
Of course, it is not the multitude of words that makes a prayer powerful, but the working of the Spirit of God. Have you noticed that short prayers some times have a much deeper spiritual effect than long prayers? We have all heard prayers that gave more the impression of being a sermon than the out pouring of a moved heart. I'm sure that God does not want us to make the sea son of worship tedious by lengthy petitions. A few minutes is long enough for any ordinary petition.
We feel moved when we hear a Spirit- filled prayer. For many years I lived in the same apartment with an old and venerable minister. During the last years of his life he was very ill. Since my bedroom was next to his, I often heard him speaking to his Lord and was impressed that it was a significant part of his life. As Luther rightly says: "Prayer is the breathing of the soul." Breathing is natural and necessary. When we stop breathing we die. This is true spiritually.
Has our attitude in prayer anything to do with how we pray? I believe so. Our attitude in prayer is more than just a gesture. Folded hands are the expression of earnest beseeching. Closing our eyes means that we withdraw from the world and shut ourselves in with God. It is a heartfelt concentration in God. The bowed head expresses submission and dependence on God; we do not feel superior, but inferior. Kneeling before God in prayer is often mentioned in the Bible. Luke 22:4 informs us that Jesus, our great Example, knelt down and prayed. Concerning His disciples it is recorded also that they knelt down and prayed. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:14). The Old Testament also gives us clear examples. I think of Daniel, who knelt down and prayed be fore God three times a day (Dan. 6:10).
I am convinced that we should take seriously our attitude in public prayer and be an example to the congregation. We should realize that if we call upon God in prayer we enter the audience chamber of the Most High, and there fore our attitude should be that of a humble suppliant, yet ours should be the conscious conviction that in Christ we come before God as His precious sons and daughters.
Enormous Responsibility
In these times God's church has an enormous task and an enormous responsibility. We live in a world that is torn by contrasts and problems, by abuse and enmity. There are political divisions between parties and nations, also differences in theology in the church. Especially the sharp contrasts of feeling between youth and the older people seem almost unbridgeable in many parts of the world. Apparently everything is changing. It is not easy to have a right insight in times such as ours.
Changes in the world take place so often nowadays and come so suddenly that in this respect there is no period in history equal to ours. Alvin Toffler terms the particular and unique tensions that surround us today "future shock." In such a time as this we are called upon to bring the world a meaningful message of grace. What a challenge! Certainly, for this time, men are needed who can understand the wants of the people and minister to their necessities. Men who will warn, reprove, counsel, entreat, and encourage the troubled and perplexed in their congregations, and who will often lift them up in prayer before the One who understands and can supply their needs.
What God's people need most at this moment is men and women who are powerful in prayer. Record after record indicates that those who have done the most for God and His kingdom are those who have spent many hours on their knees.
God's Spirit does not work through methods or through organizations so much as through devoted men and women. God does not particularly place great priority on the talent or the learning of a minister, but on a faithful and devoted heart. A minister should be great in faith, in love, in confidence; great before God.
Men who realize in their own lives the tremendous influence they exert from the pulpit can by their influence bring about a revival of true worship. John Wesley speaks to this fact in these words: "Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer."
In prayer is our greatest power. It brings great victories in our own lives and moves our people to accept God's message of grace. When I was a young man and read how many hours some men reserved for prayer, I wondered: "What do these people pray about during all this time?" Luther, for instance, took three hours a day for meditation and seeking God in prayer. However, as I get older and after spending many years in the service of the gospel, I have come to realize that there are so many things one must place before God that we need to spend long periods of time in intercessory prayer.
Often people come to us at the end of a sermon and ask us to pray for them or for a member of their family. I've adopted the custom of recording all such requests on a personal prayer list and present these daily before the Lord. When we do this we have ample reason to seek the Lord's face daily. Through our prayers and intercession our spirits are purified, and the influence of our lives will be perceived in the church to the honor of God and to a deepening of the spiritual life of the flock that the Lord has entrusted to us.
