GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
COLOSSIANS 1:3 Part 2
Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
What is prayer? Prayer is a request, a statement of thanks, or a petition made to God. Some prayers come closer to a statement of faith (a confession or creed) and might be prayed without any requests act all. Prayer is communication from the one praying, to God. God promises to hear the prayers of his children (John 16:23; 1 John 5:14) but not the prayers of unbelievers (Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14; 14:11). However, apart from granting our requests (or saying no to them), God does not promise to respond so that we can hear him or “feel” his response in any way. While God sometimes answered prayers aloud in the Old Testament (Habakkuk 2:2; 2 Samuel 2:1), we have no promise that he will do so today. Why the difference? We have the complete word of God, his full counsel, the Bible.
Our prayers influence God’s governing of the world. Paul said confidently to Philemon, “I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers” (Phm. 22). He also said, “I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me (that is, his imprisonment) will turn out for my deliverance” (Philippians 1:19). See also James 5:14-18. From eternity, God has already woven the prayers of his children into his plan for the world.
A question may come up at this point: If God has woven my prayers into the way he governs the world and rules the universe, then are my prayers a necessary fact? Am I predestined to pray? Do I truly not have any Christian freedom? Am I God’s robot? Adolf Hoenecke said: “In no way, for constant prayer belongs to the Christian life worked by the Spirit; and as it is certain that when believing prayer takes place, it is God’s working, so it is certain that this working of God is not irresistible and, finally, that God always knows when the Christian will freely follow the impulse of the Spirit and when the Christian will not” (Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics, Volume II p. 269).
If we adopt some questions from our catechism, we can cover a few points briefly:
When and where may a believer pray? At any time, and in any place. “Pray…on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests (Ephesians 6:18).
A believer may pray using words from Scripture. Jesus said, “This is how you should pray…,” before giving us the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).
A believer may pray using the words of another Christian. “Take (these) words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips’” (Hosea 14:2).
A believer may pray using his own words without rehearsing them, as in the example of Hannah pouring out her soul to God, 1 Samuel 1:10-16. Some Christians insist that this is the only pleasing or most pleasing form of prayer, but we have observed that such Christians often fall into repetitive patterns in their prayer that try the patience of the listener, with meaningless phrases such as “We just wanna say…” (a colleague of mine calls these “wejus prayers”) which have become the modern form of “we beseech thee” and “vouchsafe.”
A believer may pray using words he has written or learned beforehand, like Samuel who repeated what the people said “in the ears of the Lord” (1 Samuel 8:21).
When we don’t know what to pray for, or when our hearts are too full for words, our prayers sometimes turn to groans and sighing (Lamentations 1:22; Job 24:12). But when this happens, the Holy Spirit fills in the words we can’t express (Romans 8:26) and we can be confident that the Lord knows what it is we mean to say. Our prayers don’t need to be repetitive (“do not keep on babbling like the pagans,” Matthew 6:7) but can be simple and short. God invites us to pray because he loves us, and he wants us to be able to bring him both our praise and complaints. Our Lord Jesus has opened this door for us and holds it open continually. Step through, and pray to our Father in heaven.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota