If you run a ministry college in the 21stcentury I’m pretty sure you pray. I do. I’ve often said that we pray “best” in a crisis, so my college work makes me prolific, sort of! But as Jesus showed us, prayer is more than a spiritual 9-1-1. It is a lifelong conversation with the Lord of the Universe. Given that, I acknowledge that I struggle to pray well. Let me recommend John Arnold’s article. For crying out loud, I have literallyasked John to pray for me every week for fifteen years. I probably should have relinquished my space to John this month.
I hope I do have somethingto say on the subject, though. Let’s all work to pray like Jesus prayed. I see worrisome prayer trends growing in popularity. The supposed special “prayer languages” are more and more widely accepted. I know full well about Ephesians 6, Romans 8 and I Corinthians 14, but we must formulate a theology of prayer based on the careful study of the text, rather than an experiential and anecdotal approach. Prayer is mystical to be sure. But when Jesus’ own disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, surely it is a fair assumption that He did just that. If we need a “mystery language,” Jesus would have said so. Or, as others have lobbied for sometimes, if we need to pray silently so Satan wouldn’t know what we are praying for – Jesus would have shared that “secret” with us. Catholics teach that you have to use an appropriate hand gesture. Baptists go for the eyes closed thing. Jesus taught none of it.
Could I propose something simple – that we chuck the gadgets? Jesus prayed better than anybody else ever has or ever will. He taught His disciples (and thru the Scriptures, us) necessary prayer “skills”. The prayer of Jesus in John 17 makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. That’s how I want to pray. Relentless, open-hearted communication. Even a prayer struggler like me can understand that. We don’t need secrets in prayer, just the discipline of time and energy to pray. Like Jesus did.
