by Dane Massey
The school of prayer is an apprenticeship, not a lecture. This apprenticeship requires sustained, close personal contact with the Master.
As I approach the subject of prayer I’m reminded of a quote by Samuel Chadwick, a master of prayer from long ago:
“Any teaching on prayer that does not set one’s heart to yearn to pray has failed, for it has merely fed the intellect but not inflamed the heart.”
This sets the tone for what I intend for your heart and mine. I do not intend to rehash tired methods of prayer nor to encourage mere rituals of devotion but incite our hearts to pray!
Many are the times I set out to establish the discipline of prayer, rising early after I heard of some Master of Prayer whose prayer began at 4:00 a.m. I would arise at 4:00 to merely be asleep in my chair at 4:15. This is said, not to discourage the disciplined approach to prayer, but to acknowledge that there must be something far deeper to empower such discipline.
C. T. Studd was right however when he exhorted:
“He is a foolish soldier indeed who believes he will prevail in the great Spiritual Battle for souls when he is pinned by the covers each morning”
There is much to be said for those whose hearts burn to meet Him in the night watches and who face the dawn on the knees of prayer.
What was it that captured the hearts of the disciples and stirred them to request of the Lord, “Teach us to pray…..” (Luke 11:1). They had just watched Him pray but they had also watched Him do miracles, cast out demons and preach with authority. Why not ask Him to teach them to do these things?
Did they see something in His prayer life that caused them to believe it was the key to all the above? (Could this question have been asked with the remembrance of the demon who wouldn’t come out because of a lack of prayer and fasting?)
Another challenging thought is the prayer following this question. You and I probably grew up hearing it called the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2-4). Whatever the apostle heard in the teaching of that prayer, we must face one conclusion: We have no record in the scriptures that this prayer was ever recited or referenced.”
We have the same strange occurrence when we think of our approach to praying “in Jesus name.” When one reads the prayers of the apostles, of Paul, and the early church in Acts, not one prayer ends with the phrase “in Jesus name”. This is not to discourage anyone from reciting the Lord’s Prayer nor in finishing their prayer with the phrase “in Jesus name” but to challenge us to think deeper by simply asking the following questions:
“Why didn’t those who heard these direct teachings on prayer respond to them in the manner that our traditions have taught us to respond to them?”
“Could it be that they had seen something far different in Jesus prayer life that caused them to respond to these teachings on a far different and deeper level?”
These are the types of questions that began to challenge my heart years ago as sought to understand prayer. There were many books and teachings on how to pray. How to break down the Lord’s Prayer, to pray one’s “grocery list” of requests through this grid in such a way that it took 30 minutes or an hour.
These teachings would intrigue me for a few days or weeks but never gave me sustaining power nor caused my heart to burn in desire to return again to the prayer closet.
I would read these books and my heart would hunger for such a prayer life as E.M. Bounds, Rees Howells, or John Hyde, yet wherever I looked, all I found were rituals but no life.
Now for those who know me it goes without saying that I’m a slow and stubborn learner. In my frustration however I was determined to experience prayer. Finally it dawned on me one day:
“Prayer is God’s idea not man’s!
Man didn’t initiate the idea nor even dream it up. God invited man to meet with Him, to take counsel with Him, to fellowship with Him, to share his heart with Him.”
With this thought on my heart I decided to ask Him how prayer should happen. If our “fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (I John 1:3) then they could surely teach me to pray. They could open my eyes and ears to what scripture really meant when it talked of prayer.
Certain verses and passages began to capture my heart such as Psalms 65:4
“Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.”
My heart began to warm to four ideas:
1.) Prayer is not a discipline or a duty, but a privilege! God must choose to call us to commune with Him or prayer is simply a religious ritual. Therefore prayerlessness is no mere neglect of duty. Samuel was right when he responds to the people of Israel:
“As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you….” (I Samuel 12:23)
Notice that a lack of prayer is not a sin against those you should pray for, it is sin against the Lord. How can this be?
Consider the parable of the dinner in Luke 14:16-24. A man made a great supper, then one by one the guests made excuses for why they could not attend.
Angered, the man told his servants to “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. (v 21), and then “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled (v. 23).
Now this parable doesn’t specifically deal with prayer but it does help us understand how God feels about us neglecting this great invitation to meet with Him or how He feels when we respond as if it were a heavy duty or discipline.
You and I have been chosen in His Son to receive a special invitation, to have audience with Him! May my heart forever long for this meeting and may it never be satisfied in prayer without being in His presence for that would not be prayer at all!
2.) This is a private invitation. (Blessed is the man/woman whom Thou chooses…….). There is nothing wrong with group or public prayer but they are a second best to the privacy of the prayer closet.
“For some reason my heart craves this privacy with what I hope is a “sacred jealousy.” It hates when this private audience is interrupted or ends too soon. No wonder so many of the old saints of prayer have found that sacred hour in the early mornings and the night watches.
The Lord desires to meet with you and me in secret that He might answer openly. I don’t understand this but I have found it to be true!
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew. 6:7)
3.) I have found that many times the word “cause” has been very precious here:
“….and causes to approach unto Thee……”
As much as I want to stir up my heart by this great privilege and invitation many are the early morning watches that I find myself pleading with Him to “cause me to approach unto Thee.”
“Lord don’t let me mouth words in apathy, nor allow my mind to wander from Thee, but capture me with Your glory, lay hold of me with the riches of Your grace and mercy! Do not allow me to pray unto myself! Cause me to approach unto Thee!”
4. Once I am in His courts, in His house, here is the place of great satisfaction. I however, must cross the threshold that asks and answers this question:
“Are you here just for what I can supply or are you here to be with me? Would you come through all my Son has provided just to get something?”
True satisfaction is not in the answers to prayer but in meeting with the One who has provided the answers. Even in answer to prayer (and we should believe, expect, and rejoice in answers) the real satisfaction in the answers is in knowing and rejoicing with the One who answered.
It is my prayer that your heart is stirred by more than the knowledge of this verse but is stirred to experience it in the prayer closet!
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