The Means of Grace: Prayer

 In a previous post I made mention of “the Means of Grace.”  This is a specific term in Christianity, and several denominations have their own take on the specific.  John Wesley taught that the Means of Grace are “ways God works invisibly in disciples, hastening, strengthening; and confirming faith so that God's grace pervades in and through disciples.”  Put a little more plainly, the Means of Grace are activities through which God reveals the Divine nature to people and through which God draws human beings closer to God’s Spirit.

 Predictably, one of these Means of Grace is prayer.  It is through prayer that we communicate – some might say “commune” – with God.  To pray is at the forefront of the practices of Christian faith.  You only have to look at our morning worship services and see the several prayers that we offer on a given Sunday to begin to recognize the importance of this practice.

 Prayer is easy enough to comprehend even if some of us find it difficult to practice.  Prayer is at root communication with God.  One of the vital observations that I would make about that definition is that “communication” is always a two-way street.  If we are in the presence of someone who does all the talking and none of the listening, that that does not fall under the banner of communication.  It is important in our experience of God that we bring the candid condition of our hearts to God.  But it is equally important that we spend as much of our prayer time discerning God’s voice.  Anthony Towne once observed, “God is not an acoustical ceiling.”

 In general, prayer falls into two categories: prayers that someone prepares in advance and prayers that are extemporaneous.  The prayer that is written in advance of its use in worship or devotion allows a group of people to pray together.  These prayers are often part of the church’s liturgy or ritual.  The Lord’s Prayer, the Great Thanksgiving in the Communion service, and prayers of confession are a few examples of community prayers in worship.  In addition, many devotional resources will include a prayer related to the topic of the meditation.  There are some people and groups that reject unison prayers or “written-out” prayers.  But the use of these pieces of material allow large groups to join together in prayer for a particular purpose.  The alternative is to have one person pray while others listen or seek to pray along with the leader silently.  The other option is to have each person pray aloud simultaneously, with the result being absolute chaos.

 Extemporaneous prayer, or spontaneous prayer, allows an individual to speak from the heart in the moment.  It is the way many of us pray, especially when we think of “daily” prayer or “private devotionals.”  These prayers have the advantage of capturing the concerns of the moment.  I would urge that we guard against falling into the practice of saying the exact same words without variation day after day.  Such a way of doing things has a way of dulling our awareness of what it is we are doing in the first place.

 One of the labels that the church attaches to prayers that are part of a liturgy so that multiple people can use them together is to call such prayers “prayers with form.”  Logically those prayers that a believer composes on the spot are “prayers without form.”  John Wesley saw the advantage of both.  He wrote “my heart was so full that I could not confine myself to the forms of prayer, which we were accustomed to use there. Neither do I purpose to be confined to them any more; but to pray indifferently, with a form or without, as I may find suitable to particular occasions.”  (Journal, March 27, 1738)

Prayers can have a variety of forms in order to address particular functions.  We pray a table grace before meals, prayers of confession, intercession, thanksgiving, praise, and a host of other purposes.  Sometimes we pray a prayer that contains a great many of these elements.  Other times, we offer particular prayers for individual purposes.

 It is worth noting that of all the things the disciples of Jesus saw him do (walk on water, feed a multitude, heal the blind, deaf, mute, lame, exorcise demons), the one thing they asked him to teach them was “to pray.”  This, more than any other observation, is an extraordinary comment on the urgency of prayer.