Prayer Is…

Henry M. Stanley on prayer:  Prayer made me stronger, morally and mentally, than any of my non-praying companions.  It did not blind my eyes, or dull my mind, or close my ears; but on the contrary, it gave me confidence.  And it did more; it gave me joy and pride in my work, and lifted me over the one thousand five hundred miles of forest tracks [in Africa], eager to face the day’s perils and fatigues.”  Prayer, like food, is most vitally approached when one is in hungry need of it.

When Jesus prayed, “the fashion of his countenance was altered” (Luke 9:29).  Faith for fear, strength for anxiety, confidence for hesitation, inward power adequate for whatever peril – that change showed in Jesus’ face.  A shift of attitude from the aggressiveness of daily life to spiritual quietness, openness, hospitality is almost always present in prayer.  There are two aspects to every strong life – rooting and fruiting, receptivity and activity, relaxation and tension, resting and working hard.  A man who cannot do the former can never do the latter well.  Prayer needs positive affirmation of faith and confidence in God that puts divine strength in the center of the picture and crowds apprehensions, anxieties and fears off the edge. (Real prayer is always more than begging, it is affirmation!)

There are missuses of prayer, and many souls have been estranged from praying and deprived of its consolations and reinforcements because they have seen so much superstition and self-seeking mingled with it.  Prayer is not a process by which mortal man turns eternal God into a bell-boy to run man’s errands.  God, to those who knew the deep meanings of prayer, has been an unseen Friend an invisible Companion. 

This leads to a climactic fact: Christian prayer releases superhuman power.  Christian prayer is not the endeavor to get God to do what we want, but to put ourselves into such relationships with God that He can do in and for and through us, what He wants.  Without prayer there are some things God cannot say to us, for prayer is the listening ear.  Without prayer, there are some things God cannot give to us, for prayer is the hospitable heart.  Without prayer, there are some things God cannot do through us, for prayer is the cooperative will.  Prayer is not merely a subjective psychological experience without objective consequence.  Prayer does not alter God’s purpose, but releases it.