Month: February 2021

Some Questions About Prayer (not quite the final round)

Published by Jeff Kennon on February 26, 2021

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Yep! Still asking questions about prayer. I once heard about a pastor who spent two years preaching through the book of Romans. There is no denying that there is much to preach from Romans, but for me, two straight years seems like a bit much. I’m not anticipating this series on prayer to go 104 weeks. In fact, I think next week will be the final week. Not because I’ve answered all the questions, but because I don’t want readers to sigh and think, “What? Another question?”

So here’s this week’s question. “How do we learn to pray?” Again, pretty simple. But when you dig down beyond the surface of it, I think we discover it is a much needed question. And it is not just my question. It is a question that Jesus’ disciples asked him. His response? He said, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation'” (Luke 11:2-4).

We do well to listen to what Jesus said about how to pray. When I was growing up, Jesus’ words spoken here and recorded by Luke were more likely to be repeated by a football team ready to storm the field than a church on Sunday morning. Why is that? Is it because that we, or at least some of us, are a bit apprehensive about repeating a prayer that someone has already prayed and put to paper. Where’s the spontaneity? Where’s the heart in it?

But does not praying, in addition to studying, these words of Jesus to his disciples in effect teach us to pray? When we pray them back to God with our mind and heart, do they not capture our imagination? Can’t praying these few words which we call the Lord’s Prayer subtly reframe our praying as they become absorbed into the core of our very being? I feel they can!

I did mention at the start of this series that prayer is not complicated. And I still hold to that. But this doesn’t mean that our prayers shouldn’t grow and develop as we discern more fully the heart of God. Saturation and praying through and with Scripture (ie. The Lord’s Prayer) therefore, matures us in prayer. It pushes us to come before God more honest, free and bold than we might do otherwise.

So will you begin to pray the Lord’s Prayer? Will you pray it for your family? Your church? Your neighborhood? As you do, I think you will begin to discover a new depth in how to pray; a depth not made of pious “out of touch” words, but of a heart longing to know God more fully and of eyes watching and waiting to see him restore all of creation.

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Some Questions About Prayer (another round)

Published by Jeff Kennon on February 19, 2021

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So we begin another round of questions concerning prayer! I started this a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to dive a bit deeper into this critical vocation of prayer we have been given by God. I use the word vocation here concerning prayer intentionally because I feel it is our “duty” as Christ followers to go before God on behalf of ourselves and on behalf of the world around us. Paul writes to those in Colossae to “keep on praying” (Col. 4:2). It’s not an optional activity.

This idea of praying being vocational, coupled with the past couple of weeks of battling with the understanding that God interacts with us as we pray, I feel we must now ask, why is prayer so hard for us? If God invites us to pour out our hearts to him, both the good and the bad, and our prayers have an affect upon us and the world, then why don’t we pray?

“American culture is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray,” writes Paul Miller. “We are so busy that when we slow down to pray, we find it uncomfortable. We prize accomplishments, production. But prayer is nothing but talking to God. It feels useless, as if we are wasting time. Every bone in our bodies screams, ‘Get to work.'”

Miller writes further that “one of the subtlest hindrances to prayer is probably the most pervasive. In the broader culture and in our churches, we prize intellect, competency, and wealth. Because we can do life without God, praying seems nice but unnecessary. Money can do what prayer does, and it quicker and less time-consuming. Our trust in ourselves and in our talents makes us structurally independent of God. As a result, exhortations to pray don’t stick.”

We have been duped into acting out our culture’s lie that when we pray, we really aren’t doing anything. Now I know the truth. Prayer changes things. Yet ever so slowly I’ve seen myself evolve into behaving otherwise. I’m a guy that has to be busy and prayer is…well…is it doing anything?

Productivity abounds in our world. Just consider the number of books and articles written that help expose the secret formula to how to get more done. Now I’m a believer in productivity. And I’ve benefited from many of the resources on the market these days. However, I think there needs to be a bit of pushback when our desire to be productive clouds our understanding of prayer. If Miller is right that we live as though we can do life without God, then prayer becomes a non-essential. Though we do pray at times, it is the first to be abandoned in a busy day.

When our world began to shut down due to COVID, I noticed in myself a feeling of loss in regards to how to continue the ministry I am involved in. The outreach efforts I led were stopped. The weekly Bible study gathering I oversaw had to be reworked and moved online. My schedule though still busy, was not as hectic. What was I to do? Just sit around and pray?

What was laid bare during those first weeks of apocalyptic-like shut down was my attitude of prayer as a “nothing else I can do so might as well pray” mentality. Now on the surface, I don’t think I believe this about prayer. Yet deep down I discovered something different. Something that had been formed in me via the story of the culture I live in. Thankfully, I am now working to be refashioned by another story, the Biblical story. It’s a slow work, but it’s a good work.

So what about you? Is it hard for you to pray? Why or why not? Does our hurry up and get something done culture influence you to view time spent in prayer as neglecting your being productive? What would it take for us to wake up to what God has called us to do in relation to prayer?

Can I encourage you in a couple of ways in your life of prayer? First, start slow. If you are like me and have struggled in this area, then just begin with a simple prayer in the morning and one in the evening. Nothing extravagant or lengthy. Just begin. Second, be honest with yourself and with God about your lack of discipline or motivation in praying. Humble yourself. Then realize the goodness of God as he meets you where you are. Praying is a relational journey. Yes, it takes discipline. But it’s a discipline that must not lead to empty ritual, but to a vibrant relationship with our King.

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Some Questions About Prayer (Second Round)

Published by Jeff Kennon on February 12, 2021

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Last week I began asking some simple and yet not so simple questions about prayer. I’m doing this not because I doubt the importance of prayer, but because I feel that asking such questions can both spur us to pray more deeply while at the same time help us to be honest about the struggles we have with it. And yes, it is okay to struggle!

The question about prayer that I brought up last week was,
“Does anything happen when we pray? The complication of answering this question comes when we face God’s sovereignty. We know God is control (whatever that means) and so as a result, if nothing can thwart his plan, then what good is our prayer? He’s going to do what he’s going to do, right? (I realize this is not the only way to think about God’s sovereignty…and personally…not a healthy way to think about it.)

I have a few comments about this way of thinking. (And yes, I guess you could say I’m still working through last week’s question). First, I realize that this question concerning God’s sovereignty and prayer is not necessarily one the Bible is asking. For the Biblical writers, the truths that God was in complete control of everything and that humanity had true freedom to do as they wished was not seen as a problem. So does prayer change the course of history? Of course! Does God control all of history? Of course.

Second, when I think about God’s sovereignty, I’m not viewing it as something in which God is stiff-arming his creation to get it to do what he wants. There is a relationship that God has with what he has made. He loves us. So I think there is a relational aspect to God’s sovereignty as there is a working together of God and us as his image bearers to make this earth “as it is in Heaven.”

Third, we have to be okay with a bit of a mystery as to the workings of God and how he holds all things together and yet gives us freedom to live as we please. There has been much ink used in discussing God’s sovereignty and our free will. I’m glad there are those who have the intellect to tackle this issue. But I think each of these folks who dove into the depths of this subject will say at the end of the day that there is still quite a bit of mystery.

Historian and theologian N.T. Wright remembers facing this question of God’s sovereignty and prayer when he was quite young. Though he didn’t have a complete answer for it in his teens, he still believed that God answered his prayers and thus, felt his prayers changed things. As he has aged and given this question a bit more thought, he says…

As I've gotten older and have thought about Genesis 1 and the role of human beings in creation and bringing that forward into Jesus' teaching about the Kingdom of God and Paul's appropriation of that, it looks as though what Scripture is trying to tell us is that God who made the world made it in such a way that some of the most important things he wants to do in the world would happen through human agency. So the mystery of prayer is that when we humbly come before God with our requests, there seems to be something there that delights him.

As always is the case in these short posts, much more could be written. And perhaps it will. Also, it could be that what I have typed here as only caused you to ask more questions (of which I would be delighted). But can we end with the most incredulous thought that, regardless of where you land on the question of how God’s sovereignty and the voicing of our prayers to him relate, God delights in our bringing ourselves and requests to him. Think on that for a bit. Oh what a privilege it is to come before him. Oh with what love does God bend his ear toward us. Blessed be his name!

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Some Questions About Prayer

Published by Jeff Kennon on February 5, 2021

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Prayer is so simple. It’s talking to God. You don’t need to use religious jargon. Nor do you have to put on a “holy vibe,” whatever that means. You just come as you are.

Prayer is also listening. I don’t think we always think about the listening part of prayer. Yet it’s an important element. We must not leave it out of our prayer life.

But though prayer is so simple, or at least in some ways, I still have some questions about it. And so for the next few weeks, I want to address some of those questions. Some of them may seem to have an obvious answer, but we do well to still ask them for many times, it’s in the asking of questions that new discoveries are made. Now some of the questions may not have an answer, or at least not a clear one that I can give, but that’s ok. We still need to ask.

To start off, I have a rather elementary, but perhaps complex question. Here it is: “Does anything happen when we pray?” The answer has to be “Yes!” does it not? Why do we pray if it doesn’t make a difference? And yet I think we have all faced times in which we wondered if God was listening. We have all thought that perhaps God has not answered some request we have offered up.

The Bible is clear however, that God hears our prayers. In fact, he invites us to “ask, seek, and knock” (see Luke 11:9). And when we do, he promises to answer. Or at least when you continue reading Luke 11 that’s what Jesus seems to be saying. So this is good news. God hears. He doesn’t turn a deaf ear to us. He is present.

But once again, I know we have all had experiences where we sometimes doubt that God is really present and listening to us. I hope you realize that you are in good company when you feel this way. Just read through the Psalms. Many times they offer a plea of “God, where are you? Are you listening?” Or read the biographies of those in whom we classify as the “great saints” of the past. As you do, you will discover that they too had times of doubt as to what God was doing in their lives.

The older I get the more I resonate with the statement that “there are no simple answers.” I feel this way about the question of whether prayer makes a difference. And yet I simply do believe that prayer in fact does change things. Scripture along with all of history is clear about the “power” of prayer. But if we are honest, we all have times of doubt.

A couple of years ago I read Peter Enns book entitled The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our “Correct” Beliefs. Reading this book stirred in me my insatiable desire to have all my Biblical and theological “ducks in a row.” And by the way, this is not always a good thing. Why? Because in doing so, intimacy with God sometimes gets misplaced.

What Enns book leads me to think in dealing with the question of “does prayer change anything?” is that the simple answer of “Yes!” may just be enough. The clarity of Jesus when he tell his disciples, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7) should be trusted. This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t seek answers to my questions concerning prayer. But what it does mean is that at the end of the day, when the answers don’t seem complete (or correct) enough, I bow my head and seek the face of God.

There is quite a bit left unanswered in this short essay concerning this question about prayer. For example, how does God’s sovereignty work in relation to our praying? Perhaps more can be written later about this. But for now, the point is to trust that prayer effects change. I don’t always see it, but it could be that my vision is a bit cloudy. So I keep trusting. I keep praying. For what else shall I do? It is God who is my creator, salvation, sustainer, rock, and hope and it is to him in which I turn.

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