Praying through the Bible

PRAYING THOUGH THE BIBLE:
A Reporter's Investigation

pdf

Dr. Paul Manuel—2008

The true spirit of prayer does not consist in asking for blessings,
but in receiving Him who is the giver of all blessings,
and in living a life of fellowship with Him.
Sundar Singh (1889-1929)

Because of the length of "Praying through the Bible" (205 pages) only the Introduction is below. The entire paper is available as a pdf here. The study consists of  ten sessions, examining the practice of prayer from the Pentateuch to the Epistles.

Introduction¹

Are your prayers getting through to God? Is He paying attention? The Bible offers guidelines for making your prayers work, eliminating the problems that hinder communication, assuring you that God will hear and will answer. In this study, we will look in scripture at some of the many examples of prayer as well as at various instructions about prayer to determine what God expects from us—as well as what He does not want to hear from us—and what we can expect from Him. We will examine what the Bible says about this discipline to determine what makes it effective or ineffective, and how knowing the difference should influence how we pray.

Among the most important disciplines a child of God can develop, next to worship, is his ability to communicate with God in prayer.

• Corporate prayer as part of the believer’s service when he gathers with others each week.
• Family prayer as part of his home life, at least before meals.
• Private prayer as part of his personal expression of devotion each day.

With the prevalence of prayer in our lives, giving ourselves to its study is certainly appropriate, especially if one result of that study is to improve our ability in this area.

The Bible contains much about prayer, both directly, through instruction, and indirectly, through illustration. An exhaustive study of this subject would easily take more than a year.² To keep things at a manageable level without sacrificing thoroughness, we will narrow the scope of our investigation in three ways:

• First, we will concentrate on the primary words for prayer in Hebrew and in Greek.³

These are the terms that occur with the greatest frequency and which most English translations render “to pray” or “prayer.” They represent a particular kind of communication with God (the “what” of our study), most often petition—asking for divine favor—or intercession—defending against divine judgment (that God would remit His punishment).⁴

Even looking only at these (Hebrew and Greek) words, a comprehensive investigation would require several months, at least, but we can derive considerable benefit from a selective overview. Hence…

• Second, we will concentrate on primary passages about prayer.

Most uses of these terms just make the observation that this or that person prayed. Other sections provide additional information about the context or content of prayer,⁵ and it is those we will investigate. (Additional examples will appear in the endnotes.).⁶

To provide some structure to our study, we will ask a standard set of six journalistic questions for each passage about prayer we examine.⁷

• What…is prayer?

• Is it interceding with God or petitioning God?

• Intercession is defending against God’s judgment on an individual or a nation.

• Petition is asking for God’s favor in a national, communal, or personal matter.

• Who…prays?

• Can anyone do it; are there prerequisites or restrictions?

• When…do people pray?

• Does it usually take place at a certain time of day, or in conjunction with a particular event or crisis?

• Where…do people pray?

• Is it in private or in public? Is there a particular location to pray, perhaps in a sacred place?

• Why…do people pray?

• What motivates them?

• Intercession is to remit (i.e., reduce or remove) divine punishment.

• Petition is to request divine blessing or help.

• How…do people pray?⁸

• Whom do they address? Do they wear special clothing, assume a certain posture, or employ a particular formula?

Using these six questions, we will make our way through eight sections of scripture (diachronically) from the Pentateuch, the earliest and foundational collection, to the epistles, the latest collection, summarizing our findings at the end of each section. We will look for how the information in each new collection builds on and adds to what we discovered previously. This procedure should enable us to develop a profile of prayer by which we can measure our own expectations and performance.

The rest of "Praying Through the Bible"

 is available here as a pdf.