The Power of Prayer

by Clarice Bowman and George Harper

Chapter 5

Overcoming Difficulties

"Explorers in the realm of the spirit are like Columbus when he landed on a new continent and did not know what lay beyond. We probably have only just reached the beach-heads of prayer." Laubach

Practice in prayer should be in the right direction. It is possible to practice a mistake until you learn that well. You may be practicing wrong ideas of God. Or your prayers may be on an immature level when you might be growing.

Wrong Ideas as to the Purpose of Prayer

While some neglect prayer completely, others pray with the wrong purpose: that of seeking to get something they want, or of trying to bend God to their ends. A child thinks the world revolves around him and cries to get others to do as he wishes. A test of growing maturity in prayer-life is decrease of petition and increase of adoration and intercession.

What does it mean to say at the end of a prayer, "in Jesus' name"? Is it a way of "drawing a blank check upon the bank of God and endorsing it through Jesus Christ our Lord"? No prayer that is selfish can be offered in His spirit. A good test is to ask, "Is this the kind of prayer that Jesus Himself might pray?"

Jesus made His life and His prayer one. He lived the Lord's Prayer. Through surrender of self, He was God's instrument, kept perfectly attuned. To pray in His spirit, "Thy will be done," (Matt. 6:10) is no mere resignation. It is active will and dedication. It is affirmation of partnership with God.

Our prayer, as our lives, needs to be marked by the cross: the capital letter "I" crossed out, its arms reaching toward others on a limitless horizon. "Prayer is not an easy way of getting what we want; it is the only way of becoming what God wills us to be."

Our Need for Growing Ideas of God

The idea you have of your friend influences the way you act when with him. The ideas we have of God influence, sometimes limit, our prayers.

What about the impulse to dictate our own wishes? To urge God, or to demand? Or what about our efforts to beg God, to try cleverly to get around Him? Do we grovel in false humility? Do we sometimes promise something in return for what we want Him to do for us?

What ideas about God do these prayer attitudes reveal? Some persons let narrow, warped, inadequate ideas of God keep them from having a rich, full prayer experience their whole lives through. If we feel ill-at-ease and awkward in another's presence, we are not likely to seek his company often. But we will delight to be with the friend with whom we feel joyously at home and who brings out the best in us. It is the same with prayer. Small, mistaken ideas of God show up in prayer Ideas suggested by Chalmers -

Fire Insurance - The idea, perhaps unconscious, that God will "get" you unless you say your prayers before going to sleep. Prayer thus is regarded as a kind of "premium" you pay, or like carrying a rabbit's-foot to ward off danger. The idea is not far from primitive.

Emergency service - While there is no doubt a sincerity as well as desperation in fox-hole prayers, the tragedy is that the same spirit of dependence upon God does not carry over into all life. Chalmers calls this use of prayer a "towing-in service for stranded Christians when out of gas or broken down on the road."

Spiritual gymnastics - Some regard prayer (a few minutes in the morning, a few minutes at night) as a spiritually healthy exercise, a kind of "daily dozen." To what extent do some youth groups in the church allow their periods for worship and prayer to lapse into mere `devotional exercises'?

Light switch - Prayer is like pushing a button; God waits ready, but man must pray first. Does this imply that God will not heal until someone prays?

Pious routine - The Pharisees had made of prayer a pious habit, but they took pains to be sure they were where others might see them when they prayed. Has any youth, in a period of sentence prayers, found himself thinking more about others' opinions of his prayer than about the God to Whom he was praying?

A common difficulty is that we do not know enough about the God to whom we pray, as the above attitudes reveal. Take this hint then; read the gospels constantly. Go with Jesus in imagination up the hillside to pray, or as He labors among the pressing mobs. Hear in imagination the reassuring tones in His voice as He breathes the word "Father." Let Him guide you to a Christ-hearted God.

Some labor under false ideas as to the way God works. They set up a picture in their minds of a Being easily moved by whims, One who "plays favorites" by granting something special to one of His children as over against another. Some ascribe to God attitudes less admirable than those of a loving parent.

Our faith in God should not be staked on whether or not a particular prayer was answered in just the way we demanded. A girl whose fiancé was killed in the war turned bitterly against God. Many have been tempted to similar reaction. Yet so long as there are wars on earth, persons will be killed. Why deny one's self the solace of prayer when it is most needed?

Whatever one's stage of understanding or brand of theology, he can begin to pray. He can trust God and use what light he has. He will learn more as he goes along. His "system of beliefs" does not have to be complete for him to begin to pray. Upon entering friendship, he does not have to dissect all the principles and draw up a creed or contract or agreement. Beliefs will grow out of prayer and action, as well as from logic; and will under gird both. To be sure, inadequate beliefs may stunt or hold back the progress of prayer. But in confidence that God has a reservoir of spiritual resources available, take courage and tap it!

Difficulties in Terminology

When one wants to pray, he finds the words. The form does not matter; it is the spirit that counts. The spirit will determine the form.

What words should be used in addressing God? While many feel that "Thee" and "Thou" betoken reverence in a way colloquial English does not, let each person use those forms that express his prayer most sincerely! Do not allow your prayer life to be hindered by worry as to the proper "etiquette" of approaching God. He is our Father.

Nor are words always necessary in prayer. We seldom formulate our fondest day-dreams into definite words or sentences. Prayer may rise in terms of mental pictures, or music, or unworded aspiration. Yet always it should be definite, and God-centered.

Danger of Thinking of Prayer Too Much in Terms of Feelings

Emotion plays a part in all the great adventures of life. But prayer is more than a matter of emotions.

Emotional responses differ in persons. Some live on an even keel and are rarely disturbed. Others' emotions flash like quicksilver and change rapidly. Much depends upon glandular equipment and habit patterns. In the same person, emotional responses differ from day to day.

Thus, it would be foolish to attempt to judge the vitality of prayer life by feelings. To rise from your knees with your feelings stirred, yet with no definite resolution for our daily life, is dangerous. It leads toward using prayer as an escape for action. It might be compared to running a motor with the clutch out; the engine races and gas is wasted, but the car does not move.

Man is a three-fold being: of thought, feeling, will. Prayer makes full use of all three. If, then, for long periods, you may "feel" nothing when you pray, do not grow discouraged. Your mind and will may be in process of becoming more acutely tuned to God. The quiet, steady habit and follow-through involve mind and will.

What we need to do is to forget ourselves, anyway. If we keep taking our feelings out and looking at them, we will get nowhere in our prayer. What should be a window looking Godward becomes a mirror picturing self.

Whether or not you feel a sensation of love does not matter so much, as your determination to act lovingly towards all. Whether or not you feel a sensation of sin is not so important as that you determine to give it up!

If you expect an inrush of power and joy every time you pray you will probably be disappointed. You do not pray for the "bang" you want to get out of it, but to know God and his will. Power, peace, and joy come as by-products.

Hurry

Real prayer takes time. God works by a different time-clock than do His hurried children. "Hurry is the death of prayer." One can at any moment turn to Him, for His heart is attuned to the wavelength of His own. But to know the Mind and Will of God through prayer takes time, a certain "quiet spaciousness." If all our prayers are as feverish as our lives, we can not expect much poise and serenity from them. We have not passed the first test for entering into prayer-fellowship with God, unless through determined will we find or make time for prayer. (See further discussion, Chapter VI.)

Difficulty in Finding a Place

Many live out their waking hours amidst crowded conditions: rooms that allow little or no privacy; a general atmosphere of over-population and over-stimulation.

Again, a strong, determined will must be called into play. Find moments when you can be alone at a certain spot each day. Some find inner aloneness while walking amidst crowds. Some withdraw to a quiet church (if they can find one open, at the time they need; and worshipful).

Through constant practice, one can grow in skill for "shutting the door" upon distracting conditions and withdrawing into a Quiet place within. "In the castle of my soul is a little postern gate, whereat, when I enter, I can be where God is." (See discussion, Chapter VI.)

Wandering Thoughts

"But I cannot make myself concentrate in prayer!" The experience is probably as widespread as there are persons who pray. John Donne of three centuries back said:

"I throw myself down in my chamber and I call in and invite God and His angels thither; and when they are there, I neglect God and His angels for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door... A memory of yesterday's pleasures, a fear of tomorrow's dangers, a straw under my knee, a noise in my ear, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer."

What can you do? There are several steps you may take. If you form the habit of concentrating in other phases of your life, you will find it easier to do so in prayer.

"... One is to realize that everybody's thoughts are subject occasionally to such vagrancy, and one ought not to be too much worried about it. But if one's mind wanders habitually there is a reason, and one ought to find the cause and correct it if possible. One may be too tired, or too uncomfortable, or there may not be enough ventilation in the room... You may not be sleeping enough at night to pray alertly in the daytime. You may have undertaken too much work and screwed yourself into a tension from which you cannot let down. You may have so many other pressures from persons that God seems a long way off. Part of this you can correct by analysis and adjustment of circumstances; part of it will recede only as you care enough, to make a time for quiet waiting before God, for relaxed receptivity in which God has a chance to capture and redirect your thoughts."

Difficulties Arising from Wrong Relationships with Others

This difficulty is the most serious of all, for no amount of escaping into prayer can undo a wrong done another, or do him a service that needs to be done. Jesus even went so far as to suggest that, although a person had already knelt at the altar, if he remembered that his brother had anything against him, he should leave the altar, make it right, and come before God anew.

Almost every utterance from Jesus' mouth had something to do with personal human relationships. He linked these relationships up with one's prayer life. "Forgive as we forgive." "Our Father"; "our daily bread." You cannot say the Lord's Prayer and even once say "I" or "my" or "mine" or "me."

All of us are aware, perhaps painfully so, of times when we failed to achieve a sense of communion with God because of some gnawing sense of having failed in some relationship with others. So long as there is an un-Christian feeling in our hearts toward anyone, to that extent our prayer will be lifeless. For one of the "laws" of the spiritual universe is that to get right with God, we must get right with our neighbors.

This does not mean that we cannot pray about these very problems. Through prayer our wills may be strengthened to the point where we will make the needed apology; or seek out the one who is lonely; or make amends for wrong done. Prayer and living are inescapably related. Prayer is no mere matter of seeking an emotional glow for the pleasure it gives us. Prayer is a virile challenge to bring all of life, in all the network of human relationships, into harmony with God's will.

In one sense, prayer is solitary, as between the individual and his God. But in another sense, prayer must always be social, in that we bring our relationships, both near and far, into the prayer-place to be judged by Him.

Kagawa interprets Jesus' admonition in striking language:

"If he visits the prison after going to the temple; does he not by so much delay his meeting with God? If he goes first to the church and then to the hospital; does he not by so much postpone beholding God? If he fails to help the beggar at his door and indulges himself in Bible-reading, there is a danger lest God, who lives among the mean, will go elsewhere. In truth he who forgets the unemployed forgets God." Kagawa

Some questions for your quiet time (by Russell E. Clay), are:

Is there any desire, thought, imagination, fear, anxiety, word, deed, attitude, or habit blocking God from me today?

Is there any person in whose presence I am uncomfortable and would rather not meet? Why? What shall I do about it?

Is there any wrong I should right or broken relationship that I should restore today?

What sort of happenings raise a conflict within me? Why?

Where do I play too close to the edge of temptation?

Is there anything in my life that I must defend or hide? Why?

Does Jesus' motive of love completely saturate all my thoughts, plans, and actions?

What message does the Bible have for me today?

For what should I be thankful today? What persons should I thank?

What persons should I remember in prayer today? For what Kingdom interests should I especially pray today? (Family, local church, missions, social morality, racial harmony, world peace, economic justice and brotherhood.)

Are there any letters I should write today?

Are there any debts I should pay today?

Is there any person needing my friendship, time, help or money today?

What should I personally do to enrich our home life today?

What should I personally do to further social morality today?

What should I personally do to promote racial harmony today? To promote economic justice and brotherhood today? To advance world peace today?

What does God want me to do as the next step?

Are all my motives for today's decisions and plans completely Christlike?

The Tyrannies of Our own Consciousness

Self can get in the way, and eclipse prayer life. A penny held before your eye can shut out the sun.

The ego is the "self that is unduly concerned with self." It is the tendency to emphasize "I." Can you think of God for five minutes without some thought of self intruding?

Things get in our way, too: money, clothes, food, etc. Can you think of God for five minutes without some thought of things coming into your mind?

Only when we can achieve emancipation from self-interests and from things, can we have that "uninterrupted consciousness of God by which we are transformed into his likeness." We need God's help, in freeing ourselves from these tyrannies. We cannot effect it alone. But He needs our cooperation.

"He can never have us nor we him unless we are willing to undertake the practices which will help him to help us out of the tenacious, earthly entanglements of our own consciousness." 
A. E. Day

Just as the farmer takes responsibility for preparing the soil, so we are responsible for the condition of our consciousness: whether ego-dominated, or thing-dominated, or God-centered. Disciplines are needed - to weed, cultivate, plow, prepare, that God may plant.

The Difficulty of Seeming to Get Nowhere

Do we expect too much all at once? Beginners often do. To be sure, a vision came to Paul on the Damascus road. But few persons are in Paul's situation. For most, spiritual adventuring means a patient, even plodding, upward climb. We cannot jump suddenly to the mountaintop. Each step upward is of itself important, in building spiritual stamina.

Nor do we have to wait to get "in the mood" to start. We can begin where we are. The Chinese have a proverb that "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." It comforts us to remember that "He knoweth our weakness; He remembereth that we are dust" (Psa. 103:4). As St. Augustine prayed, we can pray: "Make me to be what I cannot be, and to do what I cannot do." Set yourself at the highest place spiritually you know; then let yourself to be led upward from there, by the grace of God.

We have to work at developing prayer life, just as we have to exert effort to grow in any skill or knowledge. A man does not sit down and say, "I think I will be a great artist. I will paint a masterpiece now." Inspiration requires 99% concentration and perspiration. Hours of study, days of work are essential.

If a boy set out to be a baseball star without practice, he would never make the team. A girl who has never learned to sew cannot expect to produce a finished garment the first day she takes Home Economics. Yet there are those who say they do not believe in prayer, for they tried it once and it failed them.

Growth in prayer ran be gradual; but it is sure - as sure as the fact that by climbing steadily, you gain greater heights up the mountain. It may take five years before you achieve the level of which you now dream. Growth should be lifelong.

Another experience of the spiritual life is that of coming upon plateaus, or periods of "dryness." The saints and mystics of the spiritual life have all written about such periods in their experience. If it happens to them, then we will not worry when it happens to us. They offer the suggestion that we wait in patience, as the mountaineer waits for the fog to lift. "Trust God even when you cannot feel His presence near." "Rest in the knowledge that light will come at the end of the tunnel."

* * *

Prayers from China:

Dear Saving Lord, make me a bamboo pipe that I may carry living waters to nourish the dry fields of my village.
from D. J. Fleming

(A newly literate refugee woman)
We are going home to many who cannot read. So, Lord, make us Bibles so that those who cannot read the book can read it in us.
from D. J. Fleming

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Matthew 6:9-15Matthew 6:9-15 With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best - as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes. "In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.  (The Message)