“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)
A summer break in Northern Ireland has given me time to read and to sit in a pew instead of a pulpit. It’s been very refreshing and has given me food for thought around a number of images that coincidentally (?) all related to prayer this week. It began when the speaker at the Sunday evening, a student at the Irish Baptist College, made a passing comment about prayer borne out of his previous active service in the Armed Forces. He described the Spirit of God ‘hovering over us’ as being akin to the air support soldiers in combat have. He likened prayer to calling in a precision air-strike when pinned down by the enemy. It struck me as a powerful and pro-active image of prayer in spiritual warfare. It certainly significantly altered my prayers for one situation.
Shortly after, I was reading a book by Andy Mason on leadership in which he said, “We don’t pray to the ‘Godfather’, but to God the Father!” (Mason, Andy. God’s Leader (Pub.:10Publishing) 2017:178). How often do we ‘bargain’ in our prayers as though we are asking a favour of a powerful patron or Mafia Don to whom we subsequently feel indebted and offer subservience… “If you do ‘x’ for me, then I will do/give/be ‘y’ for you forever.”? This was another image that altered my prayer for another situation. Our Father God does not need to be bargained with or persuaded to act, and what he does for us is rooted in love.
Mason also referenced a comment by John Piper about the prayer habits of believers. The gist of Mason’s take on it was that so often what we pray for and about are actually minor matters connected to our own comfort rather than altering a difficult situation. Almost like picking up the phone for room service in a hotel and requesting an extra pillow to make things bearable when what’s needed is far more precise, deliberate and disruptive action to change a situation.
Have you a favourite insight into prayer? Or has one of these images given a fresh impetus and a new direction for a current prayer?