Luther on prayer being undistracted

I read this helpful quote from John Piper's Brothers, we are not professionals (pp.62-63) today. By the way, this book has just been published in Spanish, which is great news!

Martin Luther was once asked by his barber, "Dr. Luther, how do you pray?" Astonishingly, one of the busiest men of the Reformation wrote a forty-page response for his barber, Peter Beskendorf. His words are a great inspiration for us to beware of sacred substitutes.

"A good clever barber must have his thoughts, mind and eyes concentrated upon the razor and the beard and not forget where he is in his stroke and shave. If he keeps talking or looking around or thinking of something else, he is likely to cut a man's mouth or nose - or even his throat. So anything that is to be done well ought to occupy the whole man with all his faculties and members. As the saying goes: he who thinks of many things thinks of nothing and accomplishes no good. How much more must prayer possess the heart exclusively and completely if it is to be a good prayer!"

On Jacob wrestling with God

Quotes from Tim Chester The Message of Prayer pp.96-98

Jacob has spent his life searching for blessing, but avoiding God.

God is dangerous. He is the aggressor in the narrative. He is not comfortable to have around. Yet in the struggle with God our relationship with him grows and our faith is immeasurably deepened.

It is true that prayer is a struggle against our sinful nature, which retains its disinclination towards prayer, so that to wrestle in prayer is struggle against ourselves. But prayer can also be a struggle against God. This was Jacob's experience and, as we have seen, his experience was defining for the people of God. It is not, of course, that a reluctant God can be won over by our persistence. It is rather that God also purposes for us to deepen our relationship with him - he wants us to share the intimacy of the trinitarian relationship, and rattling through a list of prayer requests falls far short of this purpose!

God may actually resist us when we pray in order that we in turn may resist and overcome his resistance, and so be led into deeper dependence on him and greater enrichment from him at the end of the day. (Packer)

Some Quotes on Prayer

I've started reading through The Message of Prayer by Tim Chester. Here are some quotes I have found helpful so far:

Prayer is the conversation of friends. It is not a mere convenience for letting God know what we are thinking or what we want. Prayer is that for which we were made. It is at the heart of God's plan of salvation. To understand the tremendous privilege and import of prayer we need to see it in the context of God's purpose to have a relationship with his people... In other words, prayer is part of the definition of what it means to be a Christian. (27)

The riddle of creation is that God should desire to enter into a relationship with his creatures outside his trinitarian being. And this riddle is the foundation of prayer - and not only of prayer but of human existence. (29)

The genius of Moses is to recognise that salvation is fellowship with God. (32, commenting on Exodus 33)

Prayer is not ultimate but penultimate, a pointer to the day when we shall see God face to face. It directs our attention forward to our participation in the trinitarian community. Prayer is an anticipation of the day when we shall truly know even as we are truly known. (38)

Prayer again: Give yourselves no rest

The title for this post makes me tremble, for how often do I treat prayer as an occasional, when-I-feel-like-it activity? What follows is both a sharp rebuke and a tremendous encouragement to lay aside prayerlessness and give ourselves to prayer.

Isaiah 62.6-9:

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night they shall never be silent.
You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest,
and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.

The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm:
"I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies,
and foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have laboured;
but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the Lord,
and those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary."

Barry Webb on these verses:

"[God] has a word of encouragement for all those who, like Isaiah, give themselves no rest but call on the LORD unceasingly to bring his plans for Zion to fruition. They are like watchmen whom God has set on Jerusalem's walls. He is the one who has raised them up as intercessors, and therefore they are licensed to be bold. They are to give the LORD himself no rest until his promise is fulfilled. The LORD is not offended by such bold intercession; it is precisely the kind of praying that he desires and commands.

"But there is a fine line, as we all know, between boldness and presumption. Boldness of the kind we are talking about here is justified only where prayer is based directly on the revealed will of God. That is why encouragement to be bold in verses 6 and 7 is followed immediately by a divine oath and a divine proclamation, in which the LORD's purposes are reaffirmed in the strongest possible terms.

...

"Rightly understood, there is tremendous encouragement in this passage for us in our praying, for so much of what Isaiah confidently expected is not happening. We live in the last great era of history. The promised Saviour has come to Zion, a banner has been raised for the nations by the worldwide proclamation of the gospel, and the final great pilgrimage has begun. If Isaiah had good reason to pray boldly for the fulfilment of God's promises concerning Zion, how much more do we! 'Father, may your kingdom come, may your will be done.'"

Webb, B. (1996) The Message of Isaiah (IVP), p.238-239

The greatness of prayer

This post from David Field reminded me this morning how foolish prayerlessness is and how exciting and vital prayer is.

For example:

"If I pray now...

...I will bring pleasure to my heavenly Father, to Christ my Saviour and Lord, and to the Holy Spirit. Put differently, I will bring a smile to my Father's face!
...I will demonstrate consistency with my belief that life flows out of conscious relationship with God
...I will be using my time in the best way possible
...I will be less affected by the opinions of mere mortals
...I will see my affairs, concerns, opportunities and callings from the perspective of the heavenly realms
...I will be wielding the most powerful weapon ever forged
...I will, as the Lord answers prayer, be caught up in God’s purpose of exalting his Son through the salvation of billions and the renewal of the world."

and many more besides