Casual Prayer

• Posted on sdgale
• in 'CHOP Talk' Blog
• on March 29, 2013
• Comments Off on Casual Prayer

I read an article on prayer recently that I greatly appreciated.  The author made prayer real and relevant.  He brought typical conceptions down from their lofty perch to the uneven terrain of ordinary life.  Like the Great Commission of our Lord in Matthew 28 that maps out the course of our evangelism, this writer presented prayer “in your going.”  We need not wait for a particular time, nor sojourn to a particular place, nor speak with particular words.  We can just open our hearts to God in what I would term “casual” prayer.

I think two caveats are in order, however, not by way of criticism but to give balance.

First, the author seemed to couch prayer primarily in terms of petition.   He speaks of prayer in its simplicity as going to God as little children with our needs.  To build on our statement above, we might think of prayer as “in your going ask of God, your Father in heaven.”

Certainly, petition is one variety of prayer.  The Scriptures are littered with invitations to ask of God, with the encouragement that He will hear and answer.

I have no doubt that the writer would not limit prayer to petition.  Yet to characterize prayer primarily in those terms does it disservice.  For two reasons.  One, limiting prayer to petition reduces our enjoyment of God to what He can do for us.  While it is true that children often express themselves in those terms, our engagement with our Heavenly Father must be richer.  The psalms present us with the lushness of the emotion of prayer, spread across the spectrum of life’s experiences in communion with God.

The second disservice comes in making our needs the emphasis.  As others have said, prayer is not an intercom from the den to the kitchen asking God to wait upon us.  It is blessedly true that we are to cast our cares upon our God, knowing He cares for us.  But prayer is also a means given by God for the advancement of His kingdom.  It comes to us with responsibility.  We are the church militant, on duty for the sake of the kingdom of our God and His Christ.

Second, in the spirit of childlike prayer, the author works hard to make prayer natural to our being rather than something imposed upon us.  To that end, he seems to look down upon the idea of prayer as a discipline.  Discipline supposes rigor.  It smacks of work.

Yet laboring in prayer is precisely what our Lord calls us to in seeking His face and serving His ends.  Prayer can be and is commanded by God in His Word.  Not that it is a burden. After all, does not our Lord say that if we love Him we will obey His commands?  In one sense, prayer is a chore prescribed by our Father, as part of the family business.

If someone asks me to pray for him, it is incumbent upon me to pray.  I sin against that person if I fail to pray.  The inner room of which our Lord speaks in Matthew 6:6 is a work station of the kingdom.  Prayer is a spiritual discipline, much as a husband purposes and learns the self-sacrifice of loving the wife he loves.

Oh, that prayer would be natural to us in increasing measure!  We want to live before God’s face, turning to Him as readily as a friend who walks beside us in the wilderness.  Always aware of His presence.  Constantly alert to our neediness.  Our expression of need flows out steadily and with childlike simplicity. But we don’t want to lose sight of prayer as a kingdom calling.