As we continue our 31 Days of Prayer, I’ve become conscious again of my own tendency to gravitate toward prayers of petition—as if asking were everything. But the Bible teaches and shows that prayer is so much more than making requests to the Father.
Not that there’s anything wrong with making an appeal to God—Jesus teaches us to “ask, seek, knock” (Matthew 7:7), and Paul urges the Philippians to “let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). So crying out to the Father and pleading for help and comfort and guidance and peace and healing and correction (etc.) is all good!
The problem comes when we look up one day and realize that asking is, more or less, all we do. Think of it this way: praying is part of a conversation with God; he speaks in Scripture, and we respond in prayer. So what kind of a conversation is it when one party is always asking for things? What sort of relationship works that way?
Frankly, if you notice that your prayers are all about asking, that realization is God making you aware of a spiritual sickness in your soul (and, of course, it’s good to know our true condition).
Fixating on asking is a sign that we’re forgetting who God is and who we are. A good dose of Bible medicine will treat this serious ailment.: Scripture reminds us of God’s majesty, wisdom, power and glory, and this ignites two key impulses in our praying: praise and confession.
We praise the Magnificent God, the Most High; all glory to the King of Kings! And then, as we face the fact of God’s greatness, our own wayward hearts and rebellious acts suddenly stand out in bold relief—and we’re moved to confess our sin, to declare the honest fact of our defiance of and indifference toward Almighty God. This is exactly what Isaiah experiences (Isa. 6:1-8), and he says, “Woe is me.”
Such humble confession leads us into another key aspect of prayer: thanksgiving. Admitting our treason to human powers might lead to our demise, but with God it opens the way for our rescue. If we confess our sins, God forgives! (1 John 1:9). And for this promise of pardon, this assurance of acquittal, the believer gives heartfelt thanks!
