Prayer is Sharing God’s Life by Sharing in the Lives of Others
Prayer is spiritual, not religious.
Religious prayer is something we do to earn God’s favor or get God to meet our needs. If this is our view of prayer, we will be left viewing prayer as a magic spell, Ponzi scheme, or placebo, as many of our prayers will not come to fruition.
Spiritual prayer is something altogether different. It’s spirit to spirit to spirit connection. The world says we are just physical beings with desires and interests to be met. But we are more than this. Human beings have a spirit, and our spirits connect with one another in our shared moments of joy and struggle. You have experienced these moments. At death, our physical bodies remain, but our spirits are no longer there. Prayer is spirit to spirit to spirit because it’s our spirit connecting with God’s spirit and to the spirit of others. Spiritual prayer is sharing in God’s life by sharing in the lives of others.
Prayer is a “we thing” not a “me thing”
We tend to believe prayer is more of an individual exercise, but Jesus’ teaching and modeling present it as a “we thing,” not a “me thing.” In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus teaches everyone to pray in the plural, not singular. He teaches us to pray for the plural us, not singular me, five times. When Jesus prays in the Garden, he prays for the disciples, those who would believe through the disciples, and the whole world. To pray for others, we must know their hopes, dreams, fears, and needs.
This is challenging because we connect to the person when we understand their needs. We yearn alongside them and wrestle with them. But, this is one of the ways we connect to God. Jesus’ ministry was to come to humanity in need, so when we pray for others’ needs, connecting to their spirit, we also link to God’s because we love the world that God loves.
Uniting with God
Prayer unites time with the eternal love of God. We need this! We feel stuck in time, the waste of death, and the pain of brokenness all around us. But in prayer, we are uniting with God’s eternal love through Jesus’ ongoing ministry (Heb. 7:24-25) and the power of the Spirit, who can pray on our behalf even when we are without words (Rom. 8:26-27). God’s love is what will last forever. Therefore, death and brokenness are temporary and don’t have the final word. As we pray for others our spirit is sharing in their life and God’s.
What does prayer like this look like? It’s not formal; there’s no unique formula. Prayer is any language offered to God in faith. That means a conversation, toast, a song, or thought can all be prayer. Suddenly, Paul’s charge to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing doesn’t seem so impossible.
Prayer produces gratitude
When we pray, it produces gratitude in our life. We find peace in the hope and grace of God’s future and the ways that that future is breaking into today. Recently, I was at a going away party for some friends. I offered a toast, giving thanks for the ways they have shared life with me and the others present. Most of us cried because our spirits have connected through the joy and struggle of life. We went home sad because we will miss our friends. I also went home grateful for the love I have experienced through them and the reality that though time and distance stand in the way of our friendship now, it won’t always. Through my toast we prayed together.
If we view prayer as a way to get what we want, our prayer life will always be lacking. Instead, if we see prayer as a way to connect our spirit with the spirit of others and God, we gain a new vision of prayer–one that is more than a placebo and no less than uniting with God’s eternal love.
