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Commentary on "The Promise of Prayer"
Day 2: Sunday, March 4, 2012 - "The Power of Prayer"
Overview
Today’s lesson relays a story of an individual that had an experience of being called to acknowledge that they had mistreated a coworker as the result of spending time in prayer. The author then goes on to note that prayer can result in changes in the human heart. She then poses the question of weather or not our prayers can change God’s plans. The author states emphatically that without prayer “our walk with the Lord is destined to failure.” The lesson ends with the statement that those who pray consistently and fervently will testify that prayer changes lives.
Observations
The author leaves the reader with more apparent questions than answers. The use of phrases such as; “the power of prayer”, “move mountains”, “miraculous”, “ask God for something”, “will God not do something?” and “change what the Creator God will do” all leave the Adventist reader with the idea that the purpose of prayer is ultimately about what the individual needs from God. While God cares for us and tells us to come before Him in prayer with our concerns, the filling of our needs is not the ultimate purpose for prayer.
The reason we pray is that we are commissioned in scripture to pray. Many of the passages recommended in today’s lesson, as well as many others, admonish born again believers to pray continually. The command to pray is very often part of a list of Christian behaviors that we are called to walk in. Charles Spurgeon and John MacArthur describe some of the mystery and purpose of prayer for the Christian;
“The same God that ordains to give a certain blessing has also ordained that we shall pray for it. We do not expect to change the will of God, but we believe our prayer to be a part of his will.” C. H. Spurgeon .
“Prayer is intended to bend us into conformance with the will of God.” John MacArthur
As born again believers pray in God’s will, and these prayers are answered according to His will, the glory of God is revealed to us giving us a clearer vision of His heart. We are told in scripture that as we behold His glory our inner man is being transformed from one degree of grace to another.
The most alarming statement in this lesson was that “without it (prayer), our walk with the Lord is destined to failure.” There is truth in the idea that if we do not abide in Christ through His word and our prayers we will likely bare fruit for Him. However, there is something very dark and unbiblical under the surface of this statement. For the Adventist, our walk with the Lord “failing” is about loosing our salvation. The reason Adventists are admonished to pray harder and constantly is so that they can preserve their offer of salvation through spiritual practices and carefully follow God’s law (the 10 commandments) in order to be safe to save.
The beauty of the Gospel is that it is God who secures us in our adoption as sons, making us His heirs (Romans 8). We understand this reality better when we consider our own children. While we may long for them to seek us out in relationship and desire to learn from us the things we know they must learn, their disinterest or wondering makes them no less family than before. They may require discipline when their wondering leads them into dangerous behavior, but they will always be our children! So it is with born again believers, sealed in the family of God by the Holy Spirit forever, yet admonished to stay at the feet of the Father seeking to know Him more and longing to learn His truth.
Summary
- The purpose of prayer is not simply for the provision of our needs or desires.
- We pray because we are instructed to.
- The goal of prayer is to bring our will in line with the Father’s.
- A “failed” walk with the Lord is never submitting to Christ as your all sufficient savior.
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised March 3, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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