Prayer, the Means to Access Grace

This week I want to share a few thoughts on our constant need for grace in order to persevere till the end in faith and how we access grace through prayer. I've long been aware of my continual need for grace in my life, but it's been recently that I'm getting more language for what I've known intuitively over the years.

Those of us who have been raised and trained in western evangelicalism have tended to limit the need for grace to the forgiveness of our sins. This way of thinking has contributed to the general lack of personal and corporate prayer in the West. If we don't understand that we must have grace (divine governmental favor and power through the Holy Spirit) all the time in order to persevere till the end, and if we don't understand that the way we access God's grace is through prayer, then we can't see any need to structure our personal and corporate life around prayer. Short and quick personal prayers and a weekly corporate gathering is sufficient to confess sins to ensure that we "go to heaven" someday.

When I speak of "prayer", I'm referring to real prayer, not a lifeless practice that makes me feel good about having fulfilled my religious duty. Real prayer is talking and being with God in honesty. Genuine prayer is both extremely easy and extremely difficult. The more childlike we are, the easier it is. To really talk to God with openness of heart and mind is very difficult for us fallen and sinful adults who would almost rather do anything else but talk to Him in truth and let Him talk to us. Like Adam and Eve, we want to hide from God rather than run to Him with gut honesty. It takes courage and time and discipline and desire to talk openly with Him about what's going on with us; just about anything else is easier to do than this.

Donald Bloesch says in The Struggle of Prayer,

"Emil Brunner has observed that prayer is much more difficult than ordinary work and much more exhausting. 'For a hundred men who are not afraid of the exertion of labor, there are only a few who take upon themselves the strain of prayer.' This is not surprising since 'it requires an effort of the will, - and more than that. (It requires that) I will arise and go to my Father.' That resolution requires the courage to let God tell you the truth, the humiliating knowledge that you can no longer help yourself."

We western Christians have long found refuge in the half-truth, "To work is to pray." Bloesch goes on to say,

"Work is not necessarily prayer, but prayer is always work. Indeed it is the greatest work, the highest work possible for a Christian. Prayer should command the full attention of the Christian and engage his or her whole being..."

In order for our work to become a form of prayer, we must be a people of prayer first. In other words, it is the practice and discipline and hard work of praying with full attention to God that will lead to being a person who prays without ceasing, one whose entire life is a prayer. We don't get to this through praying "on the run".

As time passes and the signs of the end of the age increase, God's people will become increasingly aware of our need for grace (divine governmental favor and power through the Holy Spirit) in order to persevere in faith, and we will understand that grace is accessed through prayer; as a result, the Church's identity will be that of a house of prayer for all nations, as Jesus prophesied. The beginnings of an awakening to prayer are here; this will continue to grow and God's people will structure our lives around true prayer (both personally and corporately), and in that posture of utter dependence on Him, we will find grace to endure to the end as a people of faith!