LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 106

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Catechism that we pray because God the Father “has
commanded us to pray … and has promised to hear
us.”4
Because He baptized you, God is your proud Papa —
Abba! — that’s why He listens to you. And because He
loves you so, He lets you pray! He loves you so, he lets
you — pray — not just for yourself, but for others. To
love is to do good — and among the good, beautiful,
dazzling, loving works you do is prayer. With our
prayers, we work together with Jesus, who is ever
praying for His creation, His world, His creatures, His
people — you — and everybody else.
PRAYER IS AN INVITATION TO MORE
When we go to Jesus in prayer, we are asking to be
granted access to our heavenly Father who always
wants to give us more. Jesus’ promises teach us that we
pray in order to receive what God the Father promises
to give to us. What a privilege it is to trust and know
that Jesus hears every one of our prayers and longs to
give you the desires of your heart. 5
However, when we pray together with Jesus we get,
“far more abundantly than all that we ask or think”
(Eph. 3:20).
I had a member several years ago who said: "I don’t
need you to pray for me Pastor, because God already
knows what I need, and He will only heal me if He
wants to.” What a wonderful opportunity to remind
this member that prayer is not just notifying and asking
God for everything we want. Rather, prayer allows us to
seek God's holy will in our lives all while humbly asking
His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Like our earthly parents, God the Father opens the door
and lets us in when we come to ask Him for something.
We, therefore, don't just get something from God when
we pray; we receive the Father Himself, His company
and life with Him. That is the unexpected joy of prayer.
Martin Luther, AE 21:142–43.
Rowan Williams, “In the Place of Jesus: Insights from Origen
on Prayer,” July 23, 2014,
www.christiancentury.org/article/2014-07/place-jesus.

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106 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION

Again, it’s like taking medicine. You don’t have to
understand it or aid in the working of it. Just don’t skip
it or work against it. Prayer, like medicine, is working in
ways you don’t even know; all for your good.
Often times we get quickly frustrated with our prayers,
because we have an expectation of how things should
work out. But if God is there with all the answers — we
can boldly trust that He will look at all the possibilities
and give us the ones that are best for us. Bernard of
Clairvaux says “God will give us either what we ask, or
what He knows to be more profitable to us.”
In prayer, Jesus always makes the first move. It is
because of what Jesus has done for us, and the
command we are given by Him, that we pray. Jesus
moves us to pray, we don’t pray to move Jesus — He
always makes the first move. “Before they call, I will
answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Is.
65:24). Jesus wants to give you His very best and His
Father never runs out of good gifts to give.
CONCLUSION
When Paul tells us in 1 Thess. 5:17 that we are to “pray
without ceasing,” that does not mean that we lock
ourselves in a room and pray non-stop. Instead, it
means that in all things we go to Jesus in prayer so that
we may have access to our heavenly Father who gives
us good and gracious gifts. We are called to live all
aspects of our lives in prayer as we constantly seek that
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We know
the will of Jesus by how He has revealed Himself to us
in His Word.
Finally, we are reminded we don’t look to ourselves or
to the world for our guidance and salvation, but we
look to Jesus who has taught us what it truly means to
“pray without ceasing.” What a joy, privilege and
opportunity we have to be “Joy:Fully Lutheran” by
taking everything to the Lord in prayer. 6
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one
another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous
person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16).
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Luther’s Small Catechism, 22.
5
Ps. 37:4.
6
Phil. 4:6.
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Convention Essays