LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 348

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348

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
In the Old Testament, it is not just the people of Israel who pray. Israel’s
neighbors also bow their heads and raise their hands to a pantheon of gods
that they believe (or hope) can help, deliver and defend them. In the New Testament, Paul encounters at the Areopagus zealous petitioners of “an unknown
God,” moving him to observe: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way
you are very religious” (Acts 17:22). Perhaps the best theological commentary
on this encounter is Paul’s own discourse in the book of Romans on the natural
knowledge of God. “Ever since the creation of the world,” he says, “[God’s]
invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (1:20). God’s law (however skewed
and shrouded by human sin) is “written on the hearts” of all people, leading
even those who do not believe to accuse and excuse themselves on the basis of
a moral code implanted by God himself (2:15). Reflecting on the implications
of this biblical and universal truth, J. W. Acker concludes that
. . . the desire to pray is instinctive with man. As man’s belief in
the existence of the soul and in the reality of a hereafter seems to
be innate, so there seems to be lodged in man’s heart a natural
impulse to pray. As naturally as the wing of a bird seeks flight
or the fin of the fish takes to water, so the human heart yearns
for a higher being, a god. Aware of his utter helplessness, man
instinctively seeks help from his god or gods, especially in
times of adversity and distress.13
God “has put eternity into man’s heart,” says the Preacher, “yet so that he
cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (Eccles.
3:11). Kenneth Korby asserts that “it is human to pray; and we acknowledge
that much prayer, day and night, is carried on that is not in the name of Jesus.”
To be sure, he says, such “instinctual prayer,” must “be distinguished from
the prayer of faith.” Yet there is clearly “a ‘drivenness’ in our creaturehood
that gives humanity no surcease from praying. As praying Christians, seeking
to fulfill our mission and destiny as God’s church in the world, we need to
understand this phenomenon.”14
This “groping after God” through prayer, even when seriously misdirected, is actually a sign of the divinely-planted knowledge of God that still
survives and surfaces in every human mind and heart. St. Paul might well
respond to the surge of interest in “spirituality” in our society today much as
he did in first-century Greece: “I see that in every way you are very religious!”
“Very religious,” yet Paul could not leave them as they were, for while their
religiosity identified a very real need for God, neither our human groping after
God nor our begging enable us to find or know God with confidence.

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So our human beggarliness before God also has a second result: the beggar’s sense of alienation and doubt. Will anyone listen? Will anyone help? Is
anyone there? Is there a god and does he, or she, or it, care? Our alienation
from the real God means that humanly devised prayer—because of its uncertainties—inevitably attempts to bargain with God or the gods. It seeks a
method, formula, mantra, sacrifice, posture, building—something—that will
elicit a favorable response.
“Man is a beggar before God.”15 Yet we do not know God unless He makes
Himself known. Part of the purpose of this study, to be sure, is to identify
and address deficiencies in “very religious” approaches to prayer that are
not rooted in the pure teaching of the true God revealed in Holy Scripture
(e.g. “Common Misunderstandings of Prayer” below). Yet, we do well to
remember Paul’s approach to worshippers of the “unknown God” in Athens.
Unscriptural practices of prayer must be identified and rejected, but miserable sinners groping desperately after God must also be gently and lovingly
pointed in the right direction: “What therefore you worship as unknown, this
I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23). Paul’s “urgent” admonition to Timothy seems
fitting in this context, and applies also to us:
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
and thanksgivings be made for all men. . . . This is good, and
it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all
men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For
there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for
all. . . . (1 Timothy 2:1–6).
We approach the subject of prayer in this study, of course, not merely on
the basis of “dictionary definitions” but from the perspective of those who
accept without reservation the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as
the written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and practice, and
who affirm without qualification the confessional writings of The Book of Concord as a true and faithful exposition of God’s Word. What is prayer, according
to the clear and consistent witness of the Holy Scriptures? What is especially
noteworthy and unique about the treatment of prayer offered in the Lutheran
Confessions? And how do we apply the teaching of the Scriptures and the
Lutheran Confessions regarding prayer to the questions and challenges facing God’s people today in this area, so that their hearts and lives may be more
deeply enriched and strengthened by the gift of prayer? These are the basic
questions that form the parameters for this study.

Acker, 5.

14
Kenneth E. Korby, “Prayer: Pre-Reformation to the Present,” in Christians at Prayer, ed. John
Gallen (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1977), 116–117.

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Prayer as defined and described in Holy Scripture
We should note, first of all, that the Scriptures themselves do not provide
us with a systematic, comprehensive definition of prayer. A wide assortment
of Hebrew and Greek terms—both technical liturgical terms and common
words for human discourse—is used to denote various aspects of the act of
prayer in the Bible.16 Perhaps most striking is that much of Scripture’s description of and teaching about prayer, according to Patrick Miller, “places it in the
category of ordinary discourse, often in situations of daily existence, some
more critical than others.”17 Commonplace words for “saying” or “speaking,”
when used in the context of “speaking to God,” become part of the vocabulary
of prayer in the Bible. The frequent use of this “non-technical language” for
prayer in the Bible “presses one toward a broader rather than narrower definition, to a way of speaking about prayer that we use in common parlance in
a more popular way, that is conversation with God.”18 In a sense, therefore, the
“dictionary definition” offered above also fits the Bible’s depiction of prayer,
which suggests that the critical theological question is not so much “What is
prayer?” but rather “Who is the God with whom we seek to converse?”
Definitions of prayer offered by Christian theologians down through
the years reflect both the simplicity and profundity of Scripture’s treatment
of prayer. As early as the second century after Christ, Clement of Alexandria
defined prayer succinctly as “conversation and intercourse with God.” 19
Most subsequent definitions have echoed Clement’s simple yet scriptural
description of prayer, including the following by Luther: “All teachers of the
Scriptures conclude that the essence and nature of prayer is nothing else than
the lifting up of the heart or mind to God.”20 “It is altogether Scriptural,” says
the Lutheran theologian Francis Pieper, “to define prayer as ‘the conversation
of the heart with God’ (Ps. 27:8), whether the heart alone communes with God
without clothing the prayer in the words of the mouth or whether the mouth
utters the prayer of the heart.”21 Martin Chemnitz explains that prayer is
. . . when we pour out our heart before God, and, coming
thus to the throne of grace, address, with filial submission
and true devotion of heart, God our Father, who is present

16
Patrick Miller provides a thorough discussion of the terminology used in the OT and the
NT for communicating with the Deity, They Cried to the Lord (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994),
32–42. Cp fn. 8, p.9 above.
17

Miller, 33.

18
Miller, 33. Interestingly, Miller also notes that “sharp distinctions in terminology between
types of prayer—apart from the different sets of vocabulary belonging to petition and praise—
do not exist. Intercession, petition, complaint, and confession may all take place under a variety
of designations.”
19

See Goetsch, 19.

20

AE 42:25.

21

F. Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, vol. 3 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953), 77.

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2013 Convention Workbook

15
St. Augustine, Sermo 56, 6, 9: Patrologia Latina 38, 381; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church
(New York: Doubleday, 1994) §2559.

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and hears and, both stirred up by his command and relying
on his promise, we set before him our troubles and desires, in
true faith, through and for the sake of Christ seeking mercy,
grace, and help in the things that belong to his glory and are
necessary, useful, and salutary for us or give him thanks for
blessings received and praise and glorify his name.22
As helpful as these definitions are, the Scriptures on which they are
based seem less concerned with defining prayer than they do with urging
and moving God’s people to engage in the actual practice of prayer. From
Moses’ tantalizing hint of intimate communion and conversation between
God and Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day” in the Garden of Eden (cf.
Gen. 3:8), to St. Luke’s agonizing portrayal of the incarnate God dripping
with blood-like sweat as he offered up “prayers and petitions with loud cries
and tears” in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44; Heb. 5:7), to St. John’s
glorious vision of—and fervent pleading for—the promised consummation of the prayers of God’s people in the renewed and restored Garden of
Eden (Rev. 7:9–17; 8:3–4; 22:1–6; 22:20), God’s Word without ceasing invites
and incites God’s faithful people to pray.
“Pray,” says Jesus to his disciples, “so that you will not fall into temptation” (Matt 26:41). “And pray in the Spirit,” says Paul, “on all occasions with
all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always
keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open
my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known
the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray
that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should” (Eph. 6:18–20, NIV). The early
Christians, Luke tells us, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching
and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).
James assures us that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16), and Paul instructs Timothy, “I desire then that in every
place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling”
(1 Tim. 2:8). John gives us a glimpse of the “prayers of the saints” rising up to
the heavenly throne of the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world (Rev.
5:8), and Peter soberly reminds us: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore
be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers” (1 Peter 4:7).
As this “scriptural sampler” on prayer illustrates, this “pouring out of the
heart,” this “lifting up of the heart or mind” to God, can take on many forms
and can take place in a wide variety of settings. It can occur in the secrecy of
one’s closet or in the public assembly of the faithful gathered for worship.
It can happen in the silence of one’s heart or in the swelling chorus of the
congregation’s song. It can break forth spontaneously or be expressed in the
practiced refrains of the church’s liturgy. It can take the shape of praise, adora22
Martin Chemnitz, Ministry, Word and Sacraments: An Enchiridion (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 2007), 138.

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