LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 350

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350

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
Common misunderstandings of prayer
If prayer is a gift of and a response to the Gospel, then it is also possible (and necessary) to offer some observations about what prayer is not. In
contrast to humanly-devised forms and concepts of prayer (both ancient
and modern), God-pleasing prayer in the Bible is never an attempt to merit
His favor, or induce Him to action by means of human efforts, promises, persuasion, or through some “magical” or mechanical incantation or formula.
Rather, God-pleasing prayer in Scripture always begins with and is rooted in
the unearned grace and favor of God. God’s gracious words, acts, and promises induce those who trust in Him to pray. Prayer is a “sacrifice of praise” in
response to God’s grace, “the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb. 13:15).
Prayer is the response of the repentant sinner who has received the full and
free forgiveness of his merciful God and Father, and who is moved by the
Spirit to express—inwardly or outwardly, privately or corporately—thanks,
needs, and requests. “We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly
and rebelled,” confesses Daniel in his prayer for Judah and Israel. “To thee,
O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame” (Dan. 9:7). Yet for the
sake of God’s own holy name, placed by grace upon his people, Daniel is bold
to pray:
O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and
see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name.
For we do not present our pleas before you because of our
righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear;
O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for
your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people
are called by your name. (Daniel 9:18–19)
It is also important to emphasize that although prayer in the Scriptures is
rooted and grounded in God’s grace, prayer itself is not a means of grace. By
itself, prayer is not a practice by which we are brought into or maintained in a
saving relationship with God. To confuse prayer with the “means of grace”—
to place it on par with the Word and Sacraments of Christ—undermines the
very confidence that enables a prayerful response to our gracious God. It risks
confusion about the essential fact that salvation and Christian life are always
dependent on God’s gracious initiative and His ongoing, sanctifying work. To
remember that we are adopted as God’s children and preserved in that saving
relationship entirely and only by God is the sure basis for confident prayer. It
frees us to share with Him all our fears, weaknesses, and sins—even sins and
weaknesses in our prayer life—as well as our joys and praise. Prayer responds
to the Gospel by seeking more and more of the Gospel’s gifts, and God
answers these prayers by pouring out these gifts through the Gospel itself.36
36
The Lutheran Confessions are aware that the term “sacrament” (literally, “holy thing”),
broadly defined, might be applied to many God-pleasing activities, including prayer. “Finally,
if everything that has the command of God and some promise added to it ought to be counted

Moreover, the close connection between the Word and prayer is made
most explicit when we pray those prayers which are themselves the very Word
of God, the prayers of Scripture. When we use God’s Word in our prayers, of
course, this Word in and of itself—without our aid and assistance—continues
to function as a means of grace by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Perhaps the
most obvious example of this “praying back to God his own words” occurs
whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer, given by the Lord himself,
is always and everywhere
. . . the gracious Word of Christ to us, His work and His gift.
This precious thing is not of our own fabrication or design,
nor is it anything that we could have thought or imagined. . . .
And when we pray in this manner, it does not cease to be His
Word and His work in us. Not that our praying is the Gospel
a sacrament, why not include prayer, which can most truly be called a sacrament? For it has the
command of God, and it has many promises. Were it included among the sacraments, as though
in a more exalted position, it would encourage people to pray” (Ap 13, 16–17, KW, 221). By this
definition, many other aspects of the Christian life containing God’s command and promise
could also be called “sacraments.” The point of Ap XIII, however, is not to “argue much about
the number or the terminology” of the sacraments (17, KW, 221), but to determine what can
be rightly called a “sacrament” if this term is defined as rites that “have the command of God
and the promise of grace, which is the essence of the New Testament” (Ap XI, 4; KW, 219).
According to this “the genuine sacraments. . . are Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and absolution.”
While many promises of God are attached to prayer in the Scriptures, God does not promise
that on account of our prayers He will forgive us and grant us grace.

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or a means of grace; but the words themselves, with which
the Lord has opened our lips to call upon His name, these are
indeed a gift of pure Gospel and grace.37

It must also be said that those who trust in the one true God are not
instructed anywhere in Scripture to pray to Mary or the saints of heaven, or
given any promise that such prayers will be heard or answered by them or
by God.42 Only in the name of Christ do we have access to the heavenly King,
whom we call “our Father” through Christ our Brother (John 14:13–14; Heb.
4:14–16; 2:11; Matt. 6:9). And only in the name of Jesus, the name above all
names, the name at which every knee in heaven and on earth and under the
earth will bow (Phil. 2:9–10), does Scripture instruct and invite us to pray.

If prayer is a response to the Gospel, it follows that prayer is not to be
directed anywhere but to the God of the Gospel, the Triune God: Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. The individual persons of the Trinity may, of course, be
addressed specifically in prayer. At the moment of his death Stephen cries out:
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). Paul pleads directly with Christ
“the Lord” (kyrios) in his time of intense suffering and need (2 Cor 12:8). The
apostle also instructs Christians to “pray at all times in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:18),
and many hymns are actually prayers to the Spirit: “Holy Spirit, light divine,
Shine upon this heart of mine; Chase the shades of night away, Turn the darkness into day.”40
All prayers to the true God, of course, ultimately involve all members
of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit moves and teaches us to pray to the Father in
the name and for the sake of Christ. However fervent or sincere they may be,
therefore, prayers to other so-called “gods” or spiritual intermediaries (including angels) are misdirected and are forbidden by God in his Word (Ex 20:4;
Is 44:6–20; Rom 1:25). Even as God warns against such prayers, however, He
lovingly pleads with those whose misguided petitions reflect an inner craving
for Him who alone can hear and answer prayer: “Turn to me and be saved, all
the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other…To me every knee
shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (Is. 45:22–23).41

37
D. Richard Stuckwisch, “Lord, Remember us in Your Kingdom, and Teach Us to Pray” in We
Believe: Essays on the Catechism (Ft. Wayne, IN: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 2000), 70.

Ibid.

George W. Hoyer, “Worshiping Pastors and Worshiping People,” in Toward a More Excellent
Ministry, Richard R. Caemmerer and Alfred O. Fuerbringer, eds. (St. Louis: Concordia Seminary,
1964), 136.
39

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This requires us to keep God’s Word and prayer together. Christian worship in its various forms—from individual to corporate and from informal to
formal—inevitably involves both the Word of God and prayer. In that way the
worshiper really is part of a two-way “conversation.” We speak and we listen.
We hear God’s Word in unambiguous, authoritative words, and we speak and
sing our words as response. Our personal prayer life needs this same dynamic.
For good reason, therefore, Christians through the ages have been encouraged
to practice a devotional life that involves Scripture and prayer. In such ways
our lives, too, may be “made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:5).

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On the other hand, and at the same time, “our praying of the Our
Father . . . is a genuine good work of faith, a sacrifice of repentance and
thanksgiving, and an act of worship in Spirit and Truth.” 38 In fact, any act of
worship, to the extent that it involves and incorporates God’s own words and
promises of grace, becomes both our work (pleasing to God) and God’s work
toward us and in us. “Every act of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and
supplication is also a work of proclamation to the one who worships.”39 When
we sing and pray God’s Word in our worship, we also proclaim to ourselves
and others the Gospel that enables us to sing, pray, and worship in the name
of Jesus.

38

It is common and sometimes helpful to speak about prayer in the context
of a “conversation with God,” but this can also be confusing. Some are then
troubled because they pray sincerely, and do not “hear” an answer. They long
for the Lord to speak directly, apart from any mediation, just as occurred to
some biblical saints (e.g., Gen. 7:1; 12:1). The absence of such an unmediated
word leaves them desolate. Or, perhaps they sense an answer, but wonder
whether it is authentic. It is helpful to remember that prayer is the human side
of a “conversation with God.” “Inner voices” may be the word of conscience
or a sanctified, Spirit-led heart, but they may also be a voice of confusion or
falsehood. What is vital is to know that any answer that we hear or sense cannot stand on its own, but is always subject to the revealed Word of Scripture.
There we are assured we hear God’s voice. No inner voice has such authority.

Lutheran Service Book (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 496:1.

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To the question whether God “hears” the prayers of those who do not believe in the Triune
God, the answer depends on what is meant by the word “hear.” In divine omniscience and
omnipresence, God sees and “hears” everything—including all prayers to false gods and all

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2013 Convention Workbook

Emphasis on the saving initiative and gracious work of God may lead us
to think that prayer is somehow incidental or optional for the Christian. If the
Christian life is a gift of grace, why work at it—why work at prayer? After all,
as noted above (in several places), it is God the Holy Spirit who moves us to
pray in response to His grace in Christ Jesus. The Bible even speaks of God the
Holy Spirit “helping us” in our prayers by “interceding for us with groanings
too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26). This is a wonderful, mysterious assurance of
God’s gracious presence and assistance in our deepest times of need. Yet, it is
not an excuse not to concern ourselves with the hard work of prayer. “The fact
that the Spirit speaks in us,” says Oscar Cullmann,
. . . does not mean that we are uninvolved; on the contrary, it is
precisely for this reason that we should seek conversation with
God. For the fact that the Holy Spirit now already renews us
‘from day to day’ (2 Cor. 4:16) does not excuse us from making
our own contributions, so that all our thought and action is
influenced by it.43
Scriptural promises and encouragement to pray may also sometimes lead
to misunderstandings. Our Lord promises: “Whatever you ask in my name,
this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). Some
suggest that Jesus has here promised that anyone who truly believes in Him
can name whatever he wants and God will simply give it—as long as the
phrase “in Jesus’ name” appears (as if it were a mantra). Such “name it and
claim it” teaching is a deception that often leads to doubt in God’s Word and
despair of His mercy in those who ask, but do not receive.
To do anything “in the name” of another is never an invitation to claim
our will and desires above that person’s will and desires. To pray “in Jesus’

prayers wrongly prayed. However, the word “hear” in scriptural teaching on prayer often
denotes God’s favorable reception of prayers and his promise to respond in accordance with
his gracious will in Christ Jesus. This promise and assurance can be claimed only by those who
have received the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, in whom alone all of God’s promises find their
“Yes” (2 Cor. 1:20).
42
For further discussion, see the CTCR’s report, A Response to “The U.S. Lutheran-Roman
Catholic Dialogue Report VII: The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary” (1994), found online at
www.lcms.org/ctcr.
43

Oscar Cullmann, Prayer in the New Testament (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999), 80–81.

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