Opinion column

Be still – the key to effective prayer

James Knight offers us encouragement for our prayer times, but reminds us to make time to listen to God’s response.

Just about every time I've asked a mature Christian what their biggest regret is, the answer has almost always been that they wished they'd spent more time in prayer. Before I became a Christian, I had the predictably uncultivated questions about prayer: ‘What's the point in trying to change God's mind if He is all-knowing and all-powerful?’ and ‘If it's God's will, won't it happen anyway whether I pray or not?’ But back then I was thinking of prayer too much like I think of science, and not like I think of relationships and spiritual growth.
 
We are made in God's image, and God wants to bless us even more than we want to be blessed. To receive our blessings, we must discern the will of God, because doing the will of God is what confers blessings on us. Prayer is where those two streams converge.
 
In James 1:17, we read that "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change" - and it is because God is consistent and unchanging that our prayers are worth praying. If we pray to the one true God, our Lord Jesus, and our truest self seeks Him, the prayer is at its most powerful. It is in this type of prayer that we most earnestly reveal who we think we are and who we think God is.
 
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul prays that out of Christ's glorious riches He may strengthen us with power through His Spirit. We should be greatly encouraged that Christ is able to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us". If we want it, it's there waiting for us.
 
The spiritual blessings we do not have are mostly what we have not desired or have desired too prematurely without sufficient wisdom. All the right things come to us from God at exactly the right time. We get what our heart truly desires, and we get the wrong things only when we do not desire the right things. The devil corrupts no one without their own willingness to be corrupted.
 
I learned from Philip Yancey's book on prayer that, in the gospels, Jesus was approached with a question 183 times, and He only answered 3 of them directly. All the other times, He responded with a question or a parable or a cryptic clue. I believe He did this to teach us the benefits of enquiring and learning, and seeking out the answers ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
 
St. James says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you". The way to draw near to God is by having enough quiet prayer time to listen to Him, and by trying our best to live out His will. I find that the more we 'be still' and listen, and the more we commit to doing His will, the nearer He seems to draw to us, and the clearer we hear Him.
 
And to do God’s will, this is what we need to do; seek the truth, and love Christ and everyone else, and every path will lead to every good destination in the end.

James Knight is a local government officer based in Norwich, and is a regular columnist for Christian community websites Network Norfolk and Network Ipswich. He also blogs regularly as ‘The Philosophical Muser’, and contributes articles to UK think tanks The Adam Smith Institute and The Institute of Economic Affairs, as well as the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). 

The views carried here are those of the author, not necessarily those of Network Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users.