Prayer as Word-based Conversation

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 10:27 pm by Scot McKnight

Prayer as Word-based Conversation 2015-03-13T22:27:39-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dallas Willard taught us that our relationship with God is interactive and that prayer was a genuine conversation with God. This can be seen in most of his books but Hearing God is perhaps the best example. (By the way, Willard also defined the kingdom of God as this “interactive relationship” and this is a good illustration of what I call the pleated pants theory of the kingdom in Kingdom Conspiracy. And I have a piece in Relevant magazine on this topic here.)

What then is prayer? An interactive relationship, a conversation? A two-way or a one-way conversation?

Tim Keller, in his new book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, defines prayer as an instinct and also as a spiritual gift. As a gift, it is a response to God’s revelation (and he leans toward revelation in Scripture) and when this kind of prayer occurs it can be “heaven in the ordinary” (50).

He grounds this “conversing with God” (hearing from God is not discussed here) in the love of God, and this is a quote worth your careful reading:

If God were impersonal, as the Eastern religions teach, then love — something that can happen only between two or more persons— would be an illusion. We can go further and say that even if God were only unipersonal, then love could not have appeared until after God began to create other beings. That would mean God was more fundamentally power than he was love. Love would not be as important as power.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity, however, teaches that there is one God in three persons who have known and loved one another from before the dawn of time.” If God is triune, then words and language are seen in a new light (50-51, italics mine).

Very helpfully, then, prayer is grounded in the Trinity and, in particular, in the love of Father and Son and Spirit as the grounding of all love. There is in the Trinity “divine discourse” (51). Communication with God or from God to us then is not beyond words but wordy.

Rather, Christian prayer is fellowship with the personal God who befriends us through speech (52).

God’s “word” is found in his Word, both living and written, and this is God’s part in the conversation of prayer. Here are two strong claims (54-55).

We know who we are praying to only if we first learn it in the Bible. And we know how we should be praying only by getting our vocabulary from the Bible….It is therefore essential to the practice of prayer to recognize what [Eugene] Peterson calls the “overwhelming previousness of God’s speech to our prayers ”…. We should “plunge ourselves into the sea” of God’s language, the Bible. We should listen, study, think, reflect, and ponder the Scriptures until there is an answering response in our hearts and minds. It may be one of shame or of joy or of confusion or of appeal—but that response to God’s speech is then truly prayer and should be given to God.

He is less than convinced of the more mystical teachings about prayer at work in the church today, though Keller is well-known for the gentleness of his disagreements. I don’t see a two-way conversation in Keller’s approach. So, notice this:

… though they are not without their merits, the methods of “Centering Prayer” and “the Jesus Prayer” are not entirely appropriate for those who understand prayer as a response to God’s verbal revelation in the Bible and as a gift given to those secure in God’s grace (57).

He is not against silence in God’s presence, but that silence is informed by what we have learned from God’s Word.

What kind of words are to be used in prayer? All kinds, depending on the words of God to us. He’s right in this:

We would never produce the full range of biblical prayer if we were initiating prayer according to our own inner needs and psychology. It can only be produced if we are responding in prayer according to who God is as revealed in the Scripture (60).

He lines himself with Eugene Peterson but not with Anne Lamott (60-61).

Lamott memorably names three of the traditional categories of prayer: Help (supplication), Thanks (thanksgiving), and Wow (adoration). It is striking, though, that the book leaves out one of the most crucial classical categories of prayer, namely confession and repentance. If we contrast Lamott’s short book with similar-length treatises on prayer by Augustine and Luther, and with the Lord’s Prayer itself, the lack of emphasis on confession is a glaring omission . My guess is this is because she uses a starting point that is not the knowledge of God in the Bible. We should not get “bogged down” in who God is. We should just pray. The problem is that if God is not the starting point, then our own perceived emotional needs become the drivers and sole focus of our prayer. That will inevitably narrow prayer down from its full biblical spectrum.

Are the prayers of the Bible responses to Bible reading, to Bible immersion? Does Keller’s view expressed here fit the prayers of the Bible? Do you think prayer is a one-way conversation in response to God’s Word/revelation or a two-way conversation of hearing, speaking and speaking, hearing?

Prayer and Formation

Previous Post

October 13, 2014

The Homes We Live In

Next Post

October 14, 2014 Who Are Man and Woman? (RJS)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the name for the Jewish prayer shawl?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mezuzah Tefillin Tallit Kippah