Prayer: as in, "All men ought always to pray."

Theologians have sadly neglected pray as a serious subject. Augustus H. Strong, for example, devoted only six pages to prayer under the heading of providence. Another theological luminary, Millard J. Erickson writes only two pages on the subject, which also is under the topic providence. William Greenough Thayer Shedd takes only one page. Charles Hodge, one of the most prolific on prayer, still uses less than twenty pages. Karl Barth in his Church Dogmatics, often criticized for his allegedly Christological monistic bend probably has the most comprehensive rendition on the subject.

John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion in many ways remains the standard Protestant treatise—and, I for one, do not find Calvin’s predestinarianism (I may have coined a new word here) preventing prayers answered as long as the prayer fall within the realm of God’s permissive will.

If one is interested in a more contemporary author, many consider Donald G. Bloesch’s The Struggle of Prayer to be one of the most thorough treatments of the subject today—although, I must add, I have not read the book.

Anyway, briefly what I did want to say, and with a minimum of examples, is that prayer is not a major part of the theological turf of contemporary Christianity, at least from a Protestant perspective.

However, Jesus clearly states that “that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Luke 18:1 KJV

So, I would like to deal with the subject of prayer as a Pentecostal believer in this, and perhaps a few subsequent blogs. This will be by no means a complete analysis of prayer, or comprehensive theological statement; but, it will be, I trust, a start towards a more active prayer life. Therefore, let us begin with and the imperative ought of Luke 18: 1; which to me connotes a moral obligation, considering that the source of this divine imperative was God incarnate, Jesus Christ. That, of course, adds tremendous weight to the practice of prayer.

Two ‘always’ are given here, one—the Parable of the Unjust Judge; and two—the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The first, of course, is a prayer of petition—an “I want” prayer. The other is a prayer of repentance—an “I am an unworthy sinner” prayer. Most prayers if not all prayers fall in either of these categories; therefore, in my opinion the ‘ought’ applies to the always of life—that is, under each and all circumstances, we should pray. (More about that later.)

Further, it is interesting, and I believe that it is with purpose that Luke follows these two parables with the touching story of the disciples trying to prevent little children from bothering Jesus, and Jesus responding with, “"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Luke 18: 16-17 TNIV

So, each of us when coming to God, must come as little children; yes, even naïve children, for none of us, as far as I can determine, have reached that full measure of statue of Christian maturity that Paul talks about.

Jim R