What role does the Church assign to prayer?
When people came to the Russian ascetic priest Ippolit Khalin and asked him for help, he said that he would pray. And some were dissatisfied with this answer, since from the point of view of a person far from Orthodoxy, prayer is the last thing that can help a person. And the saints called prayer the science of sciences and believed that in any situation the most effective help is provided by prayer.
Many sects believe that God acted in the world only in the Gospel days, and then, as it were, went on vacation. Orthodoxy says that God is constantly at work in the world, and we learn this through prayer.
In addition, prayer that is attentive to words is one of the ways to feel the presence of God.
People turn to the Lord with a variety of requests
People turn to the Lord with a variety of requests. And some expect that, as if by magic, everything will come true. How does prayer actually work?
God hears all people, but fulfills prayer when it is useful for a person. And in a way that is closest to this person, his structure of the soul, often even unconscious to him.
When the intention of the heart and prayer do not coincide, God fulfills the request not according to prayer, but according to the heart. Saint John Cassian the Roman said that if two or three ask for one thing, God will certainly grant their prayer. One of my friends, having learned about this, was surprised and asked why, when she and her friend jointly asked God to send them guys, two completely unpious guys were sent to them. We began to look into this case and it turned out the following. The first friend, a girl in many ways worldly, got herself a worldly, unbelieving guy who showed a lot of attention to her. And the second wanted something noble and got someone who pays for her everywhere, but is proud and does not know how to give in, and also breaks her will. Both of them have flaws that match both friends. Both with the virtues they wanted. But the prayer from the prayer book was that the groom be “God-loving and pious.” But, since for both girls these were only words, and their hearts yearned for something else, God gave them what they really wanted.
However, the main content of prayer should not be a request. Of course, God helps us, but He is waiting for us to love Him. God should be not one of the backgrounds in our life, but its main content.
Therefore, the main meaning of prayer is to be with God, to be transformed in the sanctifying action of prayer in order to respond to His love with a pure heart.
Why pray? Why pray if God controls absolutely everything? Why pray if God already knows what we are going to ask before we even ask for it?
1. Prayer is a form of service to God (Luke 2:36-38). We pray because God tells us to pray (Philippians 4:6-7).
2. Christ and the early church gave us an example of prayer (Mark 1:35; Acts 1:14; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31; 6:4; 13:1-3). If Jesus thought it was worth praying, then we should too.
3. God desires prayer to be a means of obtaining His decisions in a number of situations:
a) preparing for important decisions (Luke 6:12-13); b) overcoming the devil's obstacles in life (Matthew 17:14-21); c) calling workers to gather the spiritual harvest (Luke 10:2); d) gaining strength to overcome temptation (Matthew 26:41); e) spiritually strengthening others (Ephesians 6:18-19).
4. We have a divine promise that our prayers are not in vain, even if we do not receive exactly what we asked for (Matthew 6:6; Romans 8:26-27).
5. He promised that when we ask for things that are consistent with His will, He will give them to us (1 John 5:14-15).
Sometimes, in His wisdom and for our benefit, He hesitates to answer. In these situations, we must be diligent and persistent in prayer (Matthew 7:7; Luke 18:1-8). At the same time, we should not use prayer to force God to do our will on earth, on the contrary, it should become a means of fulfilling His will. God's wisdom is infinitely superior to ours.
In situations for which we do not know exactly what God's will is, prayer becomes a means of knowledge. If Peter had not asked Jesus to call him out of the boat into the water, he would have missed this opportunity (Matthew 14:28-29). If the Syrian woman with her demon-possessed daughter had not prayed to Christ, she would not have received healing for her child (Mark 7:26-30). Without calling on Christ, the blind man in the vicinity of Jericho would have remained blind (Luke 18:35-43). God said that we often do not have because we do not ask (James 4:2). In some ways, prayer is similar to evangelism to others. Until we share the good news, we will not know who will answer it. It’s the same with prayer: we will never see the result of prayer until we pray.
A lack of prayer demonstrates a lack of faith and trust in God's Word. We pray to demonstrate our faith in God that He will fulfill the promises of His Word and bless our lives more than we can ask or hope for (Ephesians 3:20). Prayer is the primary means of seeing the Divine work in the lives of others. As our means of “connecting” to the source of God’s power, it becomes our path to victory over the enemy (the devil) and his army, which we cannot overcome alone. Therefore, let us come often to the throne of God, for in heaven we have a High Priest who can help us in all our trials (Hebrews 4:15-16). We have His promise that “…the earnest prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16-18). May God glorify His name in our lives as we bow before Him in prayer more and more often.
People often say that their prayers were not answered
People often say that their prayers have not been answered: someone has problems with work, someone cannot meet their soul mate. What are the main difficulties that arise, what mistakes do those who pray most often make?
It was customary among medieval Orthodox monks in Ireland to compare the world and the fate of man in it with a carpet of amazing beauty. This carpet could amaze with the beauty of its patterns and the unusual design, but the fact is that those who look at the carpet while walking on it do not see all this. Individual lines and colors are visible to him, but he cannot connect it all into a single harmony and beauty. The only way to see everything correctly is to look at the carpet from the sky. Only then will it become clear what the meaning was in everything that happened to us.
We don't see our lives from heaven's perspective. We can desire out of passion, out of sinful infatuation of the heart. We can only desire earthly goods. “Lord, give me a car, an apartment, a job, money, and then get out of my life and don’t stop me from sinning.”
God sees that such a life is a rope in the hands of a suicide. And with the suffering He sends, He leads us to heaven.
The main condition of prayer should be the desire to change your life through repentance...
However, we must remember that if God does not grant our prayer, then He is preparing something better for us than what we ask for.
The power of prayer: why is prayer needed, is it safe to pray for others
Archimandrite Markell (Pavuk), confessor of the Kyiv theological schools, explains what change prayer makes in a person.
– Why is prayer needed? Is it possible to pray for other people?
– In order for our body to live, we need food, and for our soul to live, we need prayer. It is no coincidence that many holy fathers say that the world stands through prayer. In modern society, which relatively recently freed itself from the captivity of state atheism, most people, thank God, feel the need for prayer. If not the entire prayer rule, then at least many people know the Lord’s Prayer by heart and try to read it every day.
- Is that enough?
– The Lord Himself taught His disciples and followers the Lord’s Prayer. Its text is given in the Holy Gospel. In fact, in a few words of this prayer everything that is necessary for our salvation is stated. But over time, many other prayers arose, which are now published in prayer books and form the morning and evening prayer rules.
– Why are these additional prayers needed? Isn’t it better for a modern person, overloaded with thousands of tasks, to be content with one prayer, “Our Father” in his life?
– It is possible that in early Christian communities, where people experienced great inspiration from recently experienced gospel events, reading one prayer, “Our Father,” was enough. As this first enthusiasm for faith waned, when many people began to come to the Church who could not immediately give up their former bad habits and passions, the need arose to intensify prayer. The impoverishment of faith was already observed by the holy Apostle Paul. He writes about the deplorable spiritual state of some Romans, Corinthians, Cretans, and Greeks in his Epistles. Therefore, the apostle commanded everyone to pray without ceasing.
- Is it possible? After all, we have great difficulty reading even a short prayer rule, which takes us no more than half an hour, morning and evening, and for some less.
– As the experience of not only many devotees of piety, but also ordinary believers testifies, this is not only possible, but also necessary.
- Why?
– The fact is that, according to the teachings of the Apostle Paul, man is three-component. It consists of a spirit, which makes it related to God, a soul, which gives life to the body, and the body itself, with the help of which we move and can do something. When creating man, the Lord established a strict hierarchy between these parts. The body must obey the soul, and the soul must obey the spirit. When a person forgets about God (which happened and is still happening as a result of the Fall), then his spirit begins to live by the needs of the soul, and the soul - by the needs of the body.
– How does this manifest itself? After all, most people seem to be so kind, well-mannered, decent, tolerant, many have not one, but several higher educations. What else are they missing?
– According to the thought of St. Theophan the Recluse, as a result of the Fall, the soul fell into the flesh and man became carnal, proud, proud, envious, and lustful. The body needs little to satisfy its needs for food and drink and procreation, but when the soul, which is constantly in motion (ever moving), falls into the flesh, then the needs of the body increase indefinitely. A person can eat and drink a lot, even because of this, experience health problems, but for him everything is not enough. He can't stop in time. Also, the lust of the flesh in him can be inflamed not only for procreation, but to the point of madness, when a man ceases to be content with his wife, but takes on more mistresses. And now society has already sunk so low morally that it wants to pass off even unnatural sins as the norm. And in general, one can observe that all his life a person, under the pressure of various worries, spins like a squirrel in a wheel, but as a result he is left with an emptiness that no earthly consolation can fill.
– In order to settle down at least a little, to find the true meaning of life, is this what prayer is for?
– Yes, prayer just helps restore the hierarchy between spirit, soul and body, broken by sin. The exclamation of the priest during the Divine Liturgy: “Grief is our hearts” - constantly reminds us of this. That is, with the help of prayer we must lift our soul, the focus of which is the heart, upward and unite with God. If this happens, then the body's demands decrease sharply. It becomes easy for a person to fast and be content with little in food. Monks even completely renounce married life.
– But it can be very difficult for a person to tune in to prayer himself. What to do?
– To make it easier to distract yourself from the bustle of life and tune in to prayer, there is congregational prayer, in church during the service. Any difficult task becomes easy when we feel the support of other people. So in prayer, when the whole church is praying, then the most fussy and restless person also calms down and tunes in to prayer.
– If you feel that your prayer is still too weak, should you ask your loved ones to pray for you in difficult times?
- Necessarily. We become the Church in the true sense of the word only when we pray for each other. When everyone thinks only about himself, then even though such a person goes to church, it is doubtful that he is a member of the Church of Christ. In Transcarpathia, it is customary to remember aloud during the special litany all those standing in the church, as well as their relatives, near and far. And although because of this the duration of the service increases by almost half an hour, people are not burdened by this, but, on the contrary, rejoice, because they feel not alone, but members of the great Catholic Church.
– There is such a widespread belief in some Kyiv parishes that it is dangerous to pray for others, because in this way you can take on the sins of those people. This is true?
- In no case. The Church prays for everyone. First of all, about those who belong to it, and then about the peace of the whole world. You just cannot submit notes to the proskomedia with the names of those people who do not belong to the Church. But at home or when we stand in prayer in church, we can remember all the people we know, both believers and non-believers, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, both righteous and great sinners. If we don’t pray for people who are far from the Church, so that the Lord will enlighten, guide and have mercy on them, then who will pray for them?
“However, some people complain that when they start praying for others, for example, for their drunken neighbors or godless bosses, all sorts of personal problems arise. What to do in such a situation?
– Yes, the evil spirit really doesn’t like it when we pray for ourselves and for other people, he tries in every possible way to distract us from prayer, and sometimes even intimidate us (I know that for this reason some stopped going to church or went into schism); but in no case should we pay attention to his weak insolence; we must not be cowardly and cowardly, for then Satan can completely take power over us. On the contrary, we must strengthen our prayer for ourselves and for other people.
So how to pray correctly?
To pray correctly, our soul must be in tune with Heaven. This consonance can be achieved only by leading an Orthodox spiritual life. Go to church, fast, confess and receive communion. And read how and what the holy people prayed for.
One can easily notice that a person who feels God no longer desires what one who does not feel Christ desires. The saints asked God to forgive them. They asked him to teach him to love, to give him purity and the ability to be truly close and dear to many other people. And much more.
But the very living feeling of the presence of God in your life is achieved through prayer.
When you can't concentrate on prayer
We probably all know the feeling when you can’t concentrate on prayer, when different thoughts creep into your head. How to focus on the main thing?
The fact is that a person’s thoughts are constantly in this state - they run from subject to subject. Prayer only reveals to a person that a person is like that. And he is such because he is in a fallen state.
Saint Theophan the Recluse says that if we have not noticed that our thoughts are distracted from God, this is not yet a sin. It’s bad if you noticed and continued to be distracted.
And it is possible to concentrate on prayer as much as you love God or suffer. The lover is not distracted from the beloved, the one who is in pain is from his own pain. As love grows, prayer will become less scattered.
And finally, fourth, and most importantly, prayer is worship of God.
Prayer is a form of worship of God that must certainly be present in the life of a Christian. By turning to God, we express our dependence on Him, admit that we cannot live without Him, and also show that we completely trust Him with ourselves, our difficulties and problems.
Worship of God is the remembrance and proclamation in a prayerful state of various spheres of God's greatness, power, wisdom. It is humble admiration for the wonderful works of God. Worshiping God is seeing the hand of God and expressing our gratitude for God's infinite supremacy.
I would like to end this short reflection with a quote from Charles Spurgeon, who noted well:
“The skill of prayer is good, but the Spirit of prayer is better. We should make time for prayer regularly, but constant fellowship with God should be our goal. As a general rule, ministers should never spend much time without actually lifting up their hearts in prayer. Many preachers can testify that they rarely spend a quarter of an hour without turning their thoughts to God. This is no longer a duty, it becomes an instinct. These are skills of a new nature"
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