Prayer lies at the very heart of the Christian life, for prayer is nothing more nor less than conscious communion with God. The quality of our prayer life is therefore a reflection of the quality of our Christian life: it is the thermometer of the soul, the indicator of our spiritual health and temperature. But prayer is also the engine of growth in the Christian life: it is the food of the soul without which we cannot hope to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer is one of the vital foundations to the Christian life.
Yet having said this, prayer is one of the aspects of the Christian life where so many fall down. To many it is more of a hurdle than a springboard! We may read of eminent Christians in the past who used to rise early to spend three or four hours with God in prayer before the activity of the day, and we have to confess that we find it hard to spend three or four minutes with God in prayer. Even when we do manage to spend a few moments in prayer, our prayers tend to be self-centred – 'Lord, help me . . – or need centred, 'Lord, help so and so . . .' rather than God centred. The plain fact of the matter is that we, like the disciples of old, need to learn how to pray (Luke 11:1).
One valuable way in which we can learn more about prayer is by looking at some of the prayers recorded in Scripture. The Bible enables us to evesdrop upon some of the prayers of men and women who knew their God. By listening to their prayers we can be encouraged in prayer.
Here, in this chapter of Genesis, we have a record of Abraham at prayer. I want us to look together at this chapter so that from this prayer we might learn more about prayer, and so learn to pray.
The story told by Genesis 18 is quite straightforward, even though, at the same time, it is deeply mysterious.
One day, while Abraham is sitting at the entrance of his tent, he saw three men. Taking them to be travellers he offers them the hospitality that would have been customary in the ancient Near East. Then, as they begin to talk with him he realises that these are no ordinary men: he is in the presence of the Living God. As the story continues we discover that two of these three 'men' are angels (see 18:22 and compare this with 19:1) and that the third is the Lord himself in human appearance (see 18:22).
The Lord speaks with Abraham and renews his promise to him that he will have a child. Sarah's disbelief receives its reply from the Lord, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (18:13).
Having confirmed his promise to Abraham, the three men – the Lord and the two angels – begin to leave. Abraham plays the part of a good host and accompanies them on the first part of their journey. The Lord, or his angels at least, are on their way to Sodom though Abraham does not yet know it.
Now here is the first thing I want you to note:
Look at verses 17 and 18. Here we read, "Then the LORD said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.''
God has it in mind to judge Sodom, and God chooses to share his mind and heart with Abraham because he has chosen Abraham for himself. God has entered into a special relationship with Abraham and will from now on be known as 'the God of Abraham.' He is Abraham's God and Abraham is his child. It is this closeness of relationship which demands that God should share his mind and heart with Abraham, and not least so that he might bring up his children in the knowledge of God.
Abraham is later spoken of as the 'friend of God' (James 2:23). Perhaps it was this very incident which James had in mind for this is what it means to be a friend. A friend is someone with whom you share your heart and your mind. It was not that God was Abraham's friend, as if Abraham had made God his best buddy. Rather, in condescending grace God had chosen to walk with Abraham and share his mind with him, so that Abraham might rightly be called God's friend.
The precious privilege which was Abraham's is one which is shared also by the Christian. Jesus, speaking with his disciples shortly before his death said, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last." (John 15:15,16a). The Christian shares the same precious relationship with God as was enjoyed by Abraham. The Christian is a chosen friend of God with whom God has shared his mind and heart. The Christian is one knows the heart and mind of God because God has spoken to us through his word brought home to our hearts by his Spirit, and especially he has spoken to us in Christ.
The Christian is one to whom the very heart and mind of God has been revealed.
In Abraham's walk with the three 'men' we have a beautiful picture of what is the very heart and substance of the Christian life: It is to know God, to walk with God, and for him to share his heart with us as through his word and by his Spirit he makes himself known to us in Christ.
But, you might say, what has all this got to do with prayer? The answer is that it has everything to do with prayer for, secondly:
I want you to note that Abraham's prayer was prompted by what God said to him. God spoke and Abraham responded.
One of the problems which sometimes keeps us from prayer is that we just do not know how to open a conversation with God. How do you begin to speak to one who is so glorious in splendour and powerful in might? Abraham never had this problem for God started the conversation and Abraham simply responded.
This ought to be true also of our prayer. Prayer is the response of the Christian to what God has said. One of the reasons for our lack of prayer is that all too often we are not ready to hear what God is saying to us.
How does God speak to us today? We ought not to expect that God will speak to us in exactly the same way as he spoke to Abraham. We should not be looking for God to visit us in human appearance and for him to speak to us with an audible voice as was the case with Abraham. But God does still speak. He speaks through his word. Are we careful to read his word, the Bible, day by day and to read it thoughtfully and carefully. We need to meditate upon the word asking ourselves what God is saying to us through it, what he is teaching us about himself, what promises he is making towards us, what demands he is making of us etc. When we read God's word carefully we will find that he will speak to us again and again through it. Moreover, if we are men and women of the word, those whose minds are filled with the truths of Scripture, we will find that God speaks to us in many other ways also. God will speak through the words of others, even through the words of non-Christians, and God will speak through providential circumstances.
Prayer is to be our response to what God says to us. Examine the psalms: see how the psalmists respond with praise and with pleas to all that God has taught them of himself. If we were only more sensitive to the voice of God we would be more often in prayer.
But this leads me to my third point:
Even as God reveals himself he remains the God whom we do not fully comprehend. It could hardly be otherwise, for God is God and not an idol of human invention which may sit happy in some corner of our understanding. The Christian is one who at one and the same time knows God, for he has come to know him in Christ, yet he finds in him a God who passes knowledge.
We see in Genesis 18 that it is precisely as God reveals his mind and heart to Abraham that Abraham realises that here is a God he does not comprehend.
Abraham is juggling with three things which he cannot fit together. First of all there is all that he has learnt of God in the past. Abraham has come to know God in a personal way: he knows God as his God. Abraham has discovered that God is a God of grace and mercy, for he knows himself to be as dust and ashes in God's sight (18:27) yet God has promised to bless him and to make him a blessing. Abraham knows by personal experience that God is gracious, kind and good.
Secondly, Abraham has just learnt that God is grieved over the wickedness of Sodom and is planning judgment for that city.
Thirdly, Abraham knew Sodom. For one thing, his nephew, Lot, was an inhabitant of the city. More than that, Abraham had once rescued the inhabitants of the city when they were being carried off into captivity. To him they were real people, real families, men, women and children. Abraham cared about the city.
Here were three elements in Abraham's understanding which he just could not fit together. How could the God whom he had come to know be the God who speaks about destroying Sodom? Abraham is deeply troubled for he suddenly realises that the God he knows is a God whom he does not comprehend. In his perplexity Abraham is driven to prayer, the earnest prayer of a troubled heart seeking to comprehend the ways of God.
There will be many times when we find ourselves in the same place as Abraham. There will be times when, if we read God's word carefully and thoughtfully, we will be confronted with things we do not understand – perhaps the slaughter of the Canaanites or the death of Uzzah or the death at the hands of a bear of children who mocked Elisha. We will be tempted to rebel against a God whom we feel we do not understand. Or there will be times when we, or loved ones, face providential circumstances which test our faith, for we just cannot understand why God should act like this.
What should we do when we face situations of this sort? We should not turn aside in unbelief, nor should we pour out our anger and complaint into the ears of all who would hear. Like Abraham we should, in our perplexity and distress, turn to God in prayer. We should cry to the God we know that he might show us more of himself and give us that ability we need to rest content in him.
This leads me to my final point:
What is going on as Abraham talks with God – as he prays? Clearly Abraham is praying for Sodom, pleading that God might spare the city. But there is more than this here. Abraham is also seeking to comprehend God.
Look at verses 22-25. Abraham knows that God is the Judge of all the earth and he know that God is a righteous judge. Will God then sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Abraham dares to ask for God to spare the city if there are but 50 righteous people in it. The following verses recount how Abraham continued to plead with God for the city, each time daring to ask for it to be spared for the sake of fewer and fewer righteous persons until God tells him that he will spare it even if there are only 10 righteous persons.
What is happening here? Abraham is appreciating anew something of the character of God. He comes to his prayer with the fear that God is harsh and quick to judge. Even as he 'bargains' with God one gets the impression that he is fearful that God may react in anger to his plea. But as he pleads he learns that God is not an unpredictable tyrant who is quick to anger. God patiently responds to Abraham's requests. At last Abraham learns that God is gracious and full of mercy and slow to anger, for now he knows that even if there were only 10 righteous people in a city of many thousands of wicked people, God would spare the city for their sake.
At the close of the conversation Abraham may not have had all of his problems resolved intellectually, but he does leave at peace. His confidence in God has been restored.
This God whom he still does not fully comprehend is the God whom he knows and a God whom he knows he can trust.
We also ought to be those who grow in knowledge of our God through prayer. Prayer may not solve all our problems neither will it answer all our questions, but through prayer we grow in knowledge of the God whom we have come to know in Christ, and through prayer we are enabled trust him and rest in him.
Do you know God? Are you able to say that you walk with God and that he talks to you? This is the very heart of what it means to be a Christian – to know God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything less than this is a sham.
Secondly, if you do know God, are you growing in knowledge of him through listening to his word and through responding to him in prayer? This is the Christian's calling. It is as we grow in knowledge of God through the use of these means that we grow in usefulness and become a means of blessing to others also (look again at Genesis 18:17-19 and John 15:15 and 16).
Peter Misselbrook