The Beginning of Prayer
In the beginning, God breathed His breath into humanity. According to both Moses and Paul, this breath (or Spirit) caused Adam and Eve to be living souls (see Gen 1:7; 1 Cor 15:45).
What does it mean to be a living soul? At the very least, it means that we were created with a unique spiritual capacity to commune with God. But why would God give us this capacity?
The Bible’s answer is simple yet profound: God desires to dwell with humanity. This becomes evident in many places: the Garden of Eden (Gen 1-2); the tabernacle of Israel (Ex 40); the incarnation of Christ (Mt 1; Lk 1; John 1); the New Jerusalem (Rev 21-22); and more. Indeed, the entire biblical story culminates in the fulfillment of God’s desire: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev 21:3).
Thus, prayer can be described as an offshoot or implication of God’s desire to dwell with us. It is a God-given means by which we commune with God—through speech and listening and meditative reflection—this side of heaven. Its great and final end, as noted above, is everlasting and unencumbered communion with God.
The Fall of Prayer
How was prayer affected by the Fall of humanity? Did Adam and Eve’s sinful rebellion eradicate the possibility of prayerful communion with God?
According to the biblical story, prayer continues on, even after the Fall. Indeed, God speaks to Adam and Eve as they hide from Him, and they speak back (see Gen 3:9-10). And yet, a deep tension is revealed in the conversation, a tension which the New Testament calls “hostility” between God and humanity (Col 1:21).
What did this hostility mean for prayer? Among other things, it meant that prayer had become a means not only to commune with God but also to confess sin, to lament suffering in the world, and to seek deliverance from evil in all its forms.
The Restoration of Prayer
After the Fall, how is prayer restored? According to the New Testament, prayer finds its restoration through the person and work of Christ Jesus. On the cross, Jesus put an end to the dividing hostility between God and His people, declaring once-for-all, “It is finished” (John 19:30). At that very moment, the temple veil was torn in two, and the people of God were welcomed back into the presence of God (see Mk 15:38). Prayerful communion with God has thus been restored.
Of course, our end of the conversation still bears marks of the distorting effects of sin. For this reason, we struggle to pray. Indeed, more often than not, we do not even know what we ought to pray for (see Rom 8:26). And yet, in Christ, our weak and feeble prayers are made holy and lifted up to God. As John the Revelator says, “[The angel] was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God” (Rev 8:3-4). You see, God delights to smell the incense of our prayers. Every single one of them.
An Invitation to Prayer
Regarding prayer, C.S. Lewis said, “God has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created.”[1] In other words, despite the millions and millions of prayers that are lifted up to God every single hour of every single day, God does not get stressed out. At all.
This means that you and I are invited to approach God through prayer at any moment of any day with any thing. From car trouble to stage-four cancer, the timeless God has more than enough “time” to care for you. In fact, He loves to do so (1 Pet 5:7).
Ultimately, the goal of prayer is a sweet communion with God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yes, we might begin the praying life with nothing more than petitions and requests, but in the end, we will receive much more than answered prayers. We will receive God Himself.
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[1] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Touchstone: New York, 1996), pp. 148.