Prayer and its power.

Written by TR Johns

The UK Government begins each daily sitting of Parliament with the following prayer: "Lord, the God of righteousness and truth, grant to our King and his government, to Members of Parliament and all in positions of responsibility, the guidance of your Spirit. May they never lead the nation wrongly through love of power, desire to please, or unworthy ideals but laying aside all private interests and prejudices keep in mind their responsibility to seek to improve the condition of all mankind; so may your kingdom come and your name be hallowed. Amen."[i] Dating back to Elizabeth I, 1558, it may seem entirely anachronistic in secular C21st late modernity, yet it remains central to the British Constitution.

Whilst Parliament maintains a Constitutional Monarch at its Head, it adheres to the motto on the Royal Coat of Arms, ‘Dieu et mon droit’, representing King and State. Of Norman origins, it stands as a watchword and cornerstone of British tradition and culture; ‘God and my right’. It preserves our fundamental belief in human rights and freedom, set within the context of faith in a loving God. Regardless of secularism, Western democracy is steeped in Christian assumptions and inheritance, hence this daily request for God’s oversight. In striving to protect freedom and democracy from a Fascist invasion, Churchill famously remarked, “We have a Guardian because we have a great Cause and we shall have that Guardian so long as we serve that Cause faithfully.” This included Britain’s allegiance to the underlying values and principles which governed national life, bound to a Protestant heritage.

Prayer, in times of peace and prosperity, is different from that uttered in adversity. One place where even the most committed atheist will pray, is in a ‘foxhole’, exposed on a battlefield. There is something in the human heart and psyche, which reaches out in times of crisis, by-passing intellect and ideology, and entreating a power beyond us. An inner cry, intensely personal, active, and part of a living conversation with our environment. 

Ask ChatGPT about the power of prayer; it must come from a place of authenticity and humility. Essentially it is about fostering a relationship with God, rather than words or the how-to prayer. It’s when ‘you invite heaven’s resources to intervene in your earthly situation’. [Buddhist prayer focuses on personal spiritual growth leading to nirvana, rather than asking for divine intervention.] An example of answered prayer included releasing a boy from addiction to online gaming; https://guideposts.org/prayer/true-stories-of-answered-prayer/ (The Three Rules of Life).

Across the major religions there are many forms of prayer, powerful in the way that they unite and draw communities together. As an act of worship, set prayer times provide routine and regular devotion for believers[ii]. Recitation of liturgical prayers and mantras, spoken or sung, reinforce sacred texts, including those dedicated to particular deities (eg. in Hinduism). These also facilitate meditation, with breathing techniques and inner silence, such as the ‘mindfulness’ of Buddhism, which promote mental health. The specifics of prayer vary among traditions and different personal practices; whether standing, sitting, kneeling, prostrate, bowing, walking, driving or working, it becomes integral to human life. 

All prayer has three assumptions: belief in a spiritual realm, the multi-layered nature of humanity (body, soul and spirit) and an interface between seen and unseen dimensions. These are manifested in corporeal and sensory domains, alongside the transcendental and supernatural. Secular humanists argue that the spirit world is psychological and of human invention, whilst believers assert that it is revelatory and existential. Within Christian teaching, as in other faiths, it represents a struggle between good and evil, light and darkness.

The New Testament apostle, Paul, encouraged believers to engage in four distinct types of prayer: supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving.[iii]  Each was appropriate for given circumstances, drawing on the redemption and authority of Christ. He also explicitly taught about spiritual warfare, using the analogy of a Roman soldier’s weaponry.

One of the most striking examples of effective and persevering Christian prayer can be found in the biography of Rees Howells, founder of the Bible College of Wales in 1924. He led intercessions at the College throughout WW2. During Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and D-Day, against the Nazi regime, the whole company was in prayer every evening from 7pm -12pm for five years, never missing a day. They witnessed God’s hand move in astonishing ways that were acknowledged later by leaders from across the Allied forces, including Churchill, Montgomery, and Eisenhower.[vi]

Christians from across the world and through time have witnessed prayers that raise the dead, heal the sick, release the depressed, comfort the anxious and offer protection in danger. They have equally faced the conundrum of unanswered prayer, the subject of a separate article.

Amongst the multiplicity of material available on praying, ‘My Path of Prayer’ contains personal reflections from an eclectic range of Christians.[v] In demystifying the subject, they mention surrender, obedience, watching and waiting, spontaneity, reverence, vulnerability, intimacy, and faith. Some slip into glossolalia (the ‘gift of tongues’), speaking from the spirit and disengaging the mind. Ultimately prayer is learned by praying, with trial and error!

Having succumbed to repeated torture and chemical destruction of his mind in Communist Romania after 1948, Richard Wurmbrand was so abused that he lost the ability to pray consciously, “Prayer simply stopped, unless God counted as prayer the simple beating of a heart that loved Him”. For him, in prison, prayer was the very air that he breathed.

References

[i] https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/prayers/ (accessed 6-7-2021)

[ii] eg. Salat in Islam, Amidah in Judaism, Puja in Hinduism, Liturgy of the hours in Christianity.

[iii] 1 Timothy 2:1; Philippians 4:6; Ephesians 6:18 / To supplicate means earnestly bringing to God’s attention a particular need and seeking insight.  Paul’s prayers, from the Greek ‘prŏsēuchŏmai’, embody the sense of wishing for something that seems to be God’s will. It involves pouring out the heart in an emboldened way, and might continue for days, months, or years. Intercessions concern standing in the gap, where people cannot represent themselves adequately. In liturgical services they often take the form of a structured list of requests. Authentic intercession goes far deeper, like gathering a petition on behalf of a cause, entering into the particulars of a situation, and appealing to God’s authority and mercy. Thanksgiving is expressing gratitude to God and recognition of His qualities, Sovereignty, and immutability.

[iv] Rees Howells Intercessor – Norman Grubb. Lutterworth Press 1981. Howells was born to a poor Welsh mining family, in 1879.

[v] My Path of Prayer - edited by David Hanes. Inter Varsity Press 1991.