5. Learning to Pray with Blair Linne
In this week’s episode, Hunter is chatting with Blair Linne about learning to pray. They talk about what prayer is, remind us of the heart of the God we are praying to, and offer some helpful encouragement for those who are looking to grow in their prayer life. Prayer is, simply put, communicating with God. And we pray that in this episode you will find both rich encouragement and practical helps that will spur you on in your communication with and intimacy with the Father.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
What is prayer?
How is prayer made possible by the gospel?
When did prayer become precious to you?
What is the significance of prayer in the life of a believer?
How does Scripture inform the way we are to pray?
What does it look like for you to use Scripture as a springboard for prayer?
How do you pray with other believers? How has that impacted your prayer life?
How do you pray with your family/children?
What encouragement do you have for the woman who feels intimidated to pray by herself or with others?
Who has had the greatest impact on your prayer life?
NOTES & QUOTES
“Very simply put, prayer is communicating with God, making your request known to God.”
“I think it's the primary way that believers release the depths of our heart while making our request. It's not manifesting or all these things we hear today. It's not magic. It's not accessing this genie lamp or even forcing God to do something or speaking things into existence. We're not demanding God to do what we want, but we're just making our requests known to Him. And that I think can look many ways. It could be a wrestling with God like Jacob. It could be expressing our longings, our pleas, our praise, our thanksgiving. We can confess our sin to God. We can lament.”
“Why is the Lord attentive and why is he looking at the righteous? Well we know, as you said, it's not because of our own righteousness. We are heard because of Jesus's righteousness.”
“Jesus—fully divine, fully human—comes into this world to show us how to rely upon the Father. And we see that through his prayers. We see that through his obedience, even when he goes to the cross.”
“Not only do we have fellowship with God, that fellowship looks like something, which means like we can now talk to God.”
“We can be heard because of Jesus, because of the gospel, because of his righteousness. When we cry out, God listens. And he listens like a father listens to his child. He’s not just tolerating us; he wants to hear from us.”
“We've been made in God’s image. We are his child. We kind of have a picture of who he is, but we don't yet know him well. We don't talk with him, and the gospel changes that. We now can pray. We can know our Father. We can pray to him in the name of God the Son, through the power of God the Spirit. Praise God for the gospel because God hears us because of that.”
Insight #1—Lauren Bowerman:
I love how Blair talked about coming to know God more and more through prayer, and the privilege that it is that we have been granted access to God through prayer because of the gospel and the work of Jesus. What a grace that is!
There’s a poem from the Valley of Vision (which is a little prayer book that would be a great help to anyone who needs a springboard for their own prayers), and this poem so beautifully articulates the heart behind prayer. I’m going to take a minute to read it to you, and I hope it helps you to see all the more what a beautiful gift of grace prayer is to us—a gift that presses us more and more into the Father’s heart.
In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world,
and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs
over all evils on the shores of mortality.
Time, with its gay amusements and cruel
disappointments, never appears so inconsiderate
as then.
In prayer I see myself as nothing;
I find my heart going after thee with intensity,
and long with vehement thirst to live to thee.
Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit
that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish,
and nothing seems important
but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties
disappear,
and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively
thoughts at what thou art doing for thy church,
and I long that thou shouldest get thyself a great
name from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries
of life,
and taste heavenly joys;
entering into the eternal world
I can give myself to thee with all my heart,
to be thine for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in thy hands,
to be entirely at thy disposal,
having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers,
sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come,
with greatest freedom, ardent hopes,
as a son to his father,
as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer
and never to cease praying.
A prayer from The Valley of Vision
“While in prayer, there was a truth that hit me like a semi truck. And this truth was that my sins were the very reason why I needed a Savior. And I remember realizing for the very first time why the good news is good, why I needed a Savior, why Jesus had to come because I couldn't save myself. And that prayer, that first prayer, is what changed everything in my life.”
“God could do that all miraculously apart from us, but he says, “I want you to be included in this process.” And I do think that there's a sense of dignity in that, that we're able to collaborate in a way in this divine work.”
“Prayer is a way that God uses to make us more holy.”
“Scripture tells us who we're praying to which is really important. We need to know who our God is and what his character is like and how he interacts with his his children.”
“Prayer is something that it's assumed that Christians will do, that prayer will be a regular habit for us.”
“He's a loving father, so we can call out “Abba.” We can call out to him with this cry of the child knowing that he hears us and he desires to give us good gifts.”
“It's knowing God's character that helps inform how we approach him.”
“It's not only, in a sense, us reading the Scripture. It’s allowing the Scripture to read us. It's being made aware in our weakness of our need.”
Insight #2—Lauren Bowerman:
“Maybe you’ve been encouraged by how Blair and Hunter are talking about prayer, but maybe for you prayer just feels hard or unnatural? Maybe you have a hard time finding the words to pray. Or maybe, simply, you just find it hard to talk to God that intimately? If that is you, you’re not alone.
I’d encourage you to consider what Hunter and Blair have been talking about regarding using Scripture as a springboard for your prayers. God’s Word is filled with truths about God’s character and his work through Christ. If you are feeling lost in how to pray, simply open God’s Word (or go to the passage you’re currently studying for Bible study or in your reading plan), and start praying God’s Words back to him and allowing his words to direct your own.
If you are still feeling stuck or weary in prayer, I’d encourage you to consider the reality of what is happening spiritually when you pray—it really is incredible.
My friends, not only do we have God’s Word that we can pray in faith back to him. But also we can direct our prayers to God himself, who 1 Peter 3:12 says opens his ears to our prayer and who 1 John 5:14 says hears us when we pray to him according to his will. We have Jesus, God’s Son, who Hebrews 7:25 says always lives to intercede for us, lifting our prayers up before the Father. He is our high priest who Hebrews 4:15 says sympathizes with us in our weaknesses because he too has been tempted as we are, so therefore we can with confidence draw near to God’s throne of grace for mercy and help. AND, my friends, we have God’s very Spirit, who Romans 8:26-27 says, “helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
Every member of the Trinity is eager to hear and to help our prayers, so let us with joy lift up our prayers to God.”
RESOURCES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What is your experience with prayer? Has their been a time when prayer became precious to you?
What does or might it look like for you to use Scripture as a springboard for prayer?
How do you pray with other believers? How has that impacted your prayer life?
Is there something you need prayer for right now? Consider sharing your request with someone. Is there something specific you could be praying for somebody else for? Take a moment now to lift these things up before the Lord.
What might you do or implement based on what you learned in this week’s episode?
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