Praying from the Heart - and from the Book

Prayer is one of the central disciplines of Christianity. Over the last two thousand years, Christians have consistently engaged in prayer, and written much about it. Divergent opinions exist about how one ought to pray, and about what prayer is. Certainly, it is clear that prayer cannot be conceived mechanistically - a cosmic quid pro quo in which, if I ask for something in the correct manner, God will grant it. Such an understanding is both wrong, inasmuch as prayer is not a tool by means of which I can make God do something, and incomplete, insofar as less than half of prayer amounts to requests. But beyond these points, a spectrum of views exist, and competing forms of prayer are practiced by different Christians.

One question addresses the issue of spontaneity in prayer. Should I simply tell God what’s on my heart, or should I address Him with the written prayers found in books? Many Christians have found a comfortable middle ground, doing a bit of both. But however people may answer this question, it is also important how they explain their answers, i.e., what they offer in the way of evidence and supporting argumentation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer addressed this topic in a book on prayer which he published in 1940. Eric Metaxas reports:

In the book, Bonhoeffer linked the idea of Barthian grace with prayer by saying that we cannot reach God with our own prayers, but by praying “his” prayers - the Psalms of the Old Testament, which Jesus prayed - we effectively piggyback on them all the way to heaven. We must not confuse what we do naturally, such as “wishing, hoping, sighing, lamenting, rejoicing,” with prayer, which is unnatural to us and which must be initiated from outside us, by God. If we confuse these two things, “we confuse earth and heaven, human beings and God.” Prayer cannot come from us. “For that,” he wrote, “one needs Jesus Christ!” By praying the Psalms, we “pray along with Christ’s prayer and therefore may be certain and glad that God hears us. When our will, our whole heart, enters into the prayer of Christ, then we are truly praying. We can pray only in Jesus Christ, with whom we shall also be heard.”

Bonhoeffer tells us that it is permissible, even desirable, to use the Psalms as our prayers. He doesn’t rule out spontaneous prayer from the heart, but he is giving a clear reason why we should not rule out the use of written prayers. Prayer, he explains, does not come naturally to us. In the Gospel according to Luke, the disciples say to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Praying is a learned activity, requiring a teacher, and as teacher, Jesus provides them with a model prayer. Left to our own devices, we might arrive at some form of pseudo-prayer composed of petitions and intercessions. Confession, adoration, thanksgiving, and praise are, however, foreign to our nature. Jesus teaches us about prayer, and offers models, not only in the Lord’s Prayer, but also - as Bonhoeffer points out - by His use of Psalms.

To pray the Psalms is not to be limited to mechanically repeating them. As we reflect on the Psalms, we enter into the living situations depicted in them, and they enter into our own living situations, and allow us to communicate to God about our lives. Sometimes the Psalms give us new insights about our circumstances, and other times they help us to cope with the difficult insights we’ve already gained.

Bonhoeffer is encouraging us to realize that merely emoting is not truly praying; merely presenting petitions and intercessions is only a part of prayer and is not complete. The Psalms present us with the rich variety of communication we can have with God.