This is the third installment in my series on Donald Whitney’s book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian lIfe. You can see the other two installments by following this link and scrolling down. Again, this series may serve as a primer for Whitney’s excellent book. Whitney opens his chapter on prayer with a quote from Albert Edward Day:
We Protestants are an undisciplined people. Therein lies the reason for much of the dearth of spiritual insights and serious lack of moral power (79).
Whitney makes his point painfully clear by inciting critique on mankind’s misplaced priorities. Enormous effort has been made in the U.S. to find faint radio signals from space through the VLA, “. . . a series of twenty-seven huge satellite disks on thirty-eight miles of railways.” Whitney compares this with the equally astounding lack of effort that people make to hear from God through Scripture, his Word. We search avidly for alien intelligence that we guess might exist, when all the while, we ignore the pursuit of God, whom Scripture attests we know exists and have heard from ([Romans 1:18-21 and] 2 Peter 1:19) (79-80). Whitney argues, “But God has not only spoken clearly and powerfully through Christ and the Scriptures, He also has a Very Large Ear [VLE] continuously open to us. . . . [W]e must come to grips with the fact that to be like Jesus we must pray.” Indeed, “Prayer is Expected. . . Learned. . . [and] Answered,” as Whitney outlines in this chapter (80-99).
“PRAYER IS EXPECTED”
Whitney cites several verses from the gospels where Jesus demonstrates his expectations for us to pray, including Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:9, and Luke 18:1. As Whitney stresses, these instructions are “as much His will for you as if He spoke your name and said them to you face-to-face” (80-81). Colossians 4:2 and First Thessalonians 5:17 both command us to pray continually. In regard to this challenge Whitney admits that God certainly “expects many other things of us besides prayer, including times of rest. . . .” Albeit, he asserts:
. . . [I]f talking with and thinking of God can’t be in the forefront of your mind, it should always be just to the side and ready to take the place of what you are concentrating on. You might think of praying without ceasing as communicating with God on one line while also taking calls on another (81-82).
Whitney stresses that prayer is “. . . not only for godliness, but also for the spiritual warfare between His [God’s] kingdom and the kingdom of His enemy.” Prayer is expected because through the gospel, we as believers are now in an eternal relationship with our Heavenly Father. Prayer also is a measure of our general awareness of God: “When our awareness of the greatness of God and the gospel is dim, our prayer lives will be small. The less we think of the nature and character of God, and the less we are reminded of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, the less we want to pray” (83-84).
“PRAYER IS LEARNED”
Just as we learn many things as a child, as God’s child we must learn to pray. The fact that we are not expected to be spiritually mature in our prayers as an infant is Christ is a great consolation. Though an infant’s cry for “basic needs” is all we can muster at first, we are expected to grow. Our growth then will lead us to pray for “the glory of God, in His will, in faith, in the name of Jesus, with persistence, and more.” But our learning is primarily accomplished by doing (85).
Citing several historical quotations from pious saints, Whitney emphasizes that Scripture meditation in combination with prayer is the most effective means of teaching us to pray. Although we may often read Scripture and then pray, “[m]editation is the missing link between Bible intake and prayer.” Meditation upon Scripture instructs us in the truth, and we apply this truth with conviction in our prayers. Whitney stresses the example of Georg Müller, whose needs for the orphanages he founded in England were entirely met by prayer without mention of these needs to others. Müller “clothed, fed, and educated more than ten-thousand orphans, as many as two thousand at a time—and supported mission work throughout the world.” There are “tens of thousands of recorded answers” to his prayers. Müller found that by applying the following method, he would both nourish his own soul and avoid a drifting mind in prayer. Although this might seem selfish at first, the result was most wondrous (86-92):
The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less to prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart (90, 91).
Whitney also stresses “[p]raying with others” and “[r]eading about prayer” as means to learning how to pray. Just as the disciples were with Jesus when he prayed, so we can learn “principles of prayer” through other more mature believers (93).
“PRAYER IS ANSWERED”
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8)
Whitney asks us to contemplate these verses afresh. Although our experiences may make us doubt, God most certainly answers prayer. If our prayers seem to not be answered, either we are not seeing the answer (God is answering differently than we expect), or we are not asking rightly (according to God’s will). Also “[b]latant sin” can block our fellowship with the Spirit, so that our prayers are not answered (94-95).
CONCLUSION
Whitney concludes this chapter with action steps for the Christian. In order to find the time to learn how to pray and to pray consistently well, we likely will need to plan. This means that most of us will need to think ahead and schedule times for growth in this area, whether this be reading the prayers of saints who have gone before us or books on prayer, praying with others, or combining Scripture meditation and prayer (96-97).
Persistence in prayer is often key to receiving God’s answer. But most importantly, we need to realize that the spiritual discipline of prayer is to be practiced “for the purpose of godliness.” Whitney affirms that “where there is prayerfulness there is godliness” (97-99). As the converse of this is also true, we need Whitney’s exhortations and instruction regarding this oft neglected discipline and the other disciplines covered in his book. For this reason, I highly recommend Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian lIfe.
Source: Donald S. Whitney. Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life. Rev. Ed. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2014. For the quote from George Müller, Whitney cites Roger Steer, ed., Spiritual Secrets of George Müller (Wheaton, IL; Harold Shaw Publishers; and Robesonia, PA; OMF Books, 1985), 60-62.