Dallas Willard on Prayer

Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy is an effective review of Jesus' "Discourse on the Hill," or Sermon on the Mount, as a more familiar title. Willard makes some statements that I disagree with in the book, but on the whole, it is very useful for reframing one's understanding of Jesus' teaching.

There is a specific section in chapter 7 that deals with prayer, a topic I've been contemplating lately, as you can tell from my blog entries this week. Willard suggests that prayer is pretty much about asking God for stuff - making requests to Him. However, for those requests to be sincere, one must presuppose a growing relationship with the One of whom the requests are being made. Therefore, I'd add to Willard's remarks on prayer that adoration, confession, and thanksgiving are equally important elements of solid dialogue with our creator.

But Willard makes an interesting mention of "heroic" prayer. He says that only some are called to such activity, and that those of us not called to be heroes in prayer can feel guilty if we fail to pray "heroically." The result of this guilt can then lead to the abandonment of prayer altogether. I see his point and appreciate it. I even find myself leaning this direction at times. My pray life is certainly not "heroic," and I never treat it as such. However, knowing the real benefit of prayer, I would like to be a better prayer, a more frequent and more fervent prayer. The prayer I wrote yesterday for the National Day of Prayer is an example of how I'd like to pray regularly. The reality is that I spend in prayer normally about a tenth of the time that it took to write that prayer. That's sad to me, because I want to be more intimate with God - and that happens through prayer.

O Lord, I long to be near to You, to talk to You and to hear from You - to be Your friend. Draw me closer to You through prayer. Amen.