Q: Do Christians know how to pray? In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus taught His followers the Lords Prayer, but in Romans 8:26, Paul says, We know not what we should pray for as we ought. What makes you think these two passages do not contradict one another?
A: Obviously when Jesus shared the Lords Prayer as a model for his followers, He did not intend for its contents to be the only stuff they said when they prayed. Its a beautiful model, and should be received as one. It should augment, temper, and guide our personal conversations with God, not replace them.
Meanwhile, when Paul says we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, hes not referring to a method or model of prayer; he's referring to prayer /concerns/. This sentence is not about the method, but the *objects* of prayer. Since we do not always know the details of Gods will, we do not always know the specific requests to make (which is why we frequently end up praying, as the Lords Prayer says, Thy will be done). In the early church, I imagine that it was hard to decide specifically what to pray for, as it often is today. Lets eavesdrop on some Roman Christians momentarily:
Primus: Our brother Quintus is scheduled to be eaten by lions tomorrow. Should we pray that he fights valiantly and defeats them all?
Secundus: Listen, old Quintus is very sick. If the lions dont eat him, his disease will slowly and painfully kill him. Perhaps God has allowed him to be martyred so that he may avoid some more grievous trial.
Tertius: Perhaps. Or maybe we should pray that our beloved brother Quintus defeats the lions, and is miraculously healed as well.
Quartus: I dont mean to be a weasel, but I happen to know that Quintus last will and testament bequeaths all his riches to the church to use to free slaves. The sooner he dies, the sooner we can liberate dozens of slaves. My sister happens to be a slave at the moment.
With a delicate balance of advantages and disadvantages in a variety of possible outcomes, its understandable that Christians do not always know specifically what to pray for. But we can entrust ourselves and our loved ones into the hands of our faithful Creator.
(Sub-point: Pauls letter to the Romans was written before the Gospel of Matthew was written. (And before the Gospel of Luke, too.) So, even if one were to accept the idea that Christians learned how to pray as they ought when they learned the Lords Prayer, its feasible that Paul, and his Roman readers, had not yet learned the Lords Prayer when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans. Thus even if one blurs these two quotations to make them both refer to the same sort of thing (which they dont, since the Lords Prayer is a general model and Paul was referring to specific prayer-requests), Pauls words, in their proper historical frame, are correct.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: Obviously when Jesus shared the Lords Prayer as a model for his followers, He did not intend for its contents to be the only stuff they said when they prayed. Its a beautiful model, and should be received as one. It should augment, temper, and guide our personal conversations with God, not replace them.
Meanwhile, when Paul says we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, hes not referring to a method or model of prayer; he's referring to prayer /concerns/. This sentence is not about the method, but the *objects* of prayer. Since we do not always know the details of Gods will, we do not always know the specific requests to make (which is why we frequently end up praying, as the Lords Prayer says, Thy will be done). In the early church, I imagine that it was hard to decide specifically what to pray for, as it often is today. Lets eavesdrop on some Roman Christians momentarily:
Primus: Our brother Quintus is scheduled to be eaten by lions tomorrow. Should we pray that he fights valiantly and defeats them all?
Secundus: Listen, old Quintus is very sick. If the lions dont eat him, his disease will slowly and painfully kill him. Perhaps God has allowed him to be martyred so that he may avoid some more grievous trial.
Tertius: Perhaps. Or maybe we should pray that our beloved brother Quintus defeats the lions, and is miraculously healed as well.
Quartus: I dont mean to be a weasel, but I happen to know that Quintus last will and testament bequeaths all his riches to the church to use to free slaves. The sooner he dies, the sooner we can liberate dozens of slaves. My sister happens to be a slave at the moment.
With a delicate balance of advantages and disadvantages in a variety of possible outcomes, its understandable that Christians do not always know specifically what to pray for. But we can entrust ourselves and our loved ones into the hands of our faithful Creator.
(Sub-point: Pauls letter to the Romans was written before the Gospel of Matthew was written. (And before the Gospel of Luke, too.) So, even if one were to accept the idea that Christians learned how to pray as they ought when they learned the Lords Prayer, its feasible that Paul, and his Roman readers, had not yet learned the Lords Prayer when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans. Thus even if one blurs these two quotations to make them both refer to the same sort of thing (which they dont, since the Lords Prayer is a general model and Paul was referring to specific prayer-requests), Pauls words, in their proper historical frame, are correct.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
