Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 173:689 (Jan 2016)
Article: Jonathan Edwards’s Thoughts On Prayer
Author: John D. Hannah

BSac 173:689 (January-March 2016) p. 80

Jonathan Edwards’s Thoughts On Prayer

John D. Hannah

John D. Hannah is Research Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.

Abstract

To Jonathan Edwards, prayer was an act of coming into the presence of the most beautiful of all persons, the creator of the universe, who has condescended to hear the praises and cries of his people. Though a duty, it was to Edwards a delight, whether in the secrecy of his study, the twilight or the morn when he gathered his family together, or in the corporate worship of the assembly of saints. Why? The answer is that, using his words, “God never begrutches his people anything they desire, or are capable of, as being good to ’em” and, even more so, he welcomes them into his presence to behold and to be ravished by his beauty.

The discipline of prayer, an act of privilege and obedience, is a conundrum. For example, the posture of prayer exists in stark contrast to the consequences of prayer. Often the supplicants bow with eyes closed, legs folded at the knees, and hands clasped in silence, unaware of circumstances that exist around them, defenseless in the presence of an adversary should one lurk close by, and yet they have strength and delight beyond measure. Through prayer one experiences deep fellowship with God that is indescribable in human terms (being more real, intimate, and fulfilling than any other human act because of its durative pleasures), providing comfort in pain and, often, release from sorrows. In short, prayer is far more than the eight Greek words for it in the New Testament; it is far more than asking things of God; it is the avenue of rich, profoundly deep fellowship with God, and it is a satisfying foundation of experiencing the presence of God.

Prayer is something of a conundrum nonetheless. How does God answer prayers that require him to act before anyone asks,

BSac 173:689 (January-March 2016) p. 81

setting into sequence a course of events that took place months and years prior? If God has perfect knowledge of all things, controls all things, determines all things, why was prayer so deeply integral in our Lord’s life that he taught it as crucial in the lives of his followers? How can it be that we do not have because we do not ask, since we do not receive simply because we ask? Our prayers never match the mercies that God extends to us daily, with or without our supplication or recognition.

An analogy relative to the incomprehensibility of prayer may be an ant walking across a great painting such as Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” (1503-1506), Rembrandt’s “Storm on the Sea of Galilee” (1633), or Monet’s “Water Lilies” (1...