![[prayer.page.1.jpeg|525]] * * * **Dallas Willard**\-  <https://youtu.be/haS7pTvCH2w> * The best way to learn how to pray is to pray, pray, pray. * Why does God tell us to ask Him again and again? It must not have anything to do with Him. It mist be us. Probably to help us get pliable so He can speak to us about it. * Perhaps at first we are panicked about it. Asking again and again slowly helps us see it for what it is so we are no longer afraid. * Perhaps we are unable to see something else about it. Constantly having something in view helps us to become less afraid of it or less worried about it. ![[prayer.page.2.png|535]]![[prayer.page.quote.png|391]] * Revelation 22:5- Your destiny is to reign with God forever and ever. “Most of us are meant to pray as we go, in the midst of our work… the main thing that we are called to do is to bathe our whole life in prayer.” “We’re invited to bring our life into the kingdom of God and live there in a conversational relationship… we simply some before the Lord and say what we want and keep that request there.” * * * **Leonard Ravenhill**\- “Prayer is not an argument with God to persuade Him to move things our way, but an exercise by which we are enabled by His Spirit to move ourselves His ways.” --- # Prayer: Lessons from Augustine, Aquinas, and R. C. Sproul > [!summary] The big idea > Three great teachers from three different eras, Augustine in the 5th century, Thomas Aquinas in the 13th, and R. C. Sproul in the 20th, agree on the heart of prayer: we don't pray to inform God or change His mind. We pray because God has chosen to work through our prayers, and because prayer shapes our hearts to desire Him and His will. --- # At a Glance | | Augustine | Thomas Aquinas | R. C. Sproul | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Lived** | AD 354-430 | AD 1225-1274 | AD 1939-2017 | | **Role** | Bishop of Hippo in North Africa | Dominican friar and theologian | Presbyterian pastor, theologian, founder of Ligonier Ministries | | **Key writing on prayer** | *Letter 130* (to Proba); *Confessions* | *Summa Theologiae*, Part II-II, Question 83 | *Does Prayer Change Things?*; *The Prayer of the Lord* | | **Big idea** | Prayer stretches our desire for God | Prayer is a means God uses to accomplish what He has planned | Prayer begins with adoration of a holy and sovereign God | --- # Augustine: Prayer as Holy Desire ### Who he was Augustine is one of the most influential theologians in church history. After years of searching and sin, he came to faith in Christ in his early thirties. His *Confessions* is itself written as one long prayer to God, opening with his famous words that our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. ### His teaching on prayer Augustine's clearest teaching on prayer is in a letter to a wealthy widow named Proba, who asked him how she should pray. **1. God doesn't need information.** Augustine asked the obvious question: why pray if God already knows what we need (Matthew 6:8)? His answer was that prayer isn't for God's benefit, but ours. Through prayer, God **exercises and enlarges our desire**, so that we become able to receive the great gifts He wants to give. A small vessel can't hold much. Prayer stretches the heart. **2. Pray for the happy life.** Proba asked what she should pray for. Augustine's answer was simple: pray for a happy, blessed life. Then he explained that true happiness is found only in God Himself (Psalm 27:4; 73:25-26). Every right prayer, in the end, is a prayer for God. **3. Unceasing prayer is unceasing desire.** How can we "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17)? Augustine taught that we pray continually by continually desiring God. Set times of spoken prayer keep that desire alive and stir it up when it grows cold. **4. The Lord's Prayer is the pattern.** Augustine taught that whatever we rightly pray for is already contained in the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). We can pray in our own words, but every good prayer should fit within the requests Jesus taught. --- ## Thomas Aquinas: Prayer and Providence ### Who he was Thomas Aquinas was a medieval Italian theologian whose *Summa Theologiae* is one of the most influential works of theology ever written. He's known for his careful, logical approach, asking a question, considering objections, and answering them one by one. ### His teaching on prayer Aquinas devotes an entire section of the *Summa* to prayer (Part II-II, Question 83), with seventeen separate questions about it. **1. Prayer is the mind rising to God.** Following earlier church fathers, Aquinas described prayer as the raising of the mind to God. In its narrower sense, prayer is a request, asking God for what we need. **2. Prayer doesn't change God's plan. It fulfills it.** This is Aquinas's best-known insight. He asked: if God's providence never changes, why pray? His answer was that God's plan includes **both the results and the means** that bring them about. God has determined that certain things will happen **through** prayer. So we don't pray to change God's will. We pray to receive what God has planned to give in answer to prayer (James 4:2). **3. It's right to ask for everyday needs.** Aquinas taught that we may ask God for temporal things, like health, provision, and protection, as long as we desire them in ways that help, rather than hinder, our relationship with God (Matthew 6:11; Philippians 4:6). **4. The Lord's Prayer is the most perfect prayer.** Aquinas taught that the Lord's Prayer contains everything we should desire, and in the right order: first God's glory and kingdom, then our needs, forgiveness, and protection. **5. Attention and humility matter.** God doesn't need long or impressive prayers. He looks for humility, faith, and a heart that is genuinely engaged (Luke 18:9-14). --- ## R. C. Sproul: Prayer Before a Holy God ### Who he was R. C. Sproul was an American Reformed theologian and pastor, and the founder of Ligonier Ministries. He's best known for *The Holiness of God* and for making deep theology understandable to everyday Christians. ### His teaching on prayer **1. Does prayer change things?** Sproul tackled the same question as Augustine and Aquinas, and agreed with them. Prayer does not change God's mind, because God is sovereign, all-knowing, and unchanging (Malachi 3:6). But prayer absolutely **does** change things, because God has ordained prayer as one of the means by which He accomplishes His will (James 5:16-18). And prayer changes **us**. **2. Begin with adoration.** Sproul often taught prayer using the acronym **ACTS**, emphasizing that prayer should begin by focusing on who God is, not on what we want: | Letter | Meaning | Example passages | | --- | --- | --- | | **A** | **Adoration:** praising God for who He is | Psalm 145; Isaiah 6:3 | | **C** | **Confession:** honestly acknowledging our sin | Psalm 51; 1 John 1:9 | | **T** | **Thanksgiving:** thanking God for what He has done | Psalm 100; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 | | **S** | **Supplication:** bringing our requests to God | Philippians 4:6; 1 Timothy 2:1 | **3. Know the God you pray to.** For Sproul, the biggest problem in prayer is a small view of God. When we understand God's holiness, majesty, and sovereignty, our prayers become more reverent, more honest, and more confident. **4. Learn from the Lord's Prayer.** In *The Prayer of the Lord*, Sproul walked through each phrase of the prayer Jesus taught, showing how it begins with God's name, kingdom, and will before turning to our needs. --- ## Where They Agree | Theme | What all three teach | | --- | --- | | **God's knowledge** | God already knows what we need. We don't pray to inform Him. | | **God's plan** | Prayer doesn't change God's will. It's a means God has chosen to accomplish it. | | **Our hearts** | Prayer shapes us, increasing our desire for God and His will. | | **The Lord's Prayer** | Jesus' prayer is the model for every prayer. | | **God first** | Prayer begins with God's glory and kingdom before our requests. | --- ## Where They Differ - **Praying to the saints.** Aquinas, as a medieval Catholic theologian, taught that believers can ask saints in heaven to intercede for them, while praying to God alone as the giver of every gift. Sproul, along with Protestants generally, taught that we pray directly to God through Christ, our one mediator (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 4:14-16). Augustine lived before this question was formally debated, and both Catholics and Protestants claim him as their own. - **Emphasis.** Augustine focuses on **desire and the heart**, Aquinas on **reason and providence**, and Sproul on **God's holiness and sovereignty**. Together, they give a full picture of prayer that engages the whole person. --- ## What We Can Learn 1. **Pray to desire God more.** Ask Him to enlarge your heart (Augustine). 2. **Pray with confidence that God uses your prayers.** Your prayers are part of His plan (Aquinas). 3. **Pray with a big view of God.** Begin with adoration before moving to requests (Sproul). 4. **Pray the Lord's Prayer.** All three teachers point back to the prayer Jesus taught. > [!quote] Matthew 6:9-10 (ESV) > Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." ## For Further Reading - Augustine, *Letter 130* (to Proba) and *Confessions* - Thomas Aquinas, *Summa Theologiae*, II-II, Question 83 - R. C. Sproul, *Does Prayer Change Things?* - R. C. Sproul, *The Prayer of the Lord* - Timothy Keller, *Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God* (which draws on Augustine and others)