Wednesday: Communing with the Father through His Son

Sermon: How to Pray

In this week’s lessons, we look at what prayer is and how to pray properly.

Theme: Communing with the Father through His Son

In one of his books Reuben A. Torrey, the great Bible teacher and evangelist, told of the difficulty he used to have in prayer and how this changed when he suddenly realized that prayer was essentially conversation with God. He wrote: 

The day came when I realized what real prayer meant, realized that prayer was having an audience with God, actually coming into the presence of God and asking and getting things from Him. And realization of that fact transformed my prayer life. Before that, prayer had been a mere duty, and sometimes a very irksome duty. But from that time on prayer has been not merely a duty but a privilege, and indeed one of the most highly esteemed privileges of life. Before that the thought I had was, “How much time must I spend in prayer?” The thought that now possesses me is, “How much time may I spend in prayer without neglecting the other privileges and duties of life?”¹

Now perhaps you have another question at this point. For if it is true that prayer is communing with God, the question naturally comes up about the means of access to Him. How can a sinful human being approach a God who is holy? Is it even possible? And if it is, what does it mean in terms of the way that we can approach him? 

The answer to this question brings us to the second great principle of prayer. True prayer is prayer offered to God the Father on the basis of the death of Jesus Christ, His Son. The author of the book of Hebrews puts it like this: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:19, 22). Jesus taught the same principle when He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). 

Well what does this mean? First, it means that if you were to approach God as you are, apart from Jesus Christ, God would have to turn from you. God is holy—the verse from Hebrews says "holiest." And if He is to be true to His Word and to His nature, He must turn from all that is unholy and imperfect. If it were not for Jesus Christ, God would have had to turn a deaf ear to every prayer offered by every human being. But God also tells you that anyone can be purified in His sight through faith in the death of Jesus Christ and that in this state you may come. In fact, you are even urged to come. The best person in this world is unable to come into the presence of God on the basis of any merit of his own. He cannot receive anything from God on the grounds of his own goodness. Yet, on the ground of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the worst sinner who ever walked on the face of this earth, who has turned from his sin and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, can come any day of the year, at any hour of the day or night, at any place, and with boldness can speak out of the longing of his heart and get from God what he asks. 

¹Reuben A. Torrey, The Power of Prayer (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1955), 75.

Study Questions:

1. What realization transformed Reuben A. Torrey’s prayer life?
2. What is the second principle of prayer, and what does Hebrews 10 teach us about it?

Reflection: What was Torrey’s prayer life like before his discovery of what prayer really is? Is your prayer life too often the way Torrey’s used to be? How can Torrey’s discovery of true prayer improve your own times of prayer?

Key Point: Yet, on the ground of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the worst sinner who ever walked on the face of this earth, who has turned from his sin and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, can come any day of the year, at any hour of the day or night, at any place, and with boldness can speak out of the longing of his heart and get from God what he asks. 

For Further Study: Download for free and listen to Donald Barnhouse’s message, “How to Pray.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)