Prayer

Have you ever struggled with understanding how to pray to God for things like health, safety, and success? I think we tend to think about prayer in two categories. "Spiritual" prayers for things like "faith, hope, and love," or other fruits of the spirit, and praying for the spiritual growth or salvation of others makes up the first group. Now the other category is the one in the question I posed at the outset of this post: "this-life" prayers. So in this two category model, we pray some for this life, but we try to remember to balance the scale with spiritual prayers as well.

It has always struck me that King David never seemed to pray this way. In the Psalms the "spiritual" and "this-life" prayers are beautifully woven into one. Listen to Psalm 143.9-10: "Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! I have fled to you for refuge! Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!" David's desire to be saved from his enemies and his desire to do God's will are each legitimate strands of one Godward soul-fabric. How is it that David avoids the prayer-scale dichotomization? David's request in the very next verse (143.11) is I think the key for understanding his unified prayer-life. He cries out, "For your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!" David prays that God would preserve his life from the threat of enemies, but he prays this prayer, he asks for safety, for something else. Do you see what it is? David's prayer, his request for health and success has a higher goal and purpose than the mere avoidance of death. Rather, David's prayer for his life is motivated by his supreme love and desire for the Name of the Lord. I think David's prayer for his life is "justified" and unified in this - its ultimate aim is the glory of God.

So rather than a higher ratio of spiritual to earthly, what our prayers need is an ultimate aim. Whether "spiritual" or "this-worldly," our prayers need to be infused with this ultimate desire: that God's glory, that is the glory of Christ and his gospel, would be made known through the lives God has so graciously preserved for us today.