Prayer According to Scripture

Prayer is the most practised and least examined activity in the life of faith. It is taught to children before they can read, repeated in public worship and private devotion alike, and invoked in circumstances from the trivial to the terminal. Yet the biblical text is rarely read for what it actually says about it.

This first volume of the According to Scripture series examines prayer from beginning to end of the canon. It does not ask what prayer should be by the standards of any particular tradition. It asks what the Scriptures state, what they imply, and what they leave unaddressed - and it holds those three categories apart throughout.

Beginning with Abraham's bargain over Sodom and Moses' appeal at the mountain, the study traces prayer through Solomon's temple dedication and the pattern Jesus taught His disciples. It follows the theme through Jacob's night struggle at the Jabbok, Hannah's silent vow at Shiloh, the Psalms as Israel's prayer book, the prophetic intercessions of Elijah, Hezekiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, and the practice of Jesus, the apostles, and the earliest church. It then turns to the difficulties.

Does prayer alter God's stated course? The text reports that the LORD changed His mind and states that He is not a man that He should change His mind. This volume sets both passages side by side and declines to harmonise them. Why are some prayers refused? Gethsemane records a petition made three times and not granted, with no reason given. Paul's thorn was refused with a reason. The difference is left where the text leaves it. What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus, and to pray in the Holy Spirit? The text states both and defines neither.

Where Scripture speaks clearly, this volume says so. Where it implies, the implication is labelled. Where it is silent, the silence is named rather than filled. The result is not a system but a survey - and a table of findings in the closing chapter lists each conclusion with the tier to which it belongs, so that the reader can see exactly where the textual ground ends and interpretation begins.

Written for the educated general reader with no theological training assumed, this study uses the New American Standard Bible, 1995 edition, as its primary text, with the ESV, KJV, NIV, and CSB for comparison. Every reference is cited at the point of the claim, and every quotation is reproduced directly.

If this study serves its purpose, it will not draw attention to itself. It will send the reader back to the text.

N. Z. Nathaniel writes Scripture-focused studies that examine biblical themes through direct analysis of the text. The "According to Scripture" series explores foundational topics of the Christian faith using cross-references from Genesis to Revelation.