We live in an age where prayer is thought of as an action that is performed rather than the life of the soul in pouring itself out to God as a result of the work of the Spirit in the soul. There is no merit to be obtained by performing the ritual of prayer and uttering sounds in the air, but instead we must learn again in our time that prayer is the act of a child of God in seeking God Himself. Prayer may seek God on the behalf of other people, but it must always be done while seeking God and His glory above all. Without love for God primarily there is no true prayer at all. In contrast to many methods and ways of modern instruction on prayer, here are the words of Arthur W. Pink on the prayers of Paul.
Finally, let me point out a striking omission. If all the apostolic prayers be read attentively, it will be found that in none of them is any place given to that which occupies such prominence in the prayers of Arminians. Not once do we find God asked to save the world in general or to pour out His Spirit on all flesh without exception. The apostles did not so much as pray for the conversion of an entire city in which a particular Christian church was located. In this they conformed again to the example set for them by Christ: “I pray not for the world,” said He, “but for them which thou hast given me” (John 17:9). Should it be objected that the Lord Jesus was there praying only for His immediate apostles or disciples, the answer is that when He extended His prayer beyond them it was not for the world that He prayed, but only for His believing people until the end of time (see John 17:20, 21). It is true that Paul teaches “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all [classes of] men; for kings, and for all that are in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1, 2a, brackets mine) -in which duty many are woefully remiss-yet it is not for their salvation, but “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (v. 2b, ital. mine). There is much to be learned from the prayers of the apostles.
Now the words of Pink in the above quote may shock us and sound hard or even non-Christian. What we must ask ourselves, however, is whether he is right about what he says about the apostolic prayers and the prayers of Christ. We must always remember that in prayer as well as all of life the Great Commandment is to be our guide. Well, someone might retort, but we are also commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. But that is not an argument against Pink’s position at all. The greatest thing we can do for anyone is to love God and to pray for His glory. In fact, we need to hear I John 5:2: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.” We cannot even love the children of God apart from loving God. In our day we think that we love God when we do nice things for human beings but Scripture tells us that we love human beings when we love God. While the two should not be separated, this should at least tell us of the proper order our hearts should have in prayer.
The judgment of God is upon the professing Church and He has turned His face from it. We can do all of the nice and helpful things we can do but until we are seeking the Lord Himself He will not turn His face toward us. The only hope that the professing Church has to find God is to seek God. The only hope the professing Church has is to turn from all of its self-seeking ways and pray that God would give it a heart to seek Himself. The only hope that the professing Church has in pleasing God is if it repents of trying to please God in its own power and seeks the power of God to dwell in it.
There are several things in this provocative statement by Pink that we could look at, but we will look at just a few. The first thought that comes to mind is the difference between the prayers of Christ and His apostles and of the prayers of the professing Church today. As noted previously, we spend a lot of time praying about the physical problems that people have while the apostles prayed for the glory of God in the spiritual strength and growth of souls. We spend a lot of time praying for the salvation of particular sinners and also of larger groups while the apostles prayed for believers. I can imagine that some will think that this sounds like hyper-Calvinism or some sort of fatalism. However, what we must strive for is the biblical teaching on the subject. I would challenge anyone to take the time to read the New Testament and take note of all the prayers listed in it. On one side of a sheet of paper they would list all of the prayers for the salvation of the world and on the other side of the paper list all of the prayers for believers and for believers to know God. This would settle the issue beyond doubt.
The issue at hand is that the modern professing Church is so man-centered that it cannot see anything beyond what it can see and count. This means that it prays for what it can see and count. It believes that its primary task is in evangelism and so all that it does is focused on that. The primary task of the Church is the glory of God. Jesus Himself said that the world would know that we are His disciples when we have love one for another (John 13:35). In the book of Acts it was the Holy Spirit being poured out that drew men to hear the Gospel and then to send them out into the world. It is the Church alone that can be revived (bring life again) since it alone had true life before. It is only when the Church is revived that people then flood to the Church. It is only when the Church is filled with the living God that people will come to the buildings of the Church to seek God rather than entertainment.
It is only when the Church is seeking the living God that the Church has anything to say to the world. The greatest act of good that the Church can do for the world is for the world to see the Church seeking God first. It will do the world no good if it sees the Church seeking the world more than it seeks God. The world will not see God until the Church has been filled with God Himself. As long as the professing Church seeks the world and ignores God as its truest and greatest love the world will mock the professing Church because it does not see God in Her. The truth of the matter is that the world is right about the professing Church. God is not in the professing Church because She is under His judgment and He has turned His face from Her. The professing Church knows that something is wrong but it is trying to cure the problem by working to please God and doing things for Him. The world just sees the people in the professing Church as fools. We are fools if we seek the world and physical things rather than seeking the living God. What do we really seek in our hearts when we pray?
While it may seem counter-intuitive, the professing Church is in deadly error in praying for the world and not for the glory of God and the spiritual growth of God’s people. When it prays in this way it simply shows that it does not understand what Scripture teaches on prayer nor does it understand how sinners come to God. Let me ask again where we see in Scripture the type of praying like we see in the average “prayer meeting” at the local church? We simply don’t see it at all. In Scripture we see that God is sought. After all, to understand the Gospel is to understand that it is God who must draw sinners to Himself. Praying for the glory of God and praying for the saints of God to mature and to be instruments of His glory is the biblical and the best way to pray in terms of the local church and in terms of sinners truly coming to Christ. The most biblical way that a local church will reach the lost with the Gospel is seeking and praying for the glory of God to be manifested in the spiritual growth of His people. A local church is the body of Christ and it is through a local church that Christ Himself is manifested when it is being the body of Christ. People don’t come to Christ by hearing the facts alone, but by seeing Him manifested.
Let us look at a business model by analogy. Let us say that a restaurant named XYX was successful and so the owner starts a second restaurant. Before long he starts a third and then a fourth and so on. What is it that could be a cause of the restaurants he has already started failing? It would be if the business began to be more concerned with growing than it was with the quality of the food and the quality of its employees. The professing Church has become so focused on growing that it is neglecting the Church itself. We have become so focused on the world that we have neglected the body of Christ. It is the body of Christ that must be strong for it to truly reach the world in truth and love.
The local churches must learn about true prayer. True prayer is to spend time seeking God Himself and His glory through the strengthening of His people. The apostles were said to have turned the world upside down and yet the biblical record has them praying for believers and the local churches in virtually every case. Paul asked for prayer concerning his preaching and that is one of the best ways for concerned people to pray for the lost. We must begin to pray for preachers and the preaching of the Word of God. We must begin to pray for the preaching of the Word of God because we desire God Himself to be exalted in the preaching.
Again we must notice that prayer is the desire of the heart and the love of the heart. We cannot just decide to start praying in this way and start uttering words that are much like the words of the apostles and think that is prayer. What we must do is to see that this is the way we should pray and then begin to humble ourselves and seek the Lord for hearts that desire Him enough to pray in this way. If we do not desire these things out of love for God and for the body of Christ, then we will not truly pray them. We must have hearts that are broken from self and the ways of the modern professing Church or we won’t have a prayer at all (literally and figuratively).
God Loves... Himself 
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