Prayer is mysterious. No way around it. No matter how much we read about it in scripture, read books or hear presentations about it, or practice the various forms developed through the ages by prayer sages, none of us really understands it. Not really. It doesn’t work like a Coke machine. Sometimes if feels like a slot machine, but we know that is not right either. It is a personal interaction with the Creator of the universe who is constantly monitoring over 7 billion humans on just this one planet, and who knows how many spiritual beings or other creatures on other planets in this vast universe flung over countless light years. We cannot understand it or master it. 

This is not like talking to other people. It is communicating in the spiritual realm from spirit to Spirit, but it is something we can’t do without using our bodies. It is talking, but it transcends words or even groans. It involves listening but not hearing. It involves vision but not seeing. When we’ve done it, we aren’t sure what has happened, if anything. And when something we’ve asked for takes place, we can never know for sure what role our request played, if any. 

For those of us who are of a rationalist orientation, that is frustrating. Perhaps that is why churches from heavily rational traditions would rather preach than pray. I think we need to acknowledge that prayer can be frustrating. It can be boring. But so can anything else if done regularly, including riding roller coasters. Still, it is also powerful and faith-developing, especially when we see what we prayed for happen in dramatic fashion.  

For those of us who work in the world of missions and ministry (a distinction with little meaningful difference), we need to understand that prayer is not something we do in preparation to our work. Prayer is our work. Prayer is not something we do to support mission work. Prayer is mission work. Prayer is not just a prelude to setting strategy. Prayer is our strategy or should be. Prayer immerses us in God and joins our spirit to his Spirit as we join his work in the world. Once we grasp this, living out mission without immersion in prayer will become obviously ludicrous. 

Toward this end, I think it is helpful to think about three ways God is with us in prayer. We might call this the prayer trinity as we commune with the Trinity. This concept is not original to me, but it has been so long ago that I first heard and began to approach prayer this way that I’ve long ago lost the source. That person was likely not the original source either. 

Praying to the Father before us

As we enter prayer, we need to picture the one before us. When we kneel or bow in prayer it is because we are addressing the Almighty who would terrify us beyond speech if we had not come to know Him as Father in Jesus. We come onto holy ground, with or without shoes, and make ourselves vulnerable to a consuming fire as we bring our needs, hopes, sins, fear, requests, and bodies to the one who made us. God the Father is before us. He is the source of our life and power. We come asking. There is no shame in this. Most of the Lord’s prayer is composed of requests. But it is more than a shopping list. It is seeking his blessing, his assurance, his empowerment, and his wisdom. We come needy to the one who has everything. We come foolish and uncertain to the one with all wisdom. We bow before the Father who is good but not safe. God is before us. We speak to him and connect with him as unworthy servants. 

Praying with the Son beside us

How could we dare to speak to this awesome Almighty on our own if we have any understanding what we are doing? It is because we never do this alone, even when we are in a room by ourselves. As we bow, someone else is beside us. God the Son, our older brother, who calls us his friends who know his business, bows beside us. His knees touch the same floor as ours. His head drops alongside ours in reverence before the Father to whom he submits and gives all glory with us. He did not enter our humanity and bear our scars only for a few decades but retains his humanity to be God with us forever. Because he has brought us to his Father, we pray as children of God also. Ushered in by the original only begotten, we are the also begotten. We are not the only one who speaks. He is interceding with us, for us, and at times, instead of us, when all we can do is sigh or cry. We speak to him and connect with him as his children. 

Praying from the Spirit within us  

We don’t know what to say as we pray. We are like children who want their father’s attention so badly we stammer irrelevancies. What do you say to the Almighty, even with the Son beside you? It ultimately doesn’t matter what the words are, because it is God’s Spirit in us who helps us. As we sit in stillness, there is no rush to speak. Perhaps we have something urgent to say. That is fine. He will hear it. Perhaps we come because it is time, but we have no words. That is fine. He enjoys just sitting with us. Perhaps we say the wrong thing. Perhaps what we ask comes from ignorance or even a bad heart. That is ok, God the Spirit interprets it from a deeper place in a purifying way. When we have said all we have to say, the real praying can begin. He is in us, waiting on us to be still enough that He can draw our hearts and minds to Him and His concerns. Now He can draw our minds to those we need to serve. Now he can show us a picture of what He is calling us to do. When we’ve said what we came to say, He wants us to stay awhile and let Him bring before our holy imaginations what He has in mind. We speak to Him and connect with Him as purified holy vessels who contain His Spirit. Prayer is, or should be, about listening before, during, and after we speak. 

The God in us prompts us about what to say to the God before us, as the God beside us puts it in the right words and adds His endorsement signed in His blood. Now add to this holy trinity of prayer, your missionaries or your mission. You lay them all before the Father, with the Son, from the Spirit. Recall their faces, their families, co-workers, and the people they serve. You don’t really know how to pray for them. That is okay. It is more important to bring them before the Father than to instruct the Father about what he should do for or with them.  

There is more going on here than we know. Prayer is a mystery and only as a mystery can it be the powerful ground of our lives and guide of our service. It is not that important that we understand it. It is important that we do it. This is mission work.