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“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!”

I remember reading that line aloud to my boys and pausing to file it away in my mind. We were working through the first Harry Potter book. Following a moving rendition of the Hogwarts’ school song, headmaster Albus Dumbledore delivered the pregnant segue. In a story involving magic, and these being the words of the headmaster — and of a school of magic at that! — I wondered if this would prove to be no throwaway line.

From there on, such striking, carefully crafted statements had me thinking again and again, I look forward to re-reading this someday. I was perceiving more layers than I could enjoy fully on the first read. The author clearly intended not only to capture first-time readers, but to delight second- and third-time readers as well, and perhaps even more.

The best of books, you know, do this. Narnia does it. So does Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. And chief above them all, and far beyond them all, is the original source from which Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling took their best cues, however consciously: the Christian Scriptures.

Read, Repeat, and Savor

God himself is the master author of second, third, and twentieth reads. And here in Lent, anticipating another Easter, we remember that resurrection is one of the Bible’s most important read-and-repeat themes. While we taste the ever-increasing delights of finding resurrection across the canon throughout the year, some of us stop to see and savor more each spring. We might prepare our hearts for the glories of Easter through the long 46-day journey of Lent, or the more-pointed focus of “Holy Week.”

For centuries, Christians have found value in imaginatively entering into the waiting, as we do with Advent. Yet as Christians, we do not grieve on Good Friday as those who have no hope, or enter Lent as those who do not yet know, for certain, that the resurrection is coming. So Lent, Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, and Holy Saturday serve as opportunities, like re-reading other great stories, to find ourselves caught up in the drama again — to appreciate Jesus’s story, and Jesus himself, in new and deeper ways.

Five Risen Aftermaths

In an effort to prepare our hearts ahead of Easter for the riches of glory in Christ’s resurrection, we dare not limit our celebration of the resurrection to one day each year. Jesus is risen, and alive right now — and every day you’ve ever lived. And so as we observe this anticipatory season (to whatever degree), we do so as those who know, and proclaim, and enjoy that he is risen indeed.

Ponder with me, then, five critical aftermaths of Christ’s resurrection that tend to get short shrift when we move to and through Easter too quickly. Christ’s resurrection is not the end of the story, but his rising from the dead means he is alive to be and apply other precious realities as our living Lord.

1. Alive to Rise

Christ’s new life from the dead began his rising, but was not the end of his rising. Forty days later, on what some mark as “Ascension Day,” he rose yet again, this time ascending from earth to heaven and to heaven’s throne.

“Christ’s new life from the dead began his rising, but was not the end of his rising.”

Luke-Acts and Hebrews are especially conscious of Jesus’s post-resurrection rising. Luke’s Gospel ends with Jesus being “carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:51). Acts, then, begins with “the day when he was taken up” (Acts 1:2) — that is, “he was lifted up” (Acts 1:9). In other words, he rose (from the dead) to rise yet further (to heaven). And his ascension, then, like his resurrection, is not the end of the line but leads to further glories still.

2. Alive to Reign

Hebrews 1 gives us a glimpse from the other side of the ascension, as it were — from heaven’s vantage, when God brought his risen Son into the world above (“when he brings the firstborn into the [heavenly] world,” Hebrews 1:6; 2:5) to take his seat and be coronated on the throne. In fact, Hebrews 1, in all its vaulted and gloriously verbose celebration of Christ, does not make explicit mention of his resurrection, but assumes it as critical to Jesus being alive that he might be exalted and coronated as King.

What did he rise for? For one, to reign. He is, at present, sovereign over the nations and the universe, and he will be, soon to come, from that same seat, the judge of the nations and all of history. As he announced to his disciples before ascending, by virtue of his finished work, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Right now, as you read — and whether you mark Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, or not — the risen Christ reigns.

3. Alive to Rescue

If Jesus’s human body had stayed dead — and if he did not ascend and does not reign on heaven’s throne — then, as Paul writes, “your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). But, in fact, “Christ has been raised” (1 Corinthians 15:20), and the reality of Easter teems with a threefold rescue: the saving of our souls, the satisfying of our souls, and the eventual saving of our bodies.

As for the rescuing of our souls, not only did our sins require a reckoning, but we also needed to have access to Christ’s cross-work, to have it applied to us, through the power of his own Spirit, which he pours out for us from heaven’s throne. Potential salvation does not save. We need actual rescue, which comes through the instrument called faith which unites us to our risen, living Lord.

However sufficient Christ’s self-sacrifice might have been to cover our sins, we would have no access to his rescue if he were not alive so we could be united to him. But he is alive. As he says, “I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:17–18). There is no great salvation for us if we are not united by faith to the living one, so that the benefits of his work are applied to us.

4. Alive to Rejoice the Heart

Jesus not only saves our souls but also satisfies our souls through his post-resurrection life. He is alive to know and enjoy. There is no final good news if our Treasure and Pearl of Great Price is dead. Even if our sins could be paid for, righteousness provided and applied to us, and heaven secured, but Jesus were still dead, there would be no great salvation in the end — not if our Savior and Bridegroom is dead. At the very center of the Easter triumph is not what he saves us from, but what he saves us to — better, who he saves us to. Himself.

“There is no final good news if our Treasure and Pearl of Great Price is dead.”

Our restless souls will not find eternal, and ever-increasing, rest and joy in a Christ-less new earth, no matter how stunning. Streets of gold, reunions with loved ones, and sinless living may seem to thrill us at first — but they will not ultimately satisfy, not for eternity, not on their own. Not then, and not now. We were made for Jesus. He is at the center of true life, and he will be forever. If there is no living Christ, there is no final satisfying eternity. But he is alive indeed — to know and enjoy, now and forever.

5. Alive to Raise Us Too

Our own resurrection may not be in the foreground of Easter, but it is there. Christ’s resurrection has everything to do with ours, and vice versa (1 Corinthians 15:12–20).

When Christians celebrate “the God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9), we mean not only that he raised Jesus, but that he will raise our bodies too. And even now, through faith, we realize the resurrection we ourselves already have experienced, and enjoy right now. Already now, when God “made us alive together with Christ . . . [he] raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). If you have been born again, you already have the imperishable life of Christ in you (1 Peter 1:3–4).

And the new life we have now by the Spirit is a guarantee of the full and final resurrection of our bodies to come. “He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (1 Corinthians 6:14; 15:43–44). Coming soon, “the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

Ever-deepening delights await those who re-read with care, already knowing the outcome. However long you’ve known him, you have much more yet to know of this story, its effects, and of the risen one himself. Easter is one month from today. What if you took the next thirty days for a focused season to glory in his life, death, and resurrection?

ABSTRACT: Thoughtful Christians familiar with the claims of modern science recognize apparent disagreements between the Bible and scientific claims. Many of the biggest tensions, however, arise not from the findings of science but from the philosophical assumptions of non-Christian scientists. For the tensions that remain, Scripture offers principles for wisely navigating them in ways that honor God’s revelation. In the end, because God is consistent with himself, all apparent disagreements are just that: apparent. And until we find their resolution, God has told us all we need to know in order to trust him.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors, leaders, and teachers, we asked Vern Poythress, distinguished professor of New Testament, biblical interpretation, and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, to offer principles for navigating apparent disagreements between Scripture and science.

Apparent disagreements between the Bible and scientific claims trouble some people, and understandably so. Three areas of apparent tension quickly come to mind.

What about evolution?
What about the days of creation?
What about miracles?

How do we tackle these questions?

Question of Miracles

The third area of tension, about miracles, can serve as a useful place to start. Did God speak in an audible voice from the top of Mount Sinai, as described in Exodus 19–20? Did Jesus multiply the loaves and the fish to feed five thousand men (Matthew 14:13–21)? Did Jesus cast out an unclean spirit from a man in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mark 1:21–28)? Do evil spirits even exist? Did Jesus raise Jairus’s daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:18–26; Mark 5:21–43)? Did Jesus himself rise from the dead (Matthew 16:21; 28:1–10)?

Quite a few people in our day would say that “science has shown us” that miracles are impossible. It is true that some scientists would claim that miracles are impossible. But other scientists, especially scientists who are Christians, would say that miracles are possible and that the miracles described in the Bible actually happened.

The difference in viewpoint here is not due to the results of scientific investigation. It is due to differences in people’s view of God and the world — to differences in worldview, we might say. If you believe in a personal God who can do whatever he wishes, you also believe that he can work in an exceptional way any time he wants. In other words, he can work a miracle. On the other hand, if you do not believe in God at all, you probably expect that there are no exceptions. You think that the laws of the universe are just mechanical and impersonal.

So the deepest question is about the nature of the world. Are the roots of the world ultimately personal or impersonal? God is personal. He made the world with personal purposes. And every day he continues to govern the world with personal purposes, even down to every detail (Psalm 104:14; Proverbs 16:33; Matthew 10:29–30).

Regularities (‘Law’)

The regular processes that scientists study are processes controlled by God. The regularities exist only because God exists. “He makes his sun rise” (Matthew 5:45; see Genesis 8:22). He causes “the grass to grow for the livestock” (Psalm 104:14). Science is possible only because there are regularities. And the regularities are there because God is consistent with himself. He has a plan, and he is faithful day by day in carrying it out.

But because God is personal, there may also be exceptional cases, which are due to his personal purposes. For example, the resurrection of Christ is highly exceptional. People in the first century did not have the findings of modern science that we have, but they knew just as clearly as we do that people do not rise from the dead. In other words, they knew right away that the resurrection of Jesus was an exception to normal experience.

So how is such an event possible? If God is God, he can make exceptions. No one can say to him, “Oh, by the way, you are not allowed to do that!” And in the case of the resurrection of Christ, we can see some reasons why God did it. It was not an irrational, meaningless exception. No. Through the resurrection of Christ, God not only brought the body of Christ to resurrection life, but accomplished deliverance from death and damnation for all who belong to Christ (Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:45–49). The whole of it makes sense, provided that you believe in God.

Let us consider God’s rule over the world in greater detail. God governs the world by speaking. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). It is God who spoke and specified that plants reproduce “according to their kinds” (Genesis 1:11–12). It is God who rules the weather by speaking: “He sends out his word, and melts [the snow and ice]” (Psalm 147:18). When scientists seek to discover scientific laws, they are actually looking for the word of God that governs the processes they are studying. If they think they understand a specific regularity, they may call it a “law”: Newton’s laws of motion, Newton’s law of gravitation, Kirchhoff’s laws for electric circuits. These laws are human summaries of the actual law — namely, God’s word, his speech, which governs motion and gravity and electric circuits and everything else.

“Scientific investigation depends on God, day by day.”

It should be clear, then, that scientific investigation depends on God, day by day. It could never show the impossibility of miracles. Scientists discover what some of the regularities are. But they cannot tell God that he cannot act exceptionally.

Science Then and Now

The history of the rise of modern science confirms this principle. Many of the early scientists, like Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton, were Christian believers themselves, or were heavily influenced by a Christian worldview. It was the Christian worldview that gave them the incentive to study the world and look for regularities. Because they believed in one God, who was the source of all rationality, they knew that the world itself was governed rationally. There was hope for understanding it. This hopeful situation contrasts with what happens in polytheistic religions. If there are many gods and if they fight with each other, the world itself is semi-chaotic. It may seem to be hopeless to find in it a consistent order.

The early scientists also knew that man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27). So there was hope that the human mind could be fundamentally in tune with the mind of God. Even though our minds are limited, there was hope that, with God’s help, we could begin to understand some of his ways in governing the world.

By contrast, in our day many people understand science as a discipline radically at odds with God. Scientific laws are thought to be an impersonal mechanism. It is this assumption about an impersonal origin, rather than the details of scientific experiments, that is the source of religious skepticism. In other words, when some people do work in science, they bring in an assumption about an impersonal origin, before they ever start. They bring that assumption into whatever science they study. Even Christians who engage in science may unconsciously absorb the assumption. It is inevitable, if they follow that assumption consistently, that they will not allow exceptions. They will deny the possibility of miracles.

This assumption of impersonalism helps to explain why there is so much conflict about evolution and the days of creation. The standard mainstream approach to evolution says that new plants and animals originate only by very gradual, unguided processes that go back to the first cell, and even before that (so-called “chemical evolution”). The framework of assumptions includes the assumption that God did not in a sudden way miraculously create any new species or any family of living things. People also hold this assumption when they come to the subject of the origin of humanity. Before ever looking at genetic information or fossil bones from apes, the mainstream scientist assumes, as a given, that humanity must have originated by gradual processes from earlier kinds of creatures. And the most likely predecessors are apes. (Even before the rise of Darwin’s theory, biologists who classified animals into larger groups saw that on anatomical grounds the natural larger group for human beings was the primates.)

Origin of the Universe

Similar influences from assumptions confront us when we look at scientific theories for the origin of the universe. The usual mainstream approach assumes from the beginning that there are no miracles, no discontinuities in the normal operation of physical causes. The reconstruction of the past history of the universe assumes that the past history operates in line with the same system of physical regularities that scientists can test today in the laboratory. It is an assumption. No one proves it. Indeed, no one can prove it, because we cannot literally transport ourselves into the past with a time machine. For all we know, God may have governed the universe differently in the past. God is a personal God, not a set of mechanical rules.

The key role of assumption becomes vividly evident if we consider briefly one of the theories that Christians have suggested, to show the possibility of harmony between the Bible and the current state of the universe. There are a number of such theories, and several of them have some merit. This particular theory, called the theory of “mature creation,” observes that God created Adam and Eve as mature (Genesis 2:7, 21–22). Neither of them was a helpless baby when God first created them. But if God created them mature, is it not possible that he created the entire universe mature? And could it not have been coherently mature, so that it coherently looked billions of years old? Let us suppose that Adam looked about 24 years old. So the universe could have looked 14 billion years old, at the end of the period of six days during which God created it and brought it to maturity.

Not everyone is fond of this theory. To some, it may feel like a trick. But it illustrates the fact that scientists do not actually know for sure how old the universe is. They cannot say to God, “You can’t do it that way.” God is God.

Difficulties with Mindless Evolution

Ironically, severe difficulties for scientific explanation arise not in a Christian approach, but in an atheistic approach. How? Most forms of modern atheism say that human beings arose by mindless evolution from random motions of atoms and molecules. According to these conceptions, we are a cosmic accident. Our origin is thoroughly impersonal. There is no personal plan from God. There is no special reason for expecting that human beings with their distinctly personal qualities would arise from the evolutionary goo. In the end, we are just blobs of goo. We just happen to have some peculiar and unaccountable abilities to be conscious and to think about truth.

“The theory of evolution fails to provide a basis for believing that it is true.”

But then can we trust our own minds? All that an atheistic theory of evolution requires is that we would be fit to survive. It cannot guarantee that our consciousness makes any difference (because survival is all about the proper firing of neurons, not consciousness). So there is no reason to believe that our minds are in contact with the truth. And if that is so, there is no reason to believe that the theory of evolution, which is a product of our minds, is in contact with the truth. The theory of evolution fails to provide a basis for believing that it is true.1

Guiding Principles for Dealing with Difficulties

Now, let us begin to list some of the guiding principles that can help us deal with apparent discrepancies between the Bible and science. In such a short space, of course, these principles are not a comprehensive treatment of such a large topic. For readers interested in learning more about the relationship between Scripture, science, and how God works in the world, I would recommend Reijer Hooykaas’s Religion and the Rise of Modern Science, John Piper’s Providence, and my own books Redeeming Science and Interpreting Eden.2

Principle 1

Our basic assumption: God rules the world.

We need as our basic assumption the truth that God created the world and that he rules it. God is our personal God, not a set of mechanical rules. God can act in exceptional ways (“miracles”) if he chooses. This assumption sets the stage for all the detailed study of the Bible and of the world.

Principle 2

God is consistent.

“There is no actual discrepancy between the Bible and the facts about the world.”

God is consistent with himself. Since he is consistent with himself, what he says in the Bible and what he does in ruling the world are consistent. There is no actual discrepancy between the Bible and the facts about the world. The discrepancies that come up are apparent. Because we are finite and God is infinite, we do not know everything. We cannot guarantee that, within one lifetime or many lifetimes on earth, we will be able to solve completely to our own satisfaction all the apparent discrepancies. There is hope that we might solve at least some of them, if not many of them, because the discrepancies are only apparent. But we cannot guarantee beforehand when a solution will arise.

We must be patient and trust God. He knows what he is doing, even when we do not. These are fundamental aspects of Christian living. Everyone in his individual life confronts events that seem inexplicable and frustrating and painful. The events may seem to be incompatible with God’s goodness and with what we expect him to do. (Think of Job.) The same kind of dissonance that happens in our personal life can also happen when we try to compare the claims in the Bible with the claims made by modern scientists.

Principle 3

The Bible is the word of God.

The Bible is what God says. God has put his word in writing, through human authors whom he raised up and directed. So what the Bible says is fully trustworthy. What the Bible says is true.

Whole books are devoted to showing that the Bible is the word of God.3 We cannot repeat all the arguments here. Let us mention only a few verses, in order to remember that the Bible makes this claim for itself. The most famous verse for showing that the Bible is the word of God is 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” Similarly, 2 Peter 1:21 says, “No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Jesus affirms the divine authority of the Old Testament in a number of places (Matthew 5:17–20; 19:4; John 10:35). These verses are the tip of the iceberg.

Principle 4

God gave human beings dominion, so scientific investigation is legitimate.

As we saw earlier, the people responsible for the early steps in the growth of modern science operated with assumptions in tune with a biblical worldview. The truths about God and about their being made in the image of God actually encouraged their scientific explorations. The same should be true today. Scientists work more robustly if they can come back to serving a personal God, rather than imagining that laws are impersonal mechanisms.

Principle 5

Scientists’ formulations are not the word of God, but human reflections concerning evidence in the world.

Scientific formulations are not parallel to the Bible. The Bible is infallible, because it is the word of God. It is composed of words and sentences that God crafted (through human authors) in order to express the truth and communicate it to us. We can trust what it says.

By contrast, all the work of modern scientists is human work. God gives them gifts. God gives them insights. God gives them energy for their labors. But it is all fallible. Scientists may say many true things, but because they are fallible, we cannot merely assume that what they say is true. It has to be tested. And of course, when sciences are operating in a healthy way, the first line of testing is through other scientists. Experiments may be repeated, under varying conditions. Alternative hypotheses may be tried out.

Sometimes a particular scientific theory settles in. Scientists have growing confidence in a single theory, which the majority see as the right explanation, fruitful in further research. Newton’s theory of gravity became one such theory. It seemed to many scientists that it was a kind of final answer about the working of gravity. Knowledgeable people felt that it was destined never to be superseded. But it turned out, even then, that it was not the final theory. It was eventually superseded by Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity and theory of general relativity.

Normally we have confidence in established theories, because they have borne the test of time. But even here, we should remind ourselves of several cautions.

Even well-established theories are fallible in principle.
Even well-established theories may have exceptions, because God is a personal God who can work miracles.
Even well-established theories, such as Newton’s theory of gravity, can be superseded in surprising ways by a later theory.
Even well-established theories can have deep difficulties and call for suspicion, if they rely on hidden assumptions that are false. For Darwinism, one such assumption is that biological development is unguided (purposeless).
Theories about the past require assumptions about the continuities of lawful regularities in the past. They are intrinsically on a less firm basis than theories that can be tested in the present (such as Newton’s theory of gravity, or Kirchhoff’s laws for electrical circuits).

We must therefore distinguish two kinds of scientific investigation. Historical science tries to reconstruct the past. It includes theories about the origins of kinds of plants and animals; theories about the origins of the geologic strata; theories about the origin of the moon, the planets, the comets, and the asteroids; and theories about the origins of galaxies. Nomothetic science studies the regularities of processes that are currently taking place. Nomothetic science is more firmly established, because it rests on repeatable experiments. Historical science has to deal with one-of-a-kind events in the past. Some of these events may have been miraculous. Nomothetic science avoids the difficulties of the miraculous by relying on repetition. A single anomalous event would eventually be excluded from a formulation that describes regularities.

Principle 6

Though the Bible is infallible, all later human interpretations of the Bible are fallible.

We must distinguish what the Bible says from what we or other human interpreters think it says or implies. The basic teachings of the Bible concerning salvation are clear. But not all the details of its affirmations are equally clear. The Westminster Confession of Faith gives a balanced summary concerning the clarity of the Bible:

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. (1.7)

Because not everything is equally clear, and because even the parts that are clear can be twisted in people’s minds because of sin, all merely human interpretations are fallible.

Principle 7

Apparent discrepancies between the Bible and science are discrepancies between fallible human interpretations of the Bible and fallible scientific pronouncements, based on fallible interpretations of evidence from the world.

The source of discrepancies lies in human fallibility, which extends both to interpretations of the Bible and to everything in modern sciences. There is no discrepancy in God himself. There is no discrepancy between what the Bible actually affirms and what is true concerning the world.

Principle 8

An apparent discrepancy needs further investigation.

When we find an apparent discrepancy, we do not immediately know whether it is due to a mistake in biblical interpretation, a mistake in scientific reasoning, or both. We should continue to trust that God is true, and wait patiently while we try to find the sources of mistakes.

Principle 9

The Bible has a practical priority, because of its design by God.

God designed the Bible to function as our guide in life (Psalm 19:7–11; 119:105). It is wisely tailored to our need for guidance and the need for a comprehensive remedy for sin. Moreover, it is completely true. It is a verbal expression, unlike the nonverbal evidence found in the created world. We should trust what it says. But we should also beware of trying to force it to provide answers about technical scientific details, which lie beyond what it actually says.

Principle 10

When there is an apparent discrepancy, we should see whether there are competing explanations from scientists or from Bible interpreters.

Scientific opinion is often divided. There is often one or even several minority opinions, as well as a majority opinion. Majority opinion tends to get amplified by social pressure and in the popular press.

People who are not scientists themselves may feel that they are not competent to evaluate the claims of specialists. But frequently, scientists make claims far outside of their specialty, and in that kind of case they have no special competence beyond anyone else. Even when they make claims within their specialty, there may be competing viewpoints and competing claims that they do not want to mention. We do well to be aware that the actual work of science has a social component, and that healthy science includes healthy disagreements, which sometimes extend even into the middle of major theories. (There are to this day competing interpretations of the meaning of quantum mechanics.)

If an ordinary person wants to be well-informed about a particular special issue, he should be careful not merely to do his reading within a single circle of opinion, even if it is a Christian circle (other Christians may disagree).

Principle 11

The Bible gives us sufficient instruction for the next practical step in obeying God, even when we have many unanswered questions about the apparent discrepancies.

God is faithful, and he understands the limitations of our knowledge. He has given us enough to know him, through Jesus Christ, and to walk in his way.

ABSTRACT: Prayer is one of the most crucial parts of the Christian life, yet often one of the most neglected. Even when we do pray, we may struggle to pray prayerfully, with fervency and faith. The Puritans provide a model for a praying life that regularly takes hold of the self in motivation, cultivation, constancy, and discipline, and that takes hold of God in dependence and faith. This earnest, engaged prayer is the kind the church needs in the present (and every) age.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Joel Beeke (PhD, Westminster Theological Seminary), chancellor and professor of homiletics and systematic theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, to offer lessons from the Puritans on prayer.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

—James 5:16–18

In the epistle of James, we read that the prophet Elijah “prayed fervently.”1 Literally, the text indicates that Elijah “prayed in his prayer.”2 In other words, Elijah’s prayers were more than a formal exercise; rather, he poured himself into his prayers.

Christian prayer is holy communication from the believing soul to God. Thomas Manton (1620–1677) defined prayer as “the converse of a loving soul with God.”3 Similarly, Anthony Burgess (1600–1663) said that prayer is “the lifting up of the mind, and of the whole soul to God.”4 John Bunyan (1628–1688) offers another rich definition: “Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to his Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.”5

Prayer should be the Christian’s great delight. As Matthew Henry (1662–1714) observed, prayer is the believer’s companion, counselor, comforter, supply, support, shelter, strength, and salvation.6 The true believer enjoys praying despite the attacks he faces from the world, the flesh, and the devil. As Henry wrote, “This life of communion with God, and constant attendance upon him, is a heaven upon earth.”7 Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) exclaimed, “Ah! How often, Christians, hath God kissed you at the beginning of prayer, and spoke peace to you in the midst of prayer, and filled you with joy and assurance, upon the close of prayer!”8

After studying the prayer lives of the Puritans, I am convinced that the greatest shortcoming in today’s church is the lack of such prayerful prayer. We fail to use heaven’s greatest weapon as we should. In our churches, homes, and personal lives, our prayer is often more prayerless than prayerful.

The giants of church history (such as the Puritans) often dwarf us in true prayer. Prayer was their priority. The Puritans were prayerful men who knew how to take hold of God in prayer and were possessed by the Spirit of grace and supplication (Isaiah 64:7). They taught that the solution to prayerless praying is prayerful praying, which happens in two ways: by taking hold of ourselves and by taking hold of God.

Taking Hold of Yourself

As with every other attainment in the Christian life, prayerful praying is not achieved automatically. The apostle Paul urged Timothy, “Train yourself for godliness. . . . Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” (1 Timothy 4:7; 6:12). I thus plead with you to seek a more fervent and faithful prayer life, with effort, urgency, and dependence on Christ and the Holy Spirit, practicing the discipline of self-control, which is not a natural ability but a fruit of the Spirit purchased by Jesus Christ at the cross (Galatians 5:22–24).

We look to Christ as the vine who alone can produce good fruit in us, and then get a grip on ourselves and engage diligently in disciplined prayer. Let me suggest four principles for taking hold of yourself in prayer: motivation, cultivation, constancy, and discipline.

Remember the Motivation

Many infirmities choke our motivation to pray. Archbishop James Ussher (1581–1656) lists some of them: “Roving imaginations, inordinate affections, dullness of spirit, weakness of faith, coldness in feeling, faintness in asking, weariness in waiting, too much passion in our own matters, and too little compassion in other men’s miseries.”9 We can take hold of ourselves, then, by remembering motivations for prayer regarding its value.

First, remember the purpose of prayer — the glory of God in the happiness of man. As Matthew Henry writes, in prayer “we must have in our eye God’s glory, and our own true happiness.”10 James Ussher explains the motivations for true prayer: “to use all other good means carefully; to seek God’s glory principally; to desire the best things most earnestly; to ask nothing but what God’s Word warranteth us; to wait patiently till he hear and help us.”11

Second, remember the privilege of prayer. William Bridge (ca. 1600–1671) observed, “A praying man can never be very miserable, whatever his condition be, for he has the ear of God. . . . It is a mercy to pray, even though I never receive the mercy prayed for.”12 Anthony Burgess also dwelt on the great privilege of prayer: “By praying holily we are made more holy; it’s like exercise to the body, which makes it more strong and active; it’s the rich ship that brings in glorious returns from God: heavenly prayer leaveth an heavenly frame, it keepeth a soul in longings after God.”13

Third, remember the power of prayer. “The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer [that] fetched the angel,” wrote Thomas Watson (ca. 1620–1686).14 John Bunyan exhorted, “Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.”15 Remember that “when God intends great mercy for his people the first thing he does is to set them a praying,” observed Henry.16 As Ussher writes,

Because prayer is the voice of God’s Spirit in us, a jewel of grace bequeathed by Christ unto us, it is the hand of faith, the key of God’s treasury, the soul’s solicitor, the heart’s armorbearer, and the mind’s interpreter. It procureth all blessings, preventeth curses, sanctifieth all creatures, that they may do us good, seasoneth all crosses, that they can do us no hurt. Lastly, it keeps the heart in humility, the life in sobriety, strengtheneth all graces, overcometh all temptations, subdueth corruptions, purgeth our affections, makes our duties acceptable to God, our lives profitable unto men, and both life and death comfortable unto our selves.17

Finally, remember the priority of prayer. John Bunyan stressed the priority of prayer by asserting that we can do more than pray after we have prayed, but we cannot do more than pray until we have prayed.18 Prioritizing means ranking the value of something higher than other things. Is it possible that your prayer life suffers because something else ranks too high with you? Does your social life crowd out prayer? Is the use of electronic media hindering your prayers? Media may do so by absorbing too much precious time while your prayer life languishes; it may also fill your mind with worldly thoughts so that your prayers become shallow, cold, self-centered, materialistic, or unmotivated, and thus infrequent. Prioritizing prayer requires putting other activities in a lower place to make room for communion with God.

In the strength of Christ, strive to avoid prayerless praying, whether in private devotions or public prayers. Even if your prayers seem lifeless, do not stop praying. Dullness may be beyond your immediate ability to overcome, but refusing to pray at all is the fruit of presumption, self-sufficiency, and slothfulness.

Cultivate Your Heart

The Puritans taught that we must prepare our hearts to seek the Lord. Above all, prayerful praying requires the cultivation of a sincere heart. To pray with your mouth what is not truly in your heart is hypocrisy — unless you are confessing the coldness of your heart and crying out for heart-warming grace. Thomas Brooks touched on the importance of Spirit-worked sincerity and transparency in prayer: “God looks not at the elegancy of your prayers, to see how neat they are; nor yet at the geometry of your prayers to see how long they are; . . . but at the sincerity of your prayers, how hearty they are. . . . Prayer is only lovely and weighty, as the heart is in it. . . . God hears no more than the heart speaks.”19

If we want God to accept our prayers, then our prayers must be driven by attitudes formed in us by the Spirit of Christ. The more he forms us, the more our prayers will take hold of God and please him. These attitudes include a heart of faith toward God (Mark 11:24), repentance from sin (Psalm 66:18), fervent and holy desire (James 5:16), humility before God (Luke 18:13), boldness in Christ (Hebrews 4:16), love and forgiveness for other people (Mark 11:25), and overflowing gratitude for God’s goodness (Philippians 4:6).

Second, prayerful praying involves the cultivation of a childlike heart where we pray to “our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Thomas Manton (1620–1677) said, “A word from a child moves the father more than an orator can move all his hearers.”20 God is pleased by simple trust, love, and reverence. To come as a child to the Father is to honor him in the highest degree and to engage his deepest compassion.

Finally, prayerful praying requires the cultivation of a word-saturated heart. One reason our prayer lives droop is because we have neglected the Holy Scriptures. Prayer is a two-way conversation; we must listen to God, not just speak to him. We do so by filling our minds with the Bible, for the Bible is God’s voice in written form. Our Lord Jesus declared in John 15:7, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Every Scripture passage is fuel for burning prayers. As Thomas Manton wrote, “One good way to get comfort is to plead the promise of God in prayer. . . . Show him his handwriting; God is tender of his word.”21

Some years ago, an elderly friend brought me a spiritual letter from my father, who passed from the pulpit to glory in 1993. My father wrote the letter in the 1950s, shortly after his conversion. “I thought you might like to have this,” the friend said. “Like to?” I said, “I would love to have this.” I sat down and read it immediately with great pleasure; it was so personal because it was my father’s handwriting. How do you think your Father in heaven feels when you show him his own handwriting in prayer?

Matthew Henry once said in reference to Scripture reading, “Hear [God] speaking to you, and have an eye to that in every thing you say to him; as when you write an answer to a letter of business, you lay it before you.”22

Remain Constant

“Pray without ceasing,” wrote Paul to the Thessalonian church (1 Thessalonians 5:17). God desires his children to cultivate a spirit, habit, and lifestyle of prayerfulness; this command refers more to praying with your hat on and eyes open than to petitioning in private. Thomas Brooks described such constant prayer: “A man must always pray habitually, though not actually; he must have his heart in a praying disposition in all estates and conditions, in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness, in strength and weakness, in wealth and wants, in life and death.”23

Whatever our calling or trade, prayer is our work throughout the day (Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2). We fulfill this mandate in several ways. First, we maintain an attitude of prayer throughout the day. As Matthew Henry exhorted, we should seek to begin, spend, and close the day with God.24 Or as another man once said, when we finish talking to God, we don’t “hang up” on him but rather keep the line open. We live moment by moment in the presence of God and should be conscious of it.

Second, if we are to pray without ceasing, we can establish set times of prayer in our daily schedules. The Puritans taught us that we should begin and end each day with prayer, marinate family worship in prayer, and use mealtimes to give thanks and lift up our needs.

Third, we strive to be alert and ready to pray at a moment’s notice. Maintain a state of spiritual alertness (Ephesians 6:18; Colossians 4:2), like the soldier in the squad who carries the radio and is always ready to call in support. Whenever you feel the least impulse to pray or see a need to pray, do so. Even if you are in the midst of a difficult job that demands concentration, obey the impulse to pray (in a manner that is safe and wise). The impulse may be a groaning of the Spirit, and we must not regard the Spirit’s promptings as intrusions. Train yourself to pray inwardly while the outward man is busy with daily tasks.

Embrace Discipline

Prayerful prayer also involves discipline, requiring time, perseverance, and organization. First, disciplined prayer involves a significant investment of time. Theodosia Alleine, the wife of Joseph Alleine, wrote about her husband’s time commitment to prayer:

All the time of his health, he did rise constantly at or before four of the clock, and on the Sabbath sooner, if he did wake. He would be much troubled if he heard smiths, or shoemakers, or such tradesmen, at work at their trades, before he was in his duties with God; saying to me often, “Oh, how this noise shames me! Doth not my Master deserve more than theirs?” From four till eight he spent in prayer, holy contemplations, and singing of psalms, which he much delighted in, and did daily practice alone, as well as in his family.25

Disciplined prayer also requires perseverance. It is easy to pray when you are like a sailboat gliding forward in a favoring wind. But also pray when you are like an icebreaker smashing your way through an arctic sea one foot at a time. George Swinnock (1627–1673) said, “Wrestle with God . . . bending and straining every joint of the new man in the soul, that they may all help to prevail with God.”26

Finally, disciplined prayer requires organization. Paul modeled regular intercession for many different churches and Christians, including some that he had never met (Colossians 1:9; 2:1). It would have been impossible for Paul to do so without some system for intercession. In his epistles, he commands Christians to offer “supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18) and for all men (1 Timothy 2:1). Without a method of prayer, we will hardly pray for anyone on a regular basis.

“Every Scripture passage is fuel for burning prayers.”

Organize your petitions by some system or list. Any system is better than none. Remember that you can adapt it over time. It may not seem very spiritual to use a prayer list, but it is eminently practical. Be reasonable and do not overburden yourself, but discipline yourself to pray much for your own church and other churches, for missions, and for many specific people. Praying may be your most valuable ministry.27

Taking Hold of God

Deep within us, we know that it is impossible to overcome prayerlessness by our own strength. The sacredness, gift, and power of prayer are far above human means. God’s grace is necessary for prayerful praying. Yet grace does not make us passively wait for God to grant it. Grace moves us to seek the Lord. As David sings in Psalm 25:1, “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul” (see also Psalms 86:4; 143:8). Direct your mind and affections toward our covenant God in Christ, and draw near to his throne of grace (Colossians 3:1–2).

Just as Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and would not let him go until he blessed him (Genesis 32:26), so we must take hold of God until he blesses us. The prophet Isaiah lamented the prayerlessness of his own generation, saying, “There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you” (Isaiah 64:7). Will you stir yourself up to take hold of God today? Doing so will require dependence and faith.

Depend on God

Taking hold of God requires dependence on the Holy Spirit. We depend completely on the Holy Spirit, for we can do nothing without Christ working through his Spirit (John 15:5). As Anthony Burgess observed, “The heart is but as so much dull earth, till the Spirit of God inflame thee; thy prayer is a body without a soul, if there be words but not God’s Spirit in the heart.”28 David Clarkson (1622–1686) also explained the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian’s prayer life: the Spirit “helps the weakness and infirmity of spiritual habits and principles, and draws them out into vigorous exercise. He helps the soul to approach with confidence, and yet with reverence; with filial fear, and yet with an emboldened faith; with zeal and importunity, and yet with humble submission; with lively hope, and yet with self-denial.”29

Second, taking hold of God requires dependence on the mediation of Christ. How can sinners take hold of God except in Jesus Christ? In the book of Hebrews, we read that it is only by Christ’s blood and intercession as our High Priest that we can boldly “enter the holy places” — that is, the place where God dwells on high (Hebrews 10:19–22). Thus, all our prayers must be offered by faith in Christ. Through him we have access to the Father, for Christ alone is the mediator between God and men (Ephesians 2:18; 1 Timothy 2:5). Furthermore, the adoption we have received in union with Christ is the foundation of our prayers.30

George Downame (1563–1634) wrote that we must ask “how it cometh to pass that man being stained and polluted with sin, and by reason thereof an enemy of God, should have any access to God, or be admitted to any speech with him, who is most just and terrible, a consuming fire, and hating all iniquity with perfect hatred.” He then answers his own question, saying, “Therefore of necessity a mediator was to come between God and man, who reconciling us unto God, and covering our imperfections, might make both our persons and our prayers acceptable under God.”31

Pray with Faith

Some fruits of living faith are reverence, fervency, confidence, Trinitarian piety, and the action of laying hold on divine promises.

First, the fruit of living faith is reverence. Only the Holy Spirit can work in us true reverence in prayer. As Thomas Boston (1676–1732) wrote, the Holy Spirit works in us “a holy reverence of God, to whom we pray, which is necessary in acceptable prayer. By this view he strikes us with a holy dread and awe of the majesty of God.”32

Second, the fruit of living faith is fervency. William Gurnall (1616–1679) exhorted, “Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith when strengthened will make thee fervent, and such fervency ever speeds and returns with victory out of the field of prayer. . . . The mightier any is in the word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.”33

Third, the fruit of living faith is confidence. Joseph Hall (1574–1656) wrote, “Good prayers never come weeping home. I am sure I shall receive either what I ask or what I should ask.”34 The Holy Spirit is the ground of this confidence: “This is it that makes prayer an ease to a troubled heart, the Spirit exciting in us holy confidence in God as a Father.”35

Fourth, the fruit of living faith is Trinitarian piety. John Owen (1616–1683) advised Christians to commune with each person in the triune God in our prayers.36 He did so based on Paul’s benediction recorded in 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” In your prayer life, pursue a deeper and more experiential knowledge of the riches of grace in Christ’s person and work, the glory of the electing and adopting love of the Father, and the comfort of fellowship with God by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

In this way, you will pray not just for God’s benefits but for God himself, which will serve as a blessing both for you and for your church. Your sense of God-intimacy and God-dependency, experientially known in private, will spill over into your public life, so that you will also, by the Spirit’s grace, encourage other people to depend on God and seek intimate communion with him.

Fifth, the fruit of living faith is laying hold of divine promises. John Trapp (1601–1669) wrote, “Promises must be prayed over. God loves to be burdened with, and to be importuned in, his own words; to be sued upon his own bond. Prayer is a putting God’s promises into suit. And it is no arrogancy nor presumption, to burden God, as it were, with his promise. . . . Such prayers will be nigh the Lord day and night (1 Kings 8:59), he can as little deny them, as deny himself.”37 Similarly, Gurnall observed, “Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God’s word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again.”38

Joys That Yet Await You

Prayer can be difficult and demanding work. Sometimes we get on our knees, then rise, only to realize we haven’t truly prayed in our prayer. So, we fall back on our knees again, praying to pray. At other times, prayer is amazing, glorious, delightful work. I suppose that there is scarcely a believer on earth who cannot identify with these extremes. Prayerful prayer will sometimes lead you to profound sadness as you see your wretched sinfulness, but it will also lead you to profound joy when you “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” and are “filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).

The Puritans provide a rather ideal standard for true prayer. We certainly have much to learn from them. Learning to truly pray in our prayers is not just a matter of deciding to work harder or to find a new method in prayer. It involves trials, warfare, and the enabling Spirit of God. It is a process of growth inseparable from our sanctification, and thus unending until we reach glory.

Ask God to make you a praying Elijah who knows what it means to battle unbelief and despair, even as you strive to grow in prayer and grateful communion with God. Isn’t it interesting that James presents Elijah in James 5:17 as a person “with a nature like ours”? He “prayed in his praying,” but he could also despair in his despairing (1 Kings 19:4). When you hit low spots in your spiritual life, remember the tenderness of God toward Elijah. Sometimes the answer to depression, as it was for the prophet, is not more effort, but a good meal and a night’s sleep so that you can resume the battle tomorrow.

Press on by faith in Jesus Christ, dear believer. If you have fallen, get back up. If you stand, beware lest you fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, the greatest danger is to stop and become complacent. Press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). Since the essence of prayer is communion with God, there are riches you have not yet discovered, depths you have not reached, and joys that yet await you.