Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Through Prayer God Transforms Personal and Social Existence (PrayerLife)

Sunrise in Cancun
Theologian Perry LeFevre called prayer "the means by which God acts through human freedom in the present to transform personal and social existence toward the kingdom of God." (In Stanley Grenz, Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom, 26)

Stanley Grenz writes that "prayer is direct communication with God." (Ib., 27) Prayer "involves a sense of the presence of God." "Prayer is the activity of communicating with the God in whose presence we exist." (Ib.)

Prayer, therefore, is the cry for God's kingdom, presently. When we pray "God, let your kingdom come," we are asking for God's presence to impact our personal existence and social existence, now. And, for God to impact it is a certain way; viz., as oriented towards God's kingdom paradigm. 

A praying person experiences individual and social God-activity. (My spiritual journal of 3000+ pages is a record of what I have seen as a result of getting a prayer life.)