A Brief History of Prayer

In the slipstream of 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on terror, Americans pray again. President Bush's, genuine, non-photo-op, not-crying-on-cue example of personal prayer and faith presents a huge motivating factor. Yes, amazing but true, prayer has come back to America...

Some people said America didn't have a prayer at the millennial turn. They were wrong.

But why do modern education and Hollywood, the two major purveyors of unprayerful cultural values, still not get the point?

The answer is found in a brief history of prayer.

Prayer began in the Garden of Eden. God made the first family, Adam and Eve. He talked to them as in, "Adam, name the animals." Adam then needed to talk with God about the lack of finding a gender counterpart for himself (Genesis 2:18-20 [18] And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
[19] And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
[20] And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

See All...). Eve was clearly communicative, and with access to just two other sentient beings in the garden, she spoke to her husband and prayed to God. Thus, we have the first prayers.

Then came the snake. But where was God when the Devil tempted Eve?

God was standing by in the garden, (where else would He be after creating the first two human beings?) waiting for them to pray for His counsel about whether serpents should talk, or for His help to come whack the snake. He was waiting for a prayer they didn’t pray, while they left themselves without a prayer against the deceptive, misinformative powers of the Adversary (Genesis 3:1-6 [1] Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
[2] And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
[3] But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
[4] And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
[5] For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
[6] And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

See All...).

Afterward, "they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 3:8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
See All...).

At the most critical moment, Adam and Eve refused to pray to God for help. Thus they made the most colossal mistake in human history! Then, instead of praying for forgiveness, they hid themselves from God—and mankind has been hiding from God ever since.

For centuries humanity hid behind idols of stone, metal and wood (plastic, celluloid and digital disks hadn’t been invented yet). With idols, you could make your own god in your own image, rather than the other way round (Genesis 1:26-27 [26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
[27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

See All...). You could easily hide behind a god you're comfortable with, who doesn't get in your face . . . because who cares? After all, your god isn't a "who"!

But beware the hollow downside. Praying to a god who isn't there, who is made in your image, is a lot like praying to yourself. Big help that is! And as we both know, people make poor gods.

Yet through it all, true prayer to the true God lived on in the lives of the faithful few. And just past halfway through human history, prayer got uniquely clarified. Clarified by Jesus whose role was "prayee" (on the receiving end of prayers) before His human birth, and who came to know directly what it was like to be the "pray-er".

Interestingly, President Bush impresses nay-sayers and yea-sayers alike for two reasons: his prayer and his faith. What a fascinating combination! He is both respected and vilified because of his religious beliefs.

Once Jesus found a fig tree with nothing on it but fig leaves—like the ones Adam and Eve tried to hide behind (Genesis 3:7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
See All...). Being hungry, He cursed that tree and it withered and died in a day. Impressed, His disciples had to know how the poor fig could give up osmosis so soon.

Explaining how faith and prayer go together, Jesus told them and us that if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can fry fig trees too! What’s more, you can tell a whole mountain to go jump in deep blue sea, and it’ll happen! "And whatever things you ask in prayer believing, you will receive" (Matthew 21:18-22 [18] Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.
[19] And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.
[20] And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!
[21] Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
[22] And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

See All...).

Great power—prayer mixed with faith—is available to all who truly believe. In the history of prayer it’s the great, untapped power. It has been rediscovered by some like President Bush, but is missed by the most of mankind because we’re always hiding from God—hiding behind the fig leaves of modern education, wrong-valued Hollywood, idolatrous materialism and whatever else. It’s time to come out from behind the trees of the garden and write your own history of prayer to the God of true faith who made you!

(To learn more, request or download our free booklet, You Can Have Living Faith.)