Bible Studies

SPONTANEOUS PRAYER

by GLENN PEASE
12/03/21
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It is called spontaneous prayer. It is not prayer that is planned, and a regular period of prayer that is a pattern of life. It is prayer that comes to you out of the blue. Suddenly you see, or hear something that provokes you to praise God, or intercede for another, or utter a prayer for guidance as to how to respond to the situation. It is produced again by listening to how God speaks to you through circumstances, or nature, or people around you.

The most obvious such prayer is when we find ourselves facing a danger or crisis of some kind. Ps. 86:7, "n the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me." The foxhole prayer is an example. Danger threatens and we spontaneously seek God's protection.
Jonah had not planned to be whale food when he woke that morning, and so he had no prepared prayer for the occassion. It was a spontaneous prayer that he uttered in Jonah 2:1-2, "From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said:

"In my distress I called to the LORD,
and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help,
and you listened to my cry."

The disciples of Jesus also had no idea they would be in a storm that day, and so we read in Matt. 8:24-5, "Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"

Spontaneous prayer does not have to be learned. It is instinctive in all people. We want to look at a greater depth of this type of prayer.

One of the most spontaneous prayer in the Bible is that of Nehemiah in Neh. 2
"In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart." Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, "Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" Then the king said to me, "What are you requesting?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it." (Neh 2:1-5)

Nehemiah is suddenly confronted with a situation that could change his life and history. He had no idea it was going to happen, but now the king is asking him what he can do about the situation that it making him look so unhappy. It is a rare opportunity to seek the kings favor, and before he answers the kings question he utters in his mind the most spontaneous prayer in the Bible. He had to pray in a matter of seconds, for he had to answer the king immediately, and not after a time of deliberation and planning. He was afraid, for the king had the power to curse as well as bless him, and either was a real possibility. He could not keep the king waiting for an answer for even a minute. He could not say, let me get back to you on that king. He had to respond. We have no idea what he said in this spontaneous prayer. It was likely just a quick sigh of "Oh Lord, help me!"

The rest of the chapter is about how the king graciously answered his prayer or request. He went on to give more specific requests, and all of them were granted by the king. God providentially directed him in such a way that the future of his people were determined by the shortest prayer in the Bible. If there were any words at all, it was likely "Help"

We read on in verses 6 to 9, Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, "How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?" It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. 7 I also said to him, "If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?" And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. 9 So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me."

This has been called an emergency prayer, ejactulatory prayer, or a sky telegram, for he needed help, not in a minute, but right now at that instant.

This was one of the most successful prayers in history, and it was uttered in seconds, and was a silent prayer in his mind with not a single word uttered to be heard by anyone else. Right away we are made aware that the length of prayer is not a factor in its effectiveness. A short second prayer can be just as effective as an all night prayer meeting. The fact is that the Bible promotes short prayers and looks at long prayers as negative.

Rabbi Raymond Apple wrote, "Jewish prayer is as old as history. From the time of Adam and Eve, human beings have been talking to God and God has been talking to them. At first, prayer was spontaneous and unstructured. Spontaneous prayer is still regarded highly, but Judaism has developed a prayer habit three times a day, morning, afternoon and evening. One theory attributes this pattern to the Biblical patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; another view holds that when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed, worship services replaced the daily sacrifices."

Prayer was originally spontaneous, and so it is the oldest form of prayer, and it is still a vital part of the life of those who walk with God, instead of meeting with him on occassion. Other prayers are occassional and formal, but spontaneous prayer can happen without warning at any moment. It is Peter sinking in the waves crying out "Lord save me!" He had not planned that prayer for the day. It sprung out of his immediate circumstance of going under.

Bryan Fischer gives us an account of a spontaneous prayer that helped to inspire leaders of our nation to move forward in blessing us all. He wrote, "The Continental Congress, which gave us the Declaration of Independence in 1776, convened for the first time on September 7, 1774.

The first legislative action taken was a motion to open this first session in prayer. The motion was opposed. Aha, you say — separation of church and state!

But it was opposed for reasons other than you might expect. It was not that the delegates were opposed to prayer, but rather that they weren't sure which Christian clergyman to choose for the honor, as there were, according to Founding Father John Adams, Episcopalians, Quakers, Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists present.

The logjam was broken when Samuel Adams, the Father of the American Revolution, "arose," according to John Adams' account, "and said that he was no bigot, and could hear a Prayer from any gentleman of Piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his Country."

As a result of Sam Adams' intervention, the motion carried and an Episcopalian clergyman, Rev. Jacob Duche', was prevailed upon to open the next morning's session in prayer. Duche' first read several prayers "in the established form," and then read the assigned passage from the Book of Common Prayer for that day, Psalm 35. Adams writes that this passage from the Scripture electrified the Founders. "I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning."

Following the reading of Psalm 35, according to Adams, quite unexpectedly, because it was not the custom of the day, Rev. Duche' launched into a spontaneous and unscripted prayer.

His prayer began, "Be Thou present, O God of Wisdom, and direct the counsel of this Honorable Assembly; enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundation; that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that Order, Harmony, and Peace may be effectually restored, and that Truth and Justice, Religion and Piety, prevail and flourish among the people."

Duche' went on to ask God to preserve the delegates' health and vigor of mind, and to grant them "temporal Blessings" and "everlasting Glory in the world to come."

Finally, in another data point regarding the question as to whether America was founded as a Christian nation, Rev. Duche' closed his prayer this way: "All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Saviour, Amen."

Rather than being scandalized at this "sectarian" prayer, Adams writes that Duche's prayer "filled the bosom of every man present. I must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced."

It was prayed, he went on, "with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime, for America, for the Congress, for the province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially for the town of Boston. It had an excellent effect upon everybody here."

Rev. Duche's prayer was heard and answered, and Providence gave to us a sovereign and independent nation, founded upon the concept that there is a Creator who has granted to everyone created in his image the inalienable right to life and liberty.

In Luke 10:21 Jesus, just all of the sudden, stops in the context of his disciples coming back to him after going about with power in his name to cast out demons. It says, "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure." The disciples had great success among the common people, but the Scribes and Pharisees who were the wise and learned refused to listen. The lowly uneducated common people were open to the good news, and this made Jesus delighted. His joy led to sponteneous prayer.

He listened to the joy reports of the disciples about their success, and it provoked a spontaneous prayer of praise and thanks to his heavenly Father. When you hear good news it is good to respond with a spontaneous prayer of praise and thanks. It is your amen to the praise of others.

We think of prayer so often as being limited to some formal setting, and we miss the joy of Jesus in just spontaneously saying, "Thank you Lord," when we feel something positive about life. Spontaneous prayer is often much more meaningful and real than planned prayer. Planned prayer is usually locked into formulas, and we repeat the same requests over and over. This kind of prayer gets dull, and it is seen as a duty rather than a joy. If you want to improve your prayer life, do not assume you have to add more to your formal times of prayer. Instead, add the spontaneous prayer that we see in the life of Jesus. and others we will explore.

He had His formal times, and He said grace before He ate, but the informal times are what most of us need to develop to add new life to our prayer life. This kind of prayer is developed by practicing a perpendicular perspective. This means learning to see how heaven relates to earth, or how God is involved in the things we experience all around us. Our horizontal or humanistic perspective causes us to see only the physical reality, and we miss the reality of the unseen. We miss the things all about us that should lead us to praise God. For example, I read of three men who stood gazing at Niagara Falls. One was a mechanical engineer, and he said, "What a waste of power. I could turn the wheels of industry with all that wasted power." The second man was an artist, and he was positive. He saw great beauty and he longed to reproduce it on canvas. The third man was a man with perpendicular perspective, and he said, "What a great God is ours!" All three could have been Christians with equal commitment to Christ, but the first two were weaker in their prayer skills because they did not see in power and beauty a reason to praise God first of all. Start practicing your perpendicular perspective. Set a goal of seeing reasons to praise God for seven things in your daily life. If you only get two, that is better than missing them all. This will help you see prayer as more enjoyable, and not just as a duty that you have to do.

This kind of prayer is also a form of witnessing. When you see God's hand in life, and you thank Him and praise Him, you display a spirit that is seen by those around you, and this is a witness. Jesus used prayer this way at the tomb of Lazarus. John 11:41-42 reveals Jesus again in a spontaneous prayer: "Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." Here is Jesus using prayer as a tool for witnessing. Prayer is offered to God, but you limit prayers value if you think it is only for God. Prayer is for people to hear also. Jesus prayed so people could hear Him thanking God, for He wanted His relationship to God to be known so that people could see and believe He was from God. Public prayer is for men to hear. Public prayer communicates the faith of the one praying to other people who are listening. It can communicate knowledge, wisdom, joy, and a host of other values. Most of us do not have many occasions to witness by prayer, and Jesus is not revealed to be doing this often either, but we need to be aware of the potential of prayer to touch men. When I see people praying in a restaurant before they eat I experience their witness of faith. Verse 45 shows that the prayer of Jesus was answered. It says, "Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in Him."

An example of the witness of spontaneous prayer. Here is a news story from July 7, 2010, "A fan tried to snag a ball during the Rangers-Indians game and wound up falling 30 feet instead.
The TV screen showed Indians outfielder Trevor Crowe kneeling face down with his head in his hands.

“What’s he doing?” my 13-year-old son asked, unsure if he was seeing what he thought he was.

“He’s praying,” I confirmed. As emergency personnel at Rangers Ballpark rushed to the fan’s aid, Cleveland shortstop Jason Donald also appeared to be praying.
I have watched a few thousand — OK, a few million — major-league baseball games in my lifetime. Never before that I recall have I seen major-league ballplayers bow on the field in spontaneous prayer. ...
GetReligion

Luckily, it seems that the man ... and the people he landed on (that didn't occur to me when hearing the story on the radio this morning ... that he could land on people) ... are not seriously injured.

I was very moved by the fact that the first instinct from some players was to sink down in prayer."

To be able to escape into eternity and pray at any time is a powerful weapon in the spiritual life. But it will not happen without practice anymore than playing an instrument will come without practice. You can only spontaneously go to a piano and play music if you have first of all disciplined yourself to practice. So it is with spontaneous prayer. You will have to work at it to develop the ability to pray without ceasing, and be ready at any moment to go to the Lord in prayer. May God help us to be motivated to develop this marvelous skill of spontaneous prayer.

Thanksgiving is likely to be the most common spontaneous prayer. The more we can look at all we experience in life with gratitude, the more we will be involved in spontaneous prayer. You can go through a day saying thankyou Lord for one thing after another and be in a state of praying without ceasing. Thankyou for life, for loved ones, for food, for transportation, for my joy, my coo-workers, my oppotunities to serve, to bless, to return home, to have comforts, to love, to sleep, to rise to a new day again.

Spontaneous prayer can also be intercession. The sound of the ambulance may lead us to pray for the driver to be wise, and for them to get to their destination in time, to bring aid and healing, and to get the person in trouble to the hospital for care, and for the family to be encouraged by their aid.

We looked at the idea that all people are on our prayer list, and so a spontaneous prayer can arise in the presence of any person we see who has a need. Lord help that mother with three bratty kids to get through her shopping without a breakdown, and protect the rest of the customers from them. Help that person on crutches to avoid the danger of these icy sidewalks, and to get safely into their car. It is an expression of compassion for all people that we see carrying some burden that calls for guidance, and asking God in his providence to grant them that guidance.

Spontaneous prayer is not superior to memorized prayer, but it is more alive and in the moment dealing with life as it happens. Memorized prayer can be just as meaningful, but not always as relavant to the moment. Someone wrote, "In the entire spiritual panorama of the universe nothing is more sublime than a spontaneous prayer. It gushes out of the human heart, filled with appreciative joy." Spontaneous prayer is the result of being aware of the presence and care of God in all of life. It is another form of praying without ceasing, for at any moment you may feel the impulse to thank and praise God, and seek his aid in your own life of that of another. It is another way of saying you are walking with the Lord, for it is as if he is your companion as you move through the day.

Spontaneous prayers by the very nature of being unplanned and instant are short. Most all of the prayers of the Bible are short. It does not take a long time to tell God your needs, or to express a praise or thanks. Jesus condemned long prayers in Luke 20:45-47, "While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46"Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely."

"In Jesus' instructions about prayer, He taught His followers: "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words" (Matthew 6:7). These words of Jesus were aimed straight at the Pharisees. These individuals always made a public show of their prayers. They would typically pray in a public place--perhaps on a street corner--to impress people with their piety. They would pray conspicuously. They very much enjoyed being seen as they prayed.

The Pharisees also made their prayers excessively long, a practice picked up from the pagans, who engaged in endless repetition and incantation. An example of such endless babbling is found in 1 Kings 18:26: "They called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. 'O Baal, answer us!' they shouted." The belief was that endless repetition of specific requests endeared the petitioner to God, and hence God would be obligated to answer. Prayer was used by the Pharisees as a lengthy formula or technique to manipulate God into action."

Phil Bolsta, "What is devotion? It is the unceasing practice of acknowledging God’s presence, with the ultimate goal of living your life as one long prayer." Being ever ready for spontaneous prayer is living your life as one long prayer.

James Hastings in Doctrine of Prayer, "Biblical prayers are usually short very much shorter than the average modern prayer. The very earnest prayer of Hezekiah for deliverance from Sennacherib could easily be spoken in lens than a minute and a half; and the beautiful thanksgiving of David, in 1 Chron. xxix. 10-19, in between three and four minutes. But most of the prayers are much shorter than this ; and the teaching and practice of Jesus go to confirm the impression that the ideal prayer is short." "Many public prayers are undoubtedly much too long. The so-called " long prayer " in Scotland has little Biblical sanction. In essence the long prayer is a heathen prayer : your Father knoweth what things ye have need of."

John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace and many other hymns wrote, "Long prayers should in general be avoided, especially where several persons are to pray successively; or else even spiritual hearers will be unable to keep up their attention. And here I would just notice an impropriety we sometimes meet with, that when a person gives expectation that he is just going to conclude his prayer, something not thought of in its proper place occurring that instant to his mind, leads him as it were to begin again. But unless it is a matter of singular importance, it would be better omitted for that time."

Judy Riggs said..".Spending lengthy amounts of time in private prayer is fine. But praying for someone in a public place like a hospital room or in someone's home, who you may not even be personally familiar with is tiresome to the one being prayed for and seems pretentious. I think that if we are trying to reach out to someone, our long prayer for them should be in private and a short prayer with them, fully focusing on their problem and their need and then ending and a heartfelt conversation afterwards. My daughter is in the hospital and does need prayer, but two ladies came in from a pentecostal church and prayed with the girl in the other bed and went on and on and on and on. Finally my daughter decided that she didn't need prayer after all. Then they began to pray for the "sitter" in the room and that prayer was also lengthy with one of them with a sort of prophetic word for the nurse. I was there and began to feel that they were making a show of praying more than they were actually in prayer."

Our Adult Sunday School class was discussing formal and informal
prayer, when one man remarked, "I do some of my best praying while
driving." Fron the back of the room, in a quiet voice, the man's
wife agreed. "I, too, do my best praying while you are driving."

D. L. MOODY wrote, " Our Master's prayers were short when offeredin public; when He was alone with God that was a different thing, and He could spend the whole night in communion with His Father.

My experience is that those who pray most in their closets generally make short prayers in public. Long prayers are too often not prayers at all, and they weary the people.

* How short the publican's prayer was: “God be merciful to me a sinner!”
* The Syrophoenician woman's was shorter still: “Lord help me!” She went right to the mark, and she got what she wanted.
* The prayer of the thief on the cross was a short one: “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom!”
* Peter's prayer was, “Lord, save me, or I perish!”

So, if you go through the Scriptures, you will find that the prayers that brought immediate answers were generally brief. Let our prayers be to the point, just telling God what we want."

The question of course comes up as to how this fits in with Paul's command to pray without ceasing (I Thess 5:17). We cannot be praying always and never cease, but we can be in a spirit of prayer so that at any instant of the day we can respond with spontaneous prayer, and thus be in a state of prayer without ceasing.

Now, of course we are dealing with public prayer where people as well as God are listening. When it comes to personal and private prayer, long prayers are very valid and Christlike. Luke 6:12 says this: "In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God." Many great men of God prayed for hours, and they changed the world in doing so, but they did not do it in a public situation.

The following prayer is somewhat humorous, but very true to life: "Dear Heavenly Father, so far today, I've done alright. I haven't gossiped, haven't lost my temper, haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or over-indulgent. But in a few minutes, dear Lord, I will be getting out of bed, and from then on, I'll need lots of help. Amen."

One author wrote, "Increasingly, I find my prayer life consists of a single word, uterred repeatedly in many different circumstances: "Help!"