The Attitudes of Prayer (1)

As noted in our last installment, Ephesians 3:12-13—In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.—provide a “prelude” to the prayer of Paul that follows (vs. 14-21). Let us now examine the three attitudes of prayer: Boldness, Access, and Confidence. How are we to pray? What is at the very foundation of prayer? When we understand these attitudes, they will transform our prayer life.

First, we have boldness. The Greek word behind boldness (parresia) literal means “to tell all.” In other words, we can come before our Father with total freedom of speech, pour out our hearts, and tell Him everything. What a blessed privilege God has granted us! Because of Jesus Christ, we can speak to God without fear and may speak openly and candidly. The book of Hebrews is most vivid in speaking of this (read 4:14‑16 and 10:19). In Judaism only the High Priest could enter God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, and he could only do that once a year on the Day of Atonement. But now, because of the blood of Christ, we can come directly to God and speak openly.

At this point we must sound a warning: boldness does not mean insolence. We recall that “insolence” is the negative sense of the Greek parrēsia. There is a growing amount of disrespect of God in today’s various teachings on prayer. While boldness does mean that we need not have any inhibitions as we come before God, we must still never forget that God is God. The “buddy‑buddy” attitude that many have of God and man is truly blasphemous as it brings God down to man’s level. God must be respected and worshipped as God. He is not our “buddy” or our “pal;” He is our Father and our God. We may indeed come before Him openly, candidly, and without fear, but we must also come before Him in reverence, respect, and worship.

Second, we have access. The Greek here is (prosagoge). A similar word was used in ancient times to describe a person who gave someone else admittance to see the king. The person who wanted to see the king had no right to do so; rather someone else had to give him admittance, had to make the introduction. So, may we realize that we have no right to come before God, but have been granted a privilege of doing so. The French word entree perfectly translates the Greek as it means “admission.” This is the picture in the Greek; we have been granted “admission” into the Father’s presence. How arrogant is the thought and the teaching today that we have a right to come before God because of Jesus Christ. We have no right; we only have a privilege because of Christ. At this point we can translate our text thusly: “In Whom we have openness of thought and introduction.”

With this in mind, we must also expand our earlier warning: boldness does not mean insolence, and access does not mean impetuosity. To be impetuous means to be impulsive, doing things hurriedly, or rushing about. Many of us are guilty of hastily and hurriedly coming before the Lord in prayer. We often rush before Him and ask, or even demand, something from Him. And, may we say again, how often we think we have a right to be before Him.

Oh, may we cease such dreadful actions! May we see that we have no right to come before God, but rather we have a mar­velous privilege granted us by the introduction of our Savior. May we never again rush into His presence, hurriedly making our desires known. Rather, in our communion with Him may we come quietly, humbly, slowly, and deliberately before Him.