The Christian life isn’t easy. In fact, we are promised that
if we want to reign with Christ, there is a price – suffering (2 Cor. 4:10-11).
Consequently, when we suffer, it often feels like our world, along with our
faith, is coming apart. We become convinced that something is terribly wrong,
either with us or our attempts to draw close to God in faith.
Our despair makes us vulnerable to the allurements of false
teachers like the Quaker Mystic Richard Foster:
·
Often we assume we are in contact [with God] when
we are not…Often people will pray and pray with all the faith in the world, but
nothing happens. Naturally, they are not contacting the channel [to God]. We
begin praying for others by first centering down and listening to the quiet
thunder of the Lord of hosts. Attuning ourselves to divine breathings is
spiritual work, but without it our praying is vain repetition. Listening to the
Lord is the first thing…(Celebration of
Disciplines, 34)
Such teaching serves to undermine our confidence in the
Lord. Foster insists that if our prayers go unanswered, it means that we are
not in contact with our Savior. Once Foster is able to convince us that we are
missing out, we become vulnerable to adopting his set of unbiblical techniques.
Meanwhile, Scripture assures us that everything we need to
serve the Lord is contained in Scripture:
·
All Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good
work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; ESV)
If Scripture is able to make us “complete, equipped for
every good work,” then to teach that we also need additional techniques and
gimmicks is to violate Scripture. In this sense, Foster is adding to Scripture (Deut.
4:2) by claiming that his techniques are necessary to make contact with God.
In contrast to Foster, Paul warned “to not go beyond what is
written” (1 Cor. 4:6). Similarly, Isaiah 8:19-20 taught that we must go to God’s Word for our guidance:
·
And when they say to you, “Inquire of the
mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire
of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the
teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word,
it is because they have no dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)
If we want to glorify God, we must speak according to His
Word:
·
Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles [the
Word] of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God
supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
(1 Peter 4:11)
There are no scriptural warnings about not having the right
prayer techniques. Instead, Jesus warned against the use of various pagan gimmicks:
·
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases
as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many
words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask
him.” (Matthew 6:7-8)
Gimmicks should not be of any concern. Why not? Because, the
“Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Therefore, the techniques are
of no consequence. Besides, He will give us beyond what we ask for:
·
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly
than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. (Ephesians
3:20)
God is able to compensate for us when we pray wrongly
(Romans 8:26). Well then, what does God want from us if prayer is not about
using the right techniques? Knowing and trusting in our Savior and not in
gimmicks:
·
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who
depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD…But
blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” (Jeremiah
17:5-7)
·
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If
God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but
gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give
us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)
·
"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia
write: ‘These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of
David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know
your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I
know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not
denied my name.’” (Rev. 3:7-8)
Gimmicks will not open the door to God’s grace. God is not
looking for techniques but for “truth in the inward being” (Psalm 51:6). He
wants to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, as Jesus explained to the
Samaritan woman at the well:
·
"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when
the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father
is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)
Nowhere does Scripture require the popular mystical
techniques of repeating one word, visualizations, imaginations, analyzing
dreams, changing our brain-states, practicing silence, or listening intently
for the voice of God. Instead of such practices, Scripture instructs to know and
obey His Word:
·
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel
of the ungodly…But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he
meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of
water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not
wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalm 1:1-3)
·
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it
is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will
love him and manifest Myself to him." (John 14:21)
Instead of gimmicks, it is God’s Word that must direct our
prayers and worship. However, we must always put God and His Word first in our
lives:
·
But seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)
He will provide for our needs and honor us as we honor Him. No
room for gimmicks here!
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