Will We Pray in Heaven?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | Will we pray in heaven?

00:00:06.280 | It's a really great question from a listener named Grant.

00:00:08.840 | Pastor John, today in church we sang the old classic hymn,

00:00:11.600 | "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."

00:00:14.200 | And the fourth verse is a line that says,

00:00:15.840 | "Soon in glory bright and clouded,

00:00:18.220 | "there will be no need for prayer."

00:00:21.080 | Referring to when we are in heaven, of course.

00:00:23.760 | I don't know if I've ever sang that fourth verse before,

00:00:26.320 | so the line jumped out at me.

00:00:28.000 | It's jarring to hear the words, "There is no need for prayer."

00:00:31.320 | So is prayer just an earthly thing?

00:00:33.080 | Is there a role for prayer in heaven?

00:00:35.080 | Does the Bible give us any indication

00:00:36.960 | of how we will commune with God in eternity?

00:00:41.120 | Well, first let's say a word about the song

00:00:45.240 | and then about the question of prayer

00:00:48.120 | in heaven from scripture.

00:00:50.520 | I'm virtually certain that what Joseph Scriven meant

00:00:57.920 | in that line that he quoted from

00:01:00.160 | "What a Friend We Have in Jesus,"

00:01:02.440 | what he meant was that there will be no more aching cry

00:01:07.440 | to help us in our troubles in heaven

00:01:12.360 | because there'll be no more troubles.

00:01:15.880 | We won't be crying out for help in our troubles

00:01:18.460 | because we won't have any troubles.

00:01:20.600 | Now, the reason I think that's all he meant

00:01:24.040 | is because when I reread the whole song,

00:01:27.660 | that's the way virtually every verse was defining prayer.

00:01:31.200 | Let me just read it for you,

00:01:32.640 | and I'll try to highlight these phrases.

00:01:35.200 | "What a friend we have in Jesus,

00:01:37.320 | all our sins and griefs to bear.

00:01:41.240 | What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

00:01:43.800 | Oh, what peace we often forfeit.

00:01:45.520 | Oh, what needless pain we bear,

00:01:49.520 | all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

00:01:52.720 | Have we trials and temptations?

00:01:56.280 | Is there trouble anywhere?

00:01:59.080 | We should never be discouraged.

00:02:00.660 | Take it to the Lord in prayer.

00:02:02.500 | Can we find a friend so faithful

00:02:04.140 | who will all our sorrows share?

00:02:08.360 | Jesus knows our every weakness.

00:02:11.640 | Take it to the Lord in prayer.

00:02:13.000 | Are we weak and heavy-laden,

00:02:16.100 | cumbered with a load of care?

00:02:18.960 | Precious Savior, still our refuge.

00:02:20.640 | Take it to the Lord in prayer.

00:02:22.000 | Do your friends despise and forsake you?

00:02:25.960 | Take it to the Lord in prayer.

00:02:27.320 | In His arms He'll take and shield you.

00:02:30.800 | You will find His solace there."

00:02:32.360 | And then comes that last verse.

00:02:34.460 | "Blessed Savior, Thou has promised

00:02:36.960 | Thou will all our burdens bear.

00:02:40.520 | May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee

00:02:44.560 | in earnest prayer.

00:02:45.760 | Soon in glory, bright unclouded,

00:02:48.600 | there will be no need of prayer."

00:02:54.440 | Which I take to mean no need to ask God for help

00:02:59.040 | to bear our burdens, to bear our troubles,

00:03:01.400 | to bear our sorrows, to bear our griefs,

00:03:03.440 | to bear our pain, to bear our temptations.

00:03:05.880 | That's what he's talking about.

00:03:07.080 | - That's good context.

00:03:08.760 | - Rapture, praise, and endless worship

00:03:11.720 | will be our sweet portion there,

00:03:13.720 | which clearly implies communication, right?

00:03:16.200 | So praise and worship will be our portion,

00:03:19.460 | and all of that is prayer.

00:03:23.320 | So he did believe there would be prayer in heaven,

00:03:26.560 | but he was defining prayer as the cry for help

00:03:29.300 | in the midst of our afflictions,

00:03:30.840 | and there won't be any afflictions,

00:03:32.000 | so there won't be any more of that in heaven.

00:03:35.120 | Now, what about Scripture?

00:03:36.960 | Okay, that's scriven.

00:03:38.940 | What about Scripture?

00:03:40.920 | First, there are the visions in Revelation, right?

00:03:43.860 | Here are just two of them.

00:03:45.120 | We see prayer in heaven in Revelation 5.

00:03:50.120 | "I heard every creature in heaven and on earth

00:03:53.480 | and under the earth and in the sea

00:03:55.080 | and all that is in them saying,

00:03:57.520 | saying to him who sits on the throne

00:04:00.600 | and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory

00:04:03.420 | and might forever and ever."

00:04:05.400 | In Revelation 7, "After this, I looked and behold

00:04:08.960 | a great multitude that no one can number from every tribe

00:04:12.640 | and from tribes and people and languages

00:04:16.160 | standing before the throne and before the Lamb,

00:04:18.320 | clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands,

00:04:21.040 | crying out, praying with a loud voice,

00:04:24.600 | salvation belongs to our God."

00:04:27.120 | We're saying that to the Lamb and to the Father.

00:04:31.840 | And then consider Romans 8, 26 and 27.

00:04:35.840 | This is really interesting.

00:04:37.680 | It's a puzzling and provocative text

00:04:41.340 | about God giving us the Holy Spirit now

00:04:45.800 | to help us pray when we don't know how to pray

00:04:49.800 | because God is so jealous that even in those moments

00:04:53.360 | when all we can do is groan to help us pray as we ought,

00:04:57.660 | that he sends his Holy Spirit

00:04:59.040 | to do the praying in us and for us.

00:05:01.280 | The Spirit helps us in our weakness,

00:05:04.060 | for we do not know what to pray, how to pray as we ought,

00:05:07.740 | but the Spirit himself intercedes for us

00:05:10.800 | with groanings too deep for words.

00:05:13.700 | I think those are our groanings.

00:05:15.580 | The Spirit is moving us even without words to groan,

00:05:20.140 | and he who searches the hearts

00:05:22.260 | knows what is the mind of the Spirit

00:05:24.440 | because the Spirit intercedes for the saints

00:05:27.240 | according to the will of God.

00:05:29.600 | It seems to me that if God makes extra effort

00:05:34.500 | to keep us praying when we are weak in this world,

00:05:39.460 | how much more will he delight in hearing us

00:05:43.080 | when we have no perplexities about it at all?

00:05:47.340 | And then consider that the church

00:05:50.320 | is pictured as the bride of Christ in Ephesians 5,

00:05:53.700 | being prepared for eternal marriage

00:05:56.820 | with her husband, Christ, in spotless beauty,

00:06:00.940 | in a perfect relationship,

00:06:03.740 | likened to the best possible marriage.

00:06:07.820 | Are we to think that there is no communication

00:06:11.140 | in this marriage?

00:06:12.540 | What marriage is that?

00:06:14.260 | It is inconceivable.

00:06:15.900 | Or to be, here's more specific.

00:06:18.740 | Several times, Jesus pictures coming back to earth

00:06:23.740 | as coming to share a feast table with his disciples.

00:06:28.980 | You are those who have stayed with me in my trials.

00:06:32.660 | I assign to you as my Father assigned to me a kingdom

00:06:36.500 | that you may eat and drink at my table in the kingdom

00:06:42.300 | and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

00:06:45.860 | Or another text, blessed are those who are invited

00:06:49.220 | to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

00:06:51.860 | You just can't conceive of Jesus inviting guests

00:06:56.020 | to a feast, feeding them well, giving them drink well,

00:06:59.380 | and nobody saying a word around this table.

00:07:03.140 | That's not the way feasts work.

00:07:06.260 | And finally, there's this climactic command

00:07:10.180 | to the whole earth in Psalm 66, three,

00:07:14.420 | say to God, that's command, say to God,

00:07:19.420 | how awesome are your deeds.

00:07:22.900 | So great is your power that your enemies

00:07:27.120 | come cringing to you.

00:07:28.420 | So we're commanded to say to God,

00:07:32.880 | and I think that's designed as a command

00:07:37.700 | for the climax of the ages.

00:07:40.100 | Not just along the way here,

00:07:41.300 | and then we don't ever say that anymore.

00:07:43.020 | We don't say that to God anymore.

00:07:45.500 | Conclusion, so yes, we will pray in heaven

00:07:50.260 | in the age to come.

00:07:51.660 | We will communicate our hearts to God forever and ever,

00:07:56.540 | and we will hear his heart for hours.

00:08:00.700 | We will be shown ever fresh glories

00:08:05.540 | from the immeasurable riches of his kindness,

00:08:08.180 | Ephesians 2, seven, and I think it says that

00:08:13.180 | so that we will see that our response

00:08:17.300 | with ever fresh words of our own

00:08:20.380 | corresponds to a communication that can never be boring

00:08:24.300 | because the riches of God's glory

00:08:26.780 | are endless and immeasurable.

00:08:29.940 | So there's a correspondence between our capacity

00:08:34.040 | to respond with words to the ever fresh revelations

00:08:37.780 | of his beauty with ever fresh communications of our own

00:08:42.780 | so that we don't have to think,

00:08:44.140 | oh, I'm gonna run out of language.

00:08:45.540 | Yeah, no, you won't.

00:08:46.820 | Here you do, you do.

00:08:48.160 | You run out of language here,

00:08:49.740 | but there you will not run out of language,

00:08:53.100 | and like C.S. Lewis says,

00:08:54.260 | the very expression of your joy in praise

00:08:58.260 | will not just be tacked on to the joy.

00:09:00.940 | It will be the joy in God in consummation.

00:09:05.420 | - Glorious.

00:09:06.260 | Looking forward to that day.

00:09:07.700 | Communicating our hearts to God forever,

00:09:09.820 | and we will hear his heart to us forever.

00:09:12.900 | Amazing, thank you, Pastor John,

00:09:15.040 | and thank you for listening along

00:09:16.060 | and for subscribing to Ask Pastor John

00:09:18.040 | in your favorite podcast app or in YouTube.

00:09:20.400 | Next time we look at this question,

00:09:23.060 | how do I stay physically attracted to my aging spouse?

00:09:26.820 | How do I stay physically attracted to my aging spouse?

00:09:30.140 | I'm not asking the question, Adi.

00:09:32.540 | No, this is an audience question I'm passing along.

00:09:35.060 | I promise.

00:09:35.900 | I'm your host, Tony Reike.

00:09:37.100 | Have a great weekend.

00:09:37.940 | We'll see you back here on Monday.

00:09:39.940 | (upbeat music)

00:09:42.520 | (upbeat music)

00:09:45.100 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Will We Pray in Heaven?

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