Prayers That Don’t Work
00:00:00.000 | All week long we have been joined by pastor and author Tim Keller.
00:00:08.720 | He has a wonderful new book coming out soon, Prayer Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with
00:00:12.880 | God is the title.
00:00:14.520 | It releases on November 4th and he joins us once more from New York City to finish out
00:00:18.160 | the week.
00:00:19.160 | Okay, Dr. Keller, we near the finish line here with question number nine.
00:00:24.680 | In passages like James chapter 4, verse 3, we are told there's a type of prayer that
00:00:29.760 | doesn't work.
00:00:30.760 | It's an idol-centered prayer, it's asking for something with wrong motives.
00:00:34.800 | Can you explain this?
00:00:36.120 | What type of prayer doesn't work?
00:00:38.920 | Well, yes, when James talks about prayers that, where you're asking for something selfishly
00:00:45.800 | or just to spend on your own selfish desires, I would say that there's, that's a sub,
00:00:54.360 | put it this way, that would be a subheading under even a bigger heading.
00:00:58.880 | God's not going to give you something that's bad for you.
00:01:00.960 | See, if he's your father, he's not going to give you something that's bad for you.
00:01:05.960 | Just like I as a father wouldn't give my children something they ask for if they don't realize
00:01:10.400 | it would not be safe, they'd probably hurt themselves.
00:01:12.840 | So you know, J.I.
00:01:14.640 | Packer in his book on prayer actually says that ultimately there's no such thing as unanswered
00:01:20.920 | prayer.
00:01:22.680 | And even John Calvin says God grants our prayer even if he does not always respond to the
00:01:26.920 | exact form of our request.
00:01:28.680 | That's a pretty amazing thing for John Calvin to say.
00:01:31.280 | God grants our prayer even if it does, he does not always respond to the exact form
00:01:35.760 | of the request.
00:01:37.000 | So what Packer and Calvin are saying is that we might ask for something that's just not
00:01:40.520 | good for us.
00:01:42.680 | And God being a good father tries to give us what we would have asked for if we, if
00:01:49.360 | we knew everything he knew or try to give us what we're after, even though he won't
00:01:54.480 | give it to us in the form that we asked for it.
00:01:56.880 | Now that's the general heading of things that he won't give us, things that are bad for
00:02:00.400 | us.
00:02:01.400 | But inside there are some things that we're asking for with very bad motives.
00:02:05.920 | We don't know about it at the time, they're very selfish or very proud or very, or maybe
00:02:11.840 | there are things that assume a very overblown assessment of our own gifts.
00:02:17.960 | And those things that are actually badly motivated, God particularly can't give us because that
00:02:23.240 | would just fuel that pride.
00:02:25.920 | And so I would say that's a subheading, it's something that's not good for us.
00:02:30.080 | Now you could ask for something that's not good for you with the best of motives.
00:02:35.480 | You're not being selfish, it's not idle, it's not idol-driven, it's just unwise and he's
00:02:41.280 | not going to give it to you.
00:02:42.640 | But then the idol-driven kinds of requests would even be worse and he just simply won't
00:02:46.000 | do it.
00:02:47.000 | So that's what I think that means.
00:02:48.600 | >> Very good.
00:02:50.200 | And we finally arrive at the last question of the week, question number 10.
00:02:53.920 | Of course there are a lot of books on prayer and some very good ones too.
00:02:57.920 | So what do you think will surprise readers about your book or what do you think makes
00:03:02.080 | your book on prayer unique?
00:03:03.640 | >> I'll give you three and I'm not sure that, I think people will probably come away with
00:03:12.240 | at least one of these three.
00:03:13.400 | One is it's a more comprehensive book.
00:03:16.280 | The reason I wrote it was because there's a lot of great books on prayer, but books
00:03:20.620 | on prayer either go into the theology of prayer or they go into the practice of prayer or
00:03:26.240 | they troubleshoot it and they say here's problems.
00:03:29.200 | And I felt I didn't have one book I could give to people that was basically covering
00:03:33.100 | all the bases.
00:03:34.100 | You know, here's the biblical view of prayer, the theology of prayer, and here are some
00:03:37.480 | methods of prayer.
00:03:38.480 | I didn't have a good first book just to give somebody.
00:03:40.980 | So some people might come away and say what's unique about it is it's sort of balanced and
00:03:46.160 | kind of comprehensive but not too long.
00:03:49.080 | The second thing that might be surprising, I think, is on the one hand I really go deeply
00:03:55.680 | into John Owen's stuff in his book, not only his book on prayer, The Role of the Holy Spirit
00:04:01.120 | in Prayer, but also his book on the grace and duty of being spiritually minded.
00:04:05.080 | John Owen is very mystical.
00:04:07.560 | He really believes that you can have a faith sight of Jesus Christ, really see the glory
00:04:12.860 | of God, not with your physical eyes but with the eyes of the heart.
00:04:15.660 | And he actually says your affections have to be involved, there needs to be deep, deep,
00:04:19.760 | deep joy in prayer.
00:04:21.520 | So he's very, very mystical in that sense.
00:04:24.300 | But at the same time he's very down on Catholic mysticism and a lot of, he would be very down
00:04:31.540 | on an awful lot of the ways in which evangelicals are trying to bring in Catholic contemplative
00:04:38.280 | prayer practices.
00:04:40.200 | And I think that's what's unusual about the book.
00:04:42.780 | Because most books I know that are critical, as I am, of contemplative prayer, and I am,
00:04:48.720 | then do not turn around and try to give you a really robustly Reformed and Protestant
00:04:54.000 | approach to affectionate prayer, affection and meditation.
00:05:00.060 | So I think Luther, Edwards, and John Owen give you that.
00:05:04.320 | But many people who are trying to get away from the contemplative prayer practices are
00:05:08.560 | afraid of talking about meditation at all, and they're afraid of talking about deep experiences
00:05:13.280 | and encounters with God.
00:05:14.280 | They're just afraid to go there.
00:05:15.280 | And what I try to do is I try to say, "No, we've really got to get there.
00:05:18.520 | We have to get there.
00:05:19.640 | And these guys are good guides, Owen, Edwards, Luther."
00:05:22.800 | But at the same time we need to be pretty critical of a lot of the contemplative prayer
00:05:26.240 | practices that are being brought into the church right now.
00:05:29.120 | That's what I think a lot of people probably find pretty interesting.
00:05:32.400 | I think probably the third reason is, in the end, it's pretty practical.
00:05:36.400 | And I do find an awful lot of books are afraid of actually saying, "Here's a way to actually
00:05:41.660 | spend 15, 20 minutes in prayer."
00:05:43.440 | I actually try to get pretty practical at the end.
00:05:45.280 | I think some people would expect a Reformed evangelical type to be a little bit more,
00:05:49.160 | "Here's the exegesis, and now you go and apply it for yourself."
00:05:51.880 | Well, the book is surprisingly practical and comprehensive.
00:05:55.560 | You have accomplished something really remarkable in this book.
00:05:58.280 | Thank you for your time, Dr. Keller.
00:06:00.040 | That was Tim Keller, author of the new book titled, "Prayer, Experiencing Awe and Intimacy
00:06:04.320 | with God."
00:06:05.320 | It releases on November 4th, and you should seriously consider getting this book and reading
00:06:09.120 | it and perhaps even reading it together with a friend or a group of friends.
00:06:12.320 | I suspect this book is going to mark a turning point in the prayer lives of a lot of Christians
00:06:16.280 | this fall and this winter.
00:06:18.040 | I'm still putting together my list of Christian books of the year, but I think this one may
00:06:21.620 | finish at the top.
00:06:22.720 | It's that good.
00:06:24.200 | And this has been a really fun week talking about prayer with Tim Keller.
00:06:28.200 | And today on the DG blog, I published a full transcript of our time together.
00:06:31.940 | It's titled, "10 Questions on Prayer with Tim Keller."
00:06:35.420 | Go to DesiringGod.org to read it or Google the title, "10 Questions on Prayer with Tim
00:06:40.360 | Keller."
00:06:41.360 | And if you missed any of the episodes this week, all five of them are embedded in the
00:06:44.520 | bottom of that post.
00:06:46.680 | And speaking of reading the Bible, we'll be back on Monday with Pastor John and a question
00:06:50.480 | from a listener who has really never read the Bible for themselves.
00:06:54.440 | Where should he start?
00:06:55.440 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:06:56.440 | We'll see you on Monday.
00:06:56.500 | Thank you for watching.
00:06:57.500 | God bless.
00:06:57.560 | [End of Audio]
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00:07:06.060 | 9. What is the Bible?