William Carey’s Approach to Prayer
I am not much of prayer warrior. You would think that after 25 years as a missionary, I would be better than I am. My prayer life tends to be very unsystematic. At times it is superficial. And when I actually do pray I must struggle to maintain my focus. You know that dog in the Disney movie Up? The one distracted by squirrels? That’s me at prayer.
But here is the punchline: God answers me.
Over and over God has answered my prayers. In spite of the fact that I am not even good at being grateful. I don’t know how many times I have asked God for something, moved on to other things, forgotten what I asked for, seen God answer the original request, and then not recognized the answer until much later. Which makes me wonder how many things has God answered that I still haven’t recognized. I am so oblivious at times. And yet God still answers my prayers.
Beyond the fact that I am a bit of an airhead, I think one of my biggest weaknesses in prayer stems from the fact that I am a knee-jerk activist: see a need—do something—now. It is like an automatic switch in my brain. Sometimes it goes like this: see a need—don’t know what to do—worry.
Over the years I have slowly learned that when I find myself worrying I need to go back and do what I should have done first: go to the Lord in prayer. In other words, I have begun to see my worries not as legitimate reactions to the reality around me so much as system alarms that tell me to pray.
Dealing with my over-activism has been harder. Years ago I was struck by the story of David in 1 Samuel 30 where his camp is raided and all the women are children are carried off. His men are desperate to pursue the raiders, but David stops to first “inquire of the Lord.” Had I been David, I would have prayed for direction, protection, and success AS I was already galloping off after the raiders. It would have never occurred to me to inquire of the Lord IF I should give pursuit. To this day I find myself leading a planning meeting and not thinking to pray for guidance until we have already made our plans.
Now, I do not believe that we are called to a life of prayerful passivity. But neither are we called to take God’s place. God does the work and uses us as instruments.
For a number of years, I have been a student of the life and ministry of William Carey (1761-1834) who is known as the Father of Modern Missions. Carey led a vigorously active life, He saw considerable fruit from his ministry, but not before he had endured years of frustration and suffering. He was not perfect but in many ways here’s a great model for missionaries today. That is why one of the first courses our seminary students take is about Carey’s life and ministry. We want them to be men and women of active, prayerful faith.
Over the next five weeks I want to share with you five principles that lie behind Carey’s approach to prayer.
These ideas have been a great encouragement to me. And they are helpful to our students. I hope they will encourage you in your prayer life as well.
I hope that as you learn about Carey’s approach to prayer you will begin to feel the call to pray for the students of Seminario Bíblico William Carey. Latin American leaders desperately need quality theological training. However, even more importantly they need committed followers of Jesus Christ praying for their perseverance and proclamation of the gospel. Can you join them as they take the gospel to their churches and surrounding communities?
Sam Masters
