Grace President Explains What Is PrayerWINONA LAKE - “What is prayer?” was the question Dr. Drew Flamm, president of Grace College and Seminary, tried to answer Thursday during the National Day of Prayer at the Winona Heritage Room.
The theme for the National Day of Prayer this year is “Pray fervently in righteousness and avail much.”
Flamm quoted American theologian John Piper, who said, “Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need.”
Flamm said prayer is the recognition “we can’t, but He can.”
Flamm suggested people need to learn to pray like the most righteous man on earth - Jesus Christ.
He said the Lord’s Prayer is the most referenced portion of Scripture. In the prayer, Jesus shows people how to pray to his Father and people should learn from that since children know their parents.
Flamm said people should pray plainly.
He told the story of Brother Lawrence, who was an uneducated monk who washed dishes and served the other monks food. He prayed the same whether in the kitchen or at the alter. God wants the person praying to impress him and not others while praying.
Jesus said when praying to talk to God, Flamm said. People can access God any time and anywhere.
In the Lord’s Prayer, people learn the pattern of prayer, he said, which resolves around Acts.
The first part of the pattern of prayer is adoration. Flamm said people should understand addressing God as Father is respectful and loving. He used an example of him with his children. With his children, Flamm is not Drew, rather he is Dad. The same goes with God.
The second part of the pattern of prayer is confession, which is a deep recognition of sin and what you’ve done wrong.
The third part of the pattern of prayer is thanksgiving. Flamm said people don’t necessarily have to be thankful for things that have all ready happened, but can be thankful of things to come, quoting part of the Lord’s Prayer: “give us this day our daily bread.”
The last part of the pattern of prayer is supplication, begging for something you need, he said.
Flamm said the reason people should pray is the power of prayer is then unleashed, which can help people do unimaginable physical, emotional and spiritual things.
He led those attending the Day of Prayer at the Winona Heritage Room in the Lord’s Prayer.
Representatives from the community led prayers for seven focus areas. They were ministry and missions, Bonnie Swanson, executive pastor of ministries at Warsaw Community Church; families, Mason Metzger, accessibility advocate; education, Rebecca Monsma, principal of Lakeland Christian Academy; media, Karen Baker, marketing consultant for WFRN - FM radio 104.7; business, Rod Mayer, president of Medartis USA; military, Joseph E. Banks III, retired master sergeant major for the Indiana National Guard; and government, Joseph Thallemer, Warsaw mayor.
