In the statement that follows Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that prayer is not something we do to inform God about what He doesn't know. Nor is it a means to conjure or compel God to our side. Rather, prayer is the plea of a child to their Father.
"The fact that we can pray is not something to be taken for granted. It is true that prayer is a natural need of the human heart, but that does not give us any right before God.... We pray to the God in whom we believe through Christ. Therefore our prayer can never be a conjuring up of God; we do not need to present ourselves before Him. We can know that God knows what we need before we ask for it. That gives our prayer the greatest confidence and a happy certainty. It is neither the formula nor the number of words but faith that reaches God in His fatherly heart, which has long known us. The proper prayer is not a deed, nor an exercise, not a pious attitude, but the petition of a child to the heart of a Father."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian during the days of World War II. He took a stand against Nazi atrocities. Although he had numerous opportunities to work internationally, he chose to return to Germany at the outbreak of the war and help minister to his fellow Christians leading an underground theological training community. Eventually he was executed by the Nazi regime just 10 days before the end of the war. A witness to his execution described the following.
"On the morning of that day (April 8, 1945) between five and six o'clock the prisoners...were taken from their cells and the verdicts of the court martial read out to them. Through the half-open door in one room of the huts I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer, before taking off his prison grab, kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God. I was most deeply moved by the way this unusually lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the steps of the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
- How does Bonhoeffer's statement, 'We can know that God knows what we need before we ask for it,' impact your approach to God?
- How does it affect your prayers to think of them as 'the petition of a child to the heart of a Father'?
- Consider Bonhoeffer's final moments, what may have influenced how he faced death?
- How might Bonhoeffer's statement or story lead you to approach God right now?
This quote from Bonhoeffer is copied from "God is on the Cross: Reflections on Lent and Easter" - you can find it here.