This post is part of a series of posts summarising chapters of the Jehovah Witnesses' booklet, "What does the Bible really Teach?", and seeking to evaluate those chapters against Scripture somewhat briefly. Those posts were introduced at the Introduction, and a contents page will be added to that entry once this run of posts has finished.
Chapter 17: Draw close to God in prayer
We are small, but God will draw near to us in prayer – if we pray in the way he approves.
Why pray to Jehovah? He invites us to, and it strengthens our relationship with him.
What requirements must we meet? He doesn’t listen to all prayer – we must have faith, and this must be borne out by our actions; we must be humble, and recognise whom we speak to; we must live in harmony with our prayers.
Answering some questions about prayer: To whom? Our father in heaven – i.e., Jehovah. We pray through Jesus. There is no need for any special posture or position. We can pray for anything we like, as long as it accords with God’s will. This should include personal matters, but also range wider. We should priorities the things that matter to God. It matters more that we pray from the heart than that we pray for a long or short time. We should pray continually, which means regularly. “Amen” is an appropriate ending to our prayers.
How God answers our prayers: He really does answer them. He uses angels and other humans to answer prayer. His holy spirit and the Bible answer prayer. If there is a delay, that is because he “answers prayers according to his will and in his due time.” (172) In these cases we persevere.
Evaluation
This is a reasonably good sample of the biblical material on prayer.
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