Answer to Prayer — The prayer song from my 1970s album Stranger Named Peace — goes hand in hand with the Lords Prayer Song.
Why so?
Jesus recommended only one universal prayer — the Lord’s Prayer. It’s efficacy depends upon the person doing the praying.
While it uses the communal “we”, the mutual forgiveness at its center
Forgive the wrongs that we have done
As we forgive those who do wrong
requires an individually specific response.
Today the Lord’s Prayer is almost always said in a group. That is unfortunate and needs to be countered by an effort to encourage its frequent use, spoken, sung, silently or softly aloud, by individuals.
If the Lord’s Prayer is essential, and possibly the only prayer we need, why this song, Answer to Prayer?
Because of clear instructions given by Jesus. His ask, seek and knock command.
The song simply states exactly what Jesus commands for those who wish to have a reciprocal relationship with the one Jesus called Abba Father in heaven.
Is this a prayer? I contend it is not. I contend that it is a description of what happens when we matter-of-factly ask, seek and knock. To move into the elaborate language of prayers of petition and intercession is to put a lot of priestly frosting on a cake that Jesus may not intended to bake.
A better way:
Use of the Lord’s Prayer and
Practice of the asking, seeking and knocking that is the simple promise of Answer To Prayer.
I am not a New Ager. One reason is that the Way of Abba is simpler and more direct and I believe more efficacious and less pretentious than the language of manifestation and affirmation. Asking, seeking and knocking lays things directly before Abba and outcomes are or are not as one might wish. Just as the outcome of Jesus’s own asking — that the cup be taken from him — that he not die — was not as he initially asked.
I think the New Age culture springs up for two simple reasons:
We have done a poor job of communicating the simple Way of Abba.
And even if we improved, there would still be an animus against Christianity and the church, an animus that may be justified but which often throws the baby out with the bath water.
Here is the song Answer to Prayer — The prayer song from my 1970s album Stranger Named Peace The entire album can be downloaded at no cost or bookmarked and listened to online. online.
The lyric follows:
Answer To Prayer
Giving when we ask is the way God has chosen
To answer when we prayOpening when we knock is the way God has chosen
To answer when we prayFinding when we seek is the way God has chosen
To answer when we prayIs there anyone who asking, seeking or knocking
Has not found a wayIs there anyone who asking, seeking or knocking
Has not found a wayC Copyright Stephen C. Rose 10-0$ Your free copy. Licensed to CCLI and LicenSing.
Stephen Curtiss Rose 