John R Rice "Prayer is asking"; "If it is not asking, it is not prayer in the Bible sense."

[Truth Seeker]

John R Rice was a godly man but he wasn't always correct on some topics. Take the topic of prayer, his best selling book was "Prayer Asking And Receiving" published in 1942. According to Rice, prayer was simply asking God for your needs. Rice rejected the teaching that prayer also has some other components. For instance, prayer is also adoration, praise, intercession, confession and thanksgiving. The error that John R Rice makes in his book is that he narrows down prayer to just asking God. Prayer includes supplication or "asking" to God but it is also much broader than just simply "asking." I believe many IFB's today would not agree with how Rice defined prayer in this book. But to be fair, the book also has some good gems about prayer.

 

[Van]

I think the OP alluded to ACTS, our prayer model summary, where

A = Adoration - our worship and praise of the excellencies of God

C = Confession - our thoughtful consideration of where we have fallen short of the glory of God plus our commitment to strive to do better.

T = Thanksgiving - our recognition of God's blessings, specifically, as we walk with Christ.

S = Supplication - our asking not what God can do for us, but what we can do for God. Prayer is our source for strength and guidance (insight into God's word) as we strive to become more like Christ and more effective Ambassadors for Christ.

 

[Van]

Pray like this:

Pray to the Father
and recognize His authority.

Ask for an understanding of His will,
and the willingness to follow.

Ask only for what you need,
and the wisdom to avoid needless desires.

Forgive anyone you think has sinned against you,
and ask for forgiveness for your sinful thoughts and deeds.

Ask for guidance to overcome temptation, and
for insight to keep falsehoods and lies far from you.

(Matthew. 6:9-15 Application)
​

 

[Marooncat79]

I illumination asking God to illuminate our hearts with the truth of His Word as we read sceiprure

 

[Deacon]

John R. Rice’s book is partially available on the internet.

Prayer Asking And Receiving [Google Link]

“Prayer is not praise, adoration, meditation, humiliation, nor confession, but asking.”

John R. Rice deals with a single topic.
He acknowledges that there are various ways to talk with God but defines prayer as the act of simply “asking”.

Today we use a much broader definition of prayer that encompasses adoration, confession, thanksgiving, as well as supplication (asking).

But the purpose of the book was to simply encourage people to pray.

Although with the title, Rice establishes prayer as a simple act, he fleshes the act of prayer out more fully, saying that every attribute of God is implied in the fact that he hears and answers prayer.

Rob

 

[Van]

Pray like this:

Pray to the Father
and recognize His authority. [Adoration and Thanksgiving]

Ask for an understanding of His will,
and the willingness to follow. [Supplication]

Ask only for what you need,
and the wisdom to avoid needless desires. [Supplication]

Forgive anyone you think has sinned against you,
and ask for forgiveness for your sinful thoughts and deeds. [Confession and Contrition]

Ask for guidance to overcome temptation, and
for insight to keep falsehoods and lies far from you. [Supplication]

(Matthew. 6:9-15 Application)

 

[Piper 2]

I read this book early in my Christian life. I disagree with some of the things he said, but it did push me to actually pray regularly and ask God for specific things.

 

[Van]

We speak to God through Prayer, God speaks to us through His word. We must study it to understand it, or to understand it more fully, and we must meditate on it to apply it to our lives. Otherwise, we are not listening to God.

 

[John of Japan]

John R Rice was a godly man but he wasn't always correct on some topics. Take the topic of prayer, his best selling book was "Prayer Asking And Receiving" published in 1942. According to Rice, prayer was simply asking God for your needs. Rice rejected the teaching that prayer also has some other components. For instance, prayer is also adoration, praise, intercession, confession and thanksgiving. The error that John R Rice makes in his book is that he narrows down prayer to just asking God. Prayer includes supplication or "asking" to God but it is also much broader than just simply "asking." I believe many IFB's today would not agree with how Rice defined prayer in this book. But to be fair, the book also has some good gems about prayer.View attachment 9652

I will agree that Rice was not always right. However:

Your view is a common one, but I know of no place in the Bible where "adoration, praise, intercession [a form of asking--JoJ], confession, and thanksgiving" are all included under "prayer." In other words, where in the Bible is your view specifically given?

Rice's view was based upon the fact that the words in the Hebrew and Greek mean "ask," and the English word "pray" originally meant "to ask," as in "I pray thee..." occurring many times in Shakespeare. So in the 17th century, when our KJV was translated, everyone said "pray" for "ask." For example, in Much Ado About Nothing, we have, “I pray thee, cease thy counsel" (A quote from Much Ado About Nothing). (People seem to forget that the KJV, which I love and use, was translated in 17th century English.)

Even in modern English we have idioms meaning "ask," such as when a student says, "You better pray that you don't get JoJ for Greek 101!"

P. S. Just noticed that the first post was from last summer. Don't know how I missed it!

The Hebrew word is פּלל (pâlal), occurring in 82 verses of the OT. It means "to intercede" (Holladay's Hebrew lexicon) among other things. Usually in the OT it clearly means "ask." For example, look at Gen. 20:17, "So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children." Abram interceded (asked), and it was clearly answered.

(2) The Greek word proseuxomai (προσεύχομαι) usually translated "pray" also means "ask." It occurs in 82 verses in the NT as a verb, and 37 verses as a noun, and clearly means "ask." My favorite lexicon says, "a religious technical term for talking to a deity in order to ask for help, usually in the form of a request, vow, or wish pray, speak to (God), ask (MT 6.6)" (Friberg, Friberg and Miller, Analytical Lexicon, accessed with BibleWorks). So Rice was completely correct: the word translated "pray" in our NT does mean "ask." The other actions are commanded in addition to prayer.

Now, in the Bible sometimes the words "prayer" and "thanksgiving" occur in the same command, so they are separate things. Note the following examples:
Phil. 4:6, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
Col. 4:2, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving."

As for the other things, true, they are very important when we kneel. But they are not "prayer" in the Bible, though preachers and Bible teachers often lump them together. I hope this helps.

Side note: Rice's best seller was actually his little book Heaven, which has sold over 700,000 already. Prayer: Asking and Receiving is in 2nd place. But of course his famous tract has had over 40 million printed in about 45 languages. So there's that.