Prayer Course, Session VI, 24th Oct 2010
Four Basic Types of Prayer
I. Adoration
During the Protestant Reformation in France, students at the Sorbonne in Paris would gather along the banks of the River Seine and sing psalms for hours at a time. Given the state of Paris and of the Sorbonne now, that may will be hard to imagine. However, as the students grasped the reality of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, rather than by perfect obedience, they were overcome by the mercy of God and delighted to pour out their hearts in praise of their Creator and Savior. They gathered at the river and sang the songs of David, whom God had rescued numerous times. His words gave voice to the praise of their hearts.
The first question in the Westminster Catechism is “what is the chief end of man?” The answer is, “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Those French students of the mid-1500’s were glorifying God and enjoying him as they sang. They continue to do so, now gathered around the Throne of God, seeing their Savior and their God face to face. They and all the saints know the Lord ever more fully and praise him ever more joyfully.
It is very common to use the acronym “ACTS” when talking about the four major types of prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Ideally, if one prays with any regularity, all four of these types of prayer are used in each time of prayer. As we saw in the Lord’s Prayer, the ideal way to pray is to begin with God. When one begins with God, one can see the world not simply from the perspective of our concerns, but from the knowledge of our God’s power, justice, and love. Remembering who God is helps us to form our prayers and to pray with confidence.
Adoration is the form of prayer in which we praise God for who he is. We remember and rejoice in those qualities. Question Four of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is “What is God?” The reply is, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” Let me say that again: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” When we adore God, we are marveling over those qualities of God and praising him for those qualities. Our security and hope lie in the reality that God is who he is.
While adoration may be the best way to begin a session of prayer, it is not the easiest. Pondering God’s attributes is difficult. For one thing, as you do, it is easy to slide into thanksgiving, not only praising God for his goodness, but offering him thanks for the ways in which he has been good to you. Thanksgiving is indeed a needed and important part of prayer – but it is not the same as adoration, in which we thank God for who he is, and not for what he has done.
In addition, wisdom, power, and holiness are large and abstract topics, hard to wrap one’s mind around. I think this is one of the things that lays behind the Eastern Orthodox churches use of icons in worship. The stylized and symbolic paintings used in icons help the worshiper to focus the particular quality in God that they wish to ponder and praise. The same might be said, I think, of the statues and other art that can be found in Roman Catholic churches and shrines. We Protestants do not use such things because they are perilously close to idolatry. The closest we come is stained glass windows – but these almost always contain scenes from the Bible. I can remember one from the church my father grew up in that was a depiction of the good shepherd carrying home the lost lamb, which spoke of God’s depth of compassion and his love even for the lost.
It is indeed hard to focus on abstraction concepts, such as God’s infinity. In some ways, simply to take that answer from the Westminster Catechism and ponder the words slowly can create in us a sense of awe and humility. In my own experience, and perhaps in yours, however, one of the best ways to adore God is to read the Psalms. My own daily prayers begin with a few verses from one of the Psalms, focusing on one of God’s attributes. At times I use Ps. 95, 1-3:
“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
For the Lord is a great God,
the great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:1-3)
There are other passages in Scripture which can help us to praise and adore the Lord. Isaiah 6:3 says, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” Rev. 15:3-4 says:
“And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
‘Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.’”
There are many other passages I could cite that focus on the greatness of God and the perfection of his character and being. One of the things that I enjoyed about Anglican worship was that in Morning or Evening Prayer, we always sang several of a collection of Scripture passages or early Church hymns. Songs such as these were intended to help the worshiper focus on the being and character of the Lord. Some people systematically read through the Psalms as part of their personal worship, to help them adore God.
One of the ways we adore the Lord is in hymns. St Augustine is credited with saying, “He who sings prays twice.” Our worship services begin with a call to worship, usually from the Psalms, followed by a hymn of praise. This is adoration. We use these things to focus on God himself, so that our hearts may be lifted up to the King of Heaven.
Some people use not only the Psalms but also hymns in their personal worship – perhaps simply reading them, or, if conditions are favorable, singing them. Adoring God can be difficult because we are thinking on things that are far above us – but we are blessed to have resources given by direct revelation from God and also through his providence as he has blessed other Christians down through the years.
II. Confession
Adoration is a difficult form of prayer – and if you are following the pattern of ACTS, the second form is even more difficult: Confession. We are generally willing to admit that we are sinners, but it is very hard to admit to particular sins we have committed. We can know intellectually that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” but there is something in us that recoils at the thought that we really are that bad. Part of our sinful nature is that we want to believe that there is something in us that commends us to God, something he finds attractive or loveable. The reality is, of course, that God loves us because he is love. He created us out of love and he redeems us out of love, because it is his nature to love with a pure and holy love. Even if we think of some quality in ourselves that he might find attractive, the reality is, he put it there himself and we can claim no credit for it. And even our best qualities are tainted by sin. For that reason, if we seek to commend ourselves to God based on something within us, we are doomed. Even our best is unstable; what seems good in us to ourselves may prove to be fragile when put to the test at some later time. C. S. Lewis once said, “No one knows how bad he is until he tries very hard to be good.”
We do not like to be reminded of our sinfulness. It is painful to know that there is no good thing within us, and that even our best is warped by the sinful bent of our hearts. I remember a quote from Calvin that I learned when I took an Evangelism Explosion course many years ago, that goes something like this: “We know only a tiny fraction of our sins, for if we saw our sins fully, we would be crushed.” When Isaiah was lifted up to the throne room of heaven in the year that King Uzziah died, his response was “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Isaiah was an educated man of noble birth, with high standards and a good reputation in Israel. He was one of the best there was. When he saw the glory of God, however, he knew the depth of his sin.
That is one reason that it is good to begin our prayers with adoration. As we contemplate the holiness of God, we become aware of God’s goodness and holiness, and of our own shortcomings and our need for the Lord’s grace and mercy. One of my anchor verses in life is 1 John 1:9, which says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God does not want us to confess so that he can see us grovel before him. He wants us to confess so that we will depend upon his marvelous grace, and so that he can cleanse us through the blood of Jesus. Our life as Christians is a time of growing in the Lord, as his grace is applied to ever wider and ever deeper aspects of our hearts and minds, so that we become more and more like Jesus, bearing the Fruit of the Spirit.
I have mentioned before that I record both the blessings and challenges that I encounter each day as part of my personal worship. Over time, those notes on my challenges help me to see where I am struggling the most, and so point out an area of weakness and sin. I can then ask God to cleanse me in that area. It is a slow process, but as the old Gospel singer said, “I ain’t what I’m gonna to be, and I ain’t what I oughtta be, but thank God, I ain’t what I was.”
We need to confess because without confession, we do not grow. Sin is like a mushroom, for it grows in the dark while being fed impure things. With confession, sin loses its power over us. If we do not confess because we do not want to know what we are, sin lurks in the dark, ready to trip us up again and again. To confess sin is to bring it into the light, where God can both forgive it and get rid of it and the impurities that make it grow.
Confession consists in three aspects. First, there is the admission that one did the particular action – whether it be in deed, thought, or word. Then there is the reality that what was done was wrong. These two things are important, but perhaps the most difficult aspect is the third: saying, “It was my fault.” We are all too prone to be like the little kid who, went asked if he hit his sister replies, “Yes – but she hit me first!” It is all too easy to find a reason why what we did was unavoidable and that we should not bear the responsibility for it.
Our tendency to shift blame goes all the way back to Eden: “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”
“It wasn’t me – it was that woman YOU gave me.” “It wasn’t me – it was that wily serpent!” Adam and Eve admitted that they had violated God’s command, but tried to place the responsibility somewhere else. To be true confession, we must tell God that it was wrong, that we did the thing in question, and that we bear responsibility for that wrong deed, word, or thought.
Confession is painful, but it is needed. We really are sinners, even if we have been well brought up and do many good things. We need to experience forgiveness and to grow in character and grace. The blessing is that it is not our confession that earns forgiveness and cleansing. We can confess because we have already been forgiven. Christ has fully atoned for all our sins, past, present, and even future. There is nothing in our lives that we can find where the blood of Jesus has not gone before.
That means we can examine our hearts to discern where we have gone astray. Nothing that we can find there will be a surprise to God. There will not be anything that you find to which God would say, “If I had known that about you, I could not possibly accept you as my child. Go! And never bother me again.” God already knows the darkest things in us, and he has cast them into the depths of the sea.
It may be painful for us to see how deeply sin has corrupted us, but we still have that unbreakable promise in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession removes burdens and it brings light and life to our hearts. God offers us the grace of confession so that we may appreciate ever more fully and ever more joyfully the completeness of the redemption that has been accomplished in Christ.
III. Thanksgiving
If adoration and confession are difficult aspects of praying, then thanksgiving is one of the easiest aspects. If we pay attention to what is going on, knowing that God is at work, we will see many things for which to be thankful. Again, by keeping my daily record of blessings and challenges, I have a record of things for which I am thankful. And simply reviewing the day helps me see not simply one thing, but several. We can, of course, focus on the difficult and painful things in life, but if our focus is on the negative aspects of our experience in life, we will develop and negative and unthankful attitude. We can miss what is good and positive, and see God as an ogre who is seeking to make us miserable.
On the other hand, there is an old song, “Keep Your Sunny Side Up” that approaches life from the opposite side, focusing only on the positive. “If you have nine sons in a row, baseball teams make money, you know,” and many similar sentiments. Having a thankful heart does not mean forcing a positive attitude onto a difficult situation. To force a positive spin on things is also a false way of looking at life. While it is true that all things work together for good for those who know and trust the Lord Jesus, there are still parts of life that are painful.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, Paul says, “pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” We cannot pretend that everything is great when we are struggling with something hard and painful. What we can do, however, it to give thanks that even this painful event can be used for God’s glory and our benefit. That passage does not say “Give thanks for all circumstances,” It says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” We live in a broken world, and things do not work as they are supposed to work. From a human perspective, there is often injustice and unfairness, and often there is pain. But we can always give thanks for what we see now as good – and give thanks that what is painful in our lives or unjust in the world will be defeated by God’s mercy and power. He will use what is wrong to further his purposes – and one day, he will banish all that is wrong and recreate all that now is, transforming a broken world into a whole one.
“Count your blessings; name them one by one, count your blessings, and see what God has done.” Life is difficult, but it does not have to be depressing; God is for us, and if he had done nothing but redeem us from our sins, that would be far more than we deserve. He has blessed us in abundance, far more then we deserve, or truly can desire.
IV. Supplication
Often what drives us to prayer is some pressing need in our own lives or in those of our loved ones. Supplication is the fourth aspect of prayer. For many people, it is the only type of prayer that is thought of. In a well-rounded prayer life, it is the fourth element of prayer, and the one that most properly should come last. When we begin with praise, confession, and thanksgiving, we will almost certainly come to our request with fresh insights into our needs and the needs of those we care about.
There are actually two kinds of supplication: If you are praying for others, you are praying intercessory prayers. If you pray for yourself, you are making petitions to God.
Our prayers of intercession and petition should cover needs of all sorts, both a wide array of physical needs, and also spiritual needs. We often major in physical needs. That is important; it recognizes that God is creator and Lord of all we see. But there are many things besides jobs, health, and guidance that we can pray for, such as a well-run government, honest leaders in government and business, reconciliation between those who are estranged from one another, and many others. The list of our needs is long!
One thing that I have noticed over the years is that prayer groups will often take the “soft” route of praying simply for health and work concerns. There is nothing at all wrong with praying for such things. Illness is part of the “death” that infests this fallen world, and God does want to relieve the suffering that comes from illness. The Lord wants us to pray for health and for jobs, and he wants to bless us with the joy of seeing healing come and of restoring someone to the workforce. But it is also important for people to bear one another’s burdens in other areas – struggles with temptation, relationships that need mending, planning for group or congregational life, and so on. There are many things for which we can intercede before the Lord, and our prayers of supplication can be long and varied.
James speaks about prayer in James 5:13-18 , “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”
God wants us to pray for our physical needs. He tells us that our prayers have great power as we lift those prayers to him in confidence that he will hear and act. James speaks of the power of Elijah in praying – an ordinary man, with faith in an extraordinary God. When he prayed for rain, he knew it would come – for God had told him to pray for rain. God invites us to pray for our needs, here for health, and for daily needs in the Lord’s Prayer. We are not told precisely how he will answer our prayers, but we are told that he will answer them according to our needs and for his glory
Prayer is spending time in fellowship with God, enjoying his love and mercy, opening our hearts to him, and seeking to understand his heart, so that we can love what he loves and so be restored to his image. In prayer, we adore God for who he is, we admit where we have failed to live up to his purposes for us, we give thanks for the multitude of his blessings, and we ask for ourselves and others those things that we need for life in this world and the next. In one way, it is the simplest thing in the world – and in another, it is the hardest. God is so great and we are so small and weak that the gap can seem unbridgeable. We certainly cannot build a bridge from our end – but God has, in Jesus, and he invites us to come to him, to enjoy him and to glorify him forever.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Series on Prayer at Fairlawn CRC, Session V,
The Apostles on Prayer
I. A Praying Church
As part of my research for this presentation, I went to BibleGateway.com and searched for “pray.” I could remember some prayers in Acts, and that Paul and other apostles mentioned their prayers in the epistles, but it was amazing to see the number of times that “pray” and “prayer” showed up in the New Testament: nearly 150 times, with 93 of those instances being in Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation. The early church was characterized by being a praying community. Acts 1:14 says, “All these (the eleven loyal apostles) with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” Verse 15 lets us know that there were some 120 people who were waiting for the power of the Lord to come, as Jesus had promised at his Ascension. They waited in prayer – not in chatting, or playing cards, or whatever, but in prayer.
That same spirit of prayer continued. Acts 2:42 characterizes the life of the early Church with these words: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Later on, when the need for deacons arose because of the concerns between the Aramaic-speaking and the Greek-speaking Jews, the apostles described their need to give this job to others more gifted in what it required, they said, “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
The early Church in Jerusalem was a praying Church. They met at the Temple for the morning and evening prayers, and they prayed as a body in the upper room. Their leaders saw prayer as one of the most important things that they could do. As we read later on in Acts, God directed them as they prayed, and missionaries were sent out to evangelize the world. The authors of the epistles spoke of their own prayers for those who received the letters, and told the new Christians in various areas to pray. James, the brother of Jesus, who wrote the Epistle of James, had an interesting nickname, according to some ancient traditions that have been handed down. He was known as “Old Camel Knees,” because of the calluses on his knees due to the hours he spent in prayer. He may have been extraordinary, but it does seem that the early Church was filled with prayer and with praying people. Later on, I am going to look at some of the prayers recorded in the New Testament, but today, I want to look at the instructions on prayer that the Apostles gave to the Christians under their care.
II. “Pray Without Ceasing”
1 Thess. 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” That second command from Paul tells us more about the importance of prayer: it is to done “without ceasing.” This idea of continual prayer is repeated in a number of other places. Rom. 12:12 says, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Eph 6:17-19 says, “Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel…”
Does anyone have an idea of how to “pray without ceasing”?
I suspect, although I do not know for sure, that verses like this were part of the reason behind the monastic movement that began in the 4th Century, with men, and later women, going off into the desert to escape the distraction of life in cities and towns, and to pray. Although they began as hermits, eventually they banded together. In due course, there were many orders of monks and nuns, each following a specific discipline of life. But one feature of monastic life was common to them all: the hours of prayer. The monastic community gathered seven times a day to pray together.
Is that what the apostles wanted for Christians to do when we are told to pray without ceasing? I do not think so. If you gather seven times a day for fifteen or thirty minutes of prayer, you are engaged in prayer a great deal – but that is still not prayer unceasing!
In the mid-Seventeenth Century, there was a humble monk named Brother Lawrence. We know of him because someone collected his letters and talked with him, and published a book that is called The Practice of the Presence of God. Brother Lawrence was someone whose faith was better than his theology as a Roman Catholic. He simply trusted Jesus for everything – and regarded his day as time to spend in conversation with God. As I said in my first presentation, prayer at its heart is communion with God. Br. Lawrence spoke of regarding even the simplest and most humble of activities as a way to glorify God. Even picking up a straw while tending the chickens could be done to honor God, conscious of the Lord’s presence.
Praying without ceasing is a matter of cultivating a sense of God’s presence and of conversing with him throughout the day. It is not the same as finding a quiet spot in your home and lifting formal prayers to the Lord, because it can be done as you drive, or in the midst of work, or while conversing with someone. Praying without ceasing is a matter of establishing a habit of the heart – a heart aware of God, aware of our constant need for mercy, aware of his providential action, and thankful that there is nothing too large or too small to be beyond the Lord’s care.
Developing an awareness of God’s presence and talking with him in the midst of daily activities – often about those activities – is different from those more formal, special times of prayer that we may have in the morning or evening. But an awareness of God is dependent upon those disciplined times of Bible study and prayer. God’s Word and deliberate, disciplined prayer is the root that nourishes the flower of conversing with God throughout the day, offering up to him each opportunity and activity, and giving every concern to him as a request for help.
I have yet to reach the experience that constant sense of God’s presence that Brother Lawrence reported, but in God’s mercy, I have been able to develop the habit of talking to the Lord in bits and pieces throughout the day, and of pondering his greatness and his glory as I go through his creation. I believe that this habit of talking with God can be developed by anyone who knows the Lord, perhaps starting with simple thanksgivings on the spot for the little blessings that come each day.
As an interesting historical footnote, when the English Book of Common Prayer was compiled by Abp Cranmer in the late 1540’s, it contained an Order for Daily Morning Prayer and an Order for Daily Evening Prayer. Cranmer’s intention was to enable each parish church to serve as center for prayer in its village. In this way, the people of each village or town could frame their day in prayer together, morning and evening, and, it was hoped, pray individually throughout the day. Cranmer knew the apostle’s injunction to ‘pray without ceasing,” and he wanted to enable that spirit of prayer throughout the nation.
III. Some Warnings Concerning Prayer
The apostles also had some warnings concerning prayer. In James 4:1-3, James says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Verse three is a warning against selfishness in prayer. There are those in the “health and wealth” movement who teach that you can have everything you want, if you pray in faith – and usually that also involves sending them a contribution. Such teaching is wrong on a number of counts, but one way in which it is contrary to God’s desire for us is that it encourages selfishness. God promises that he will care for us when he teaches us to pray for our daily bread – but he does not promise to underwrite “the American Dream” for us, or to insulate us from the various shifts in the economic climate. It is not wrong to have a large house or a big bank account – but it is wrong to set our hearts on such things as the foundation of happiness. To pray for material blessings simply because we think that they are essential to our happiness is to treat prayer as a form of magic and to regard God as a grandfather who wants to spoil us rather than a Father who wants us to grow into maturity, into the image of Christ. In addition, to pray for material blessings and the like selfishly is, as James warns, to set in motion the forces of competition among Christians, so that there are fights and quarrels.
There are also some interesting comments about marriage and prayer in the epistles. In 1 Cor 7:4-5, Paul says, “For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” These verses come from a part of 1 Cor where Paul is discussing marriage, and I am sure that a lot could be said about these two verses. For our purposes, however, I want to note two things.
The first is that it seems that times of protracted prayer were not at all uncommon in the early Church. When Paul speaks of “a limited time,” he seems to be speaking in terms of days, not hours (which would make no sense) or weeks. In those days, most people were self-employed and they could, if they wished, take two or three days for personal purposes, including prayer. Our lives are much more controlled by the clock and it is difficult for ordinary people to take days at a stretch for anything personal simply because they want to.
The other thing that I get from this passage is that it is wrong to use spiritual activities as a weapon in personal relationships. Paul says that refraining from marital relations was to be by mutual consent, not because one spouse said to the other, “If you were as spiritual as I am, you would take days at a time to pray. I am going to pray, and you will just have to put up with it.” In my years as a pastor, I have seen that dynamic at work in a few relationships, and it was always a sad thing. At times, it looked to me that the person who regarded themselves as “more spiritual” was actually less spiritually mature. If the other partner were not a Christian, such statements did nothing to make Jesus Christ more attractive. We should make it a matter of prayer that all Christian couples should mutually encourage each other in spiritual growth, and not fall into the trap of using supposed Christian maturity as a tool to feel superior or to get one’s own way.
There is another passage that talks of marriage and prayer. 1 Peter 3:7 says, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” Peter, who was a married man, was telling his brothers in Christ to honor their wives and to regard them as spiritual partners. It is tempting for a man to use his superior size and strength, and perhaps the weight of societal pressure, to get his own way in the home. Men and women are spiritual equals. It took the blood of Christ to redeem both men and women; we all stand before God on the same basis. The Bible does say that the husband is the head of the home – but from what I can see in Ephesians 5, the husband as the head of the wife is a position of responsibility, not a position of privilege and selfishness.
Peter seems to picture marriage between Christians as a relationship that involves prayer together as well as individually. For years, Mary and I had our individual “Quiet Times” with the Lord, but did not pray together except for remarkable circumstances. Then a few years ago, we started taking about ten minutes each morning to pray together for one another, for our children, and for various things we knew about. It was not a huge amount of time, but it was a blessed time – and we have had better communication and have seen some great answers to our requests. Two weeks ago, I spoke of three ways to put prayer more fully into your lives, and one way was for married couples to pray together for a few minutes each day, if they were not already doing so. It can be a simple as one thanksgiving and one request each, but something is much better than nothing. (The other two things I suggested were to pray daily for your major occupation of the day and for your major “enemy” or to take a few minutes each day to record a blessing and a challenge that you had experienced.)
Marriage is a “one flesh” relationship, and it both affects our prayers and is affected by our prayers. The apostles warned us of the dangers of selfishness in prayer and marriage, and they tell us that married couples need to take care of how they relate to one another and of how they pray individually and as a couple.
IV. Two Major Passages on Prayer
While prayer is frequently mentioned in the New Testament, many of the passages after the Gospels that touch on prayer are simply notes about prayers that were said or comments on prayer in relation to other things. There are two passages that talk about prayer itself, and do so for more than one verse. These two passages are 1 Tim 2:1-4, 8, and Ph 4:4-7.
Here is what 1 Tim 2:1-4 & 8 say, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth… I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.” One of the phrases I have heard about living as Christians is that, while we may live in the world, we are not to be of the world. Paul puts it this way in Phil 3:20, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Our primary identity is that of subjects of the King of Kings. We are indeed citizens of nations here on earth as well, but that citizenship is not to take precedence over our loyalty to the Lord.
But even though our highest loyalty is to be to the Lord, that does not mean that we are to ignore or demean the nation in which we live. Paul says that we are to pray for those who govern us. When he wrote, the Emperor and his governors were not believers in the Lord. Some of those leaders were perfectly dreadful and unjust, persecuting Christians and reigning out of selfishness and the love of power. But Paul said that we are to pray for our government and its officials. The aim of such prayers is that we would have a society that is orderly enough so that people are able to think of more than simply where they might be able to get food for the day and how to avoid being killed by lawless mobs, which would be the case if there were no organized society. If people are able to think of more than simply where their next meal might come from, they are able to consider the claims of the Lord Jesus. Those who are believers are able to use the calm to grow in faith and character. To pray for one’s nation and one’s leaders has a spiritual aim, not merely a physical one of it being more pleasant to live in a well-run society than in a chaotic one.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of our heavenly Father having the grace to send rain to both the just and the unjust. To pray for our nation and our leaders is to pray for God’s common grace to continue not only in the natural realm but in the sphere of human society. God is under no obligation to continue such grace, and indeed sometimes he withdraws such grace to an extent as a reminder of how bad things would be if he did not restrain human sinfulness. Paul tells us to pray for our government as an appeal to God to maintain his common grace towards all humanity, not only for their blessing in this life, but also so that they may have the opportunity to consider Christ. Of course, that also means that we have the responsibility to share the Gospel with those around us who do not yet know the Lord.
The other passage in the epistles that teaches about prayer directly is Phil 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
One of my seminary professors called this passage the assurance of the convertibility of worry into prayer. It tells us not to be anxious, but rather to pray for our concerns. Paul makes it plain that anxiety is opposed by three things: rejoicing, thanksgiving, and requests. A few weeks ago, I said that thanksgiving was a very important part of prayer and of Christian living. But rejoicing and giving thanks are very difficult things to do when one is in the midst of some personal crisis or watching someone about whom we care deeply go through hard times. How can we rejoice when a job is lost, business is faltering, cancer has been diagnosed, or a child is going astray? For what can we give thanks?
Such events are indeed painful and can be the source of great anxiety. If they are all that we can think about, we will indeed be consumed by the situation. What we can rejoice in is that God is God and God is good. The first question in the Heidelberg Catechism is “What is thy only comfort in life and death?” and its answer is, “That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.”
It is not always easy to take great theological truth and apply it to our psychological reality. Perhaps the first prayer in painful circumstances could be, “Lord, I know what you say, and I know what I feel, and the two do not line up. Your Word says that you will never fail me or forsake me. My heart tells me that I am in agony. Speak to my heart and remind me that you are in control and that you are good.”
There are three aspects to a living faith: knowledge of the truth, assent that the truth is indeed true, and reliance upon the truth as reality. In order to pray as Paul teaches in Philippians 4, we need to rely upon the truth of God. When we rely upon his Word, we can rejoice that God is God. We can rejoice and give thanks that he is more powerful than all the dreadful things that have happened to us or could happen to us. We can rejoice and give thanks that he is so powerful that even deliberate evil done to us can be turned into a blessing. The book of Genesis closes with the story of Joseph, who was betrayed by his brothers, yet that very betrayal became the means of the salvation of Israel from death in a great famine. Joseph speaks to his brothers when they are reunited in Egypt, saying, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
During the last year that I was Rector of Trinity, I was tortured by watching the events in the Episcopal Church. Each week seemed to bring a new horror of apostasy. I was not sure of what to do or when to do it. I had three Christian songs I listened to in order to remind myself of what was really real: “In Christ Alone” and “Blessed be Your Name” by the Newsboys, and “God is in Control” by Twila Paris. They all spoke of God’s faithfulness regardless of outer circumstances, and they helped me to both remember and to rely upon God and his promises. I was also meeting with a group of other pastors for mutual support, and with Raymond about once a month, as well as praying with Mary regularly. It can take that kind of support to keep one focused on God and his promises when the circumstances are painful and puzzling.
I suspect that we in America tend to be “Lone Ranger Christians,” expecting to find everything we need within ourselves. While it is true that we need to rely upon Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation, and that no one else can have faith for us, it is also true that being a Christian is personal but never private. We are linked to fellow believers, and God gives us the gift of one another to support and encourage. I think that we are more aware of how we need each other than we were a few decades ago, but it is still tempting to think of the Christian life as “me and Jesus.”
If we want to pray with rejoicing and thanksgiving, we may well need others around us to help us remember that God is God and God is good. We may also need to make ourselves available to others to encourage them. It is easier to pray when we know others are praying too.
When we pray with thanksgiving, rejoicing that God is God, we can lift our petitions with assurance that God will respond. He may not give us what we ask for when we ask for it – but we can be sure that he will give us the best. We belong to him body and soul, and he is using everything to work toward our full salvation. We are not only freed from the guilt of our sins, but we are also being freed from the power of our sinful nature and we are being conformed more and more to the image of Christ. Paul’s comments in Phil 4 tell us that the result of prayer with thanksgiving is a transcendent peace that rises above our circumstances. Verse 7 tells us, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God’s peace will enable us to trust Christ ever more fully – and as we trust ever more fully, we will have a greater peace. It is a wonderful ascending spiral of blessing and growth.
We do not need to worry. Worrying assumes that merely by considering all the dreadful things that may occur, we can prevent them from occurring – which is, of course, perfect nonsense. Worry only gives us more to worry about. But when we choose to remember that God is God and that he is good, relying upon his goodness, we gain peace. We may also gain some fresh insights that will help us to deal with our concerns – but even if our outer circumstances do not change, our attitudes, and our hearts, will grow better. Our faith will deepen, and we will know God better.
I want to conclude with a brief look at two more verses that touch on prayer. In Rom 8:26-27, Paul says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Whenever we pray, the Holy Spirit is there, deepening our prayers, purifying them, and interceding before the Father for us. This truth is a profound comfort. We do not need to ask for exactly the correct thing, or praise God in some exacting way, or else the Lord will not hear us. A young child learning to speak may make sounds that no one else can make sense of – but that child’s mother knows what is on the heart of the child. In the same way, the Holy Spirit takes our halting, unsure speech, and understands what it is we are lifting up to God. We may not be all too sure ourselves, but God knows.
Then in 2 Cor 1:11, Paul makes this request of the mistake-ridden Corinthian Church: “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” The great apostle Paul tells the weak Christians of Corinth that he wants their help. He wants them to pray for him and for his ministry. There is no individual or organization so greatly gifted or so well-organized that it does not need prayer.
The early Church knew that, from its days in the Upper Room to its spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. No progress is made without prayer. The early Church was a praying Church. Whenever there has been a great revival, there has been prayer. The great English Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon never preached without a group of people praying for him both before and during the worship service. I read a story once of how a visitor to the church where Spurgeon was pastor was asked if he would like to see “the furnace room.” He thought it was an odd request, but said that he would. He was taken to the lower level, and saw several hundred people gathered there, praying for the services that would be held later that morning. Their prayers “heated up” the worship. I know of churches and ministries today in which no event is held without prayer beforehand – and also during the course of the event itself.
God wants us to use our skills and abilities to their fullest. He wants us to offer him gifts from our treasure and our time. But he wants us to do so in the context of prayer, as we acknowledge that our skills, our time, and our money are not sufficient, but are made useful and effective through his presence and his power. In ourselves, we are unable to do what God plans to do – but through prayer and trust, God takes our best efforts and uses them to increase his Kingdom and to bring to himself the honor due his name.
I. A Praying Church
As part of my research for this presentation, I went to BibleGateway.com and searched for “pray.” I could remember some prayers in Acts, and that Paul and other apostles mentioned their prayers in the epistles, but it was amazing to see the number of times that “pray” and “prayer” showed up in the New Testament: nearly 150 times, with 93 of those instances being in Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation. The early church was characterized by being a praying community. Acts 1:14 says, “All these (the eleven loyal apostles) with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” Verse 15 lets us know that there were some 120 people who were waiting for the power of the Lord to come, as Jesus had promised at his Ascension. They waited in prayer – not in chatting, or playing cards, or whatever, but in prayer.
That same spirit of prayer continued. Acts 2:42 characterizes the life of the early Church with these words: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Later on, when the need for deacons arose because of the concerns between the Aramaic-speaking and the Greek-speaking Jews, the apostles described their need to give this job to others more gifted in what it required, they said, “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
The early Church in Jerusalem was a praying Church. They met at the Temple for the morning and evening prayers, and they prayed as a body in the upper room. Their leaders saw prayer as one of the most important things that they could do. As we read later on in Acts, God directed them as they prayed, and missionaries were sent out to evangelize the world. The authors of the epistles spoke of their own prayers for those who received the letters, and told the new Christians in various areas to pray. James, the brother of Jesus, who wrote the Epistle of James, had an interesting nickname, according to some ancient traditions that have been handed down. He was known as “Old Camel Knees,” because of the calluses on his knees due to the hours he spent in prayer. He may have been extraordinary, but it does seem that the early Church was filled with prayer and with praying people. Later on, I am going to look at some of the prayers recorded in the New Testament, but today, I want to look at the instructions on prayer that the Apostles gave to the Christians under their care.
II. “Pray Without Ceasing”
1 Thess. 5:16-18 says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” That second command from Paul tells us more about the importance of prayer: it is to done “without ceasing.” This idea of continual prayer is repeated in a number of other places. Rom. 12:12 says, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Eph 6:17-19 says, “Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel…”
Does anyone have an idea of how to “pray without ceasing”?
I suspect, although I do not know for sure, that verses like this were part of the reason behind the monastic movement that began in the 4th Century, with men, and later women, going off into the desert to escape the distraction of life in cities and towns, and to pray. Although they began as hermits, eventually they banded together. In due course, there were many orders of monks and nuns, each following a specific discipline of life. But one feature of monastic life was common to them all: the hours of prayer. The monastic community gathered seven times a day to pray together.
Is that what the apostles wanted for Christians to do when we are told to pray without ceasing? I do not think so. If you gather seven times a day for fifteen or thirty minutes of prayer, you are engaged in prayer a great deal – but that is still not prayer unceasing!
In the mid-Seventeenth Century, there was a humble monk named Brother Lawrence. We know of him because someone collected his letters and talked with him, and published a book that is called The Practice of the Presence of God. Brother Lawrence was someone whose faith was better than his theology as a Roman Catholic. He simply trusted Jesus for everything – and regarded his day as time to spend in conversation with God. As I said in my first presentation, prayer at its heart is communion with God. Br. Lawrence spoke of regarding even the simplest and most humble of activities as a way to glorify God. Even picking up a straw while tending the chickens could be done to honor God, conscious of the Lord’s presence.
Praying without ceasing is a matter of cultivating a sense of God’s presence and of conversing with him throughout the day. It is not the same as finding a quiet spot in your home and lifting formal prayers to the Lord, because it can be done as you drive, or in the midst of work, or while conversing with someone. Praying without ceasing is a matter of establishing a habit of the heart – a heart aware of God, aware of our constant need for mercy, aware of his providential action, and thankful that there is nothing too large or too small to be beyond the Lord’s care.
Developing an awareness of God’s presence and talking with him in the midst of daily activities – often about those activities – is different from those more formal, special times of prayer that we may have in the morning or evening. But an awareness of God is dependent upon those disciplined times of Bible study and prayer. God’s Word and deliberate, disciplined prayer is the root that nourishes the flower of conversing with God throughout the day, offering up to him each opportunity and activity, and giving every concern to him as a request for help.
I have yet to reach the experience that constant sense of God’s presence that Brother Lawrence reported, but in God’s mercy, I have been able to develop the habit of talking to the Lord in bits and pieces throughout the day, and of pondering his greatness and his glory as I go through his creation. I believe that this habit of talking with God can be developed by anyone who knows the Lord, perhaps starting with simple thanksgivings on the spot for the little blessings that come each day.
As an interesting historical footnote, when the English Book of Common Prayer was compiled by Abp Cranmer in the late 1540’s, it contained an Order for Daily Morning Prayer and an Order for Daily Evening Prayer. Cranmer’s intention was to enable each parish church to serve as center for prayer in its village. In this way, the people of each village or town could frame their day in prayer together, morning and evening, and, it was hoped, pray individually throughout the day. Cranmer knew the apostle’s injunction to ‘pray without ceasing,” and he wanted to enable that spirit of prayer throughout the nation.
III. Some Warnings Concerning Prayer
The apostles also had some warnings concerning prayer. In James 4:1-3, James says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
Verse three is a warning against selfishness in prayer. There are those in the “health and wealth” movement who teach that you can have everything you want, if you pray in faith – and usually that also involves sending them a contribution. Such teaching is wrong on a number of counts, but one way in which it is contrary to God’s desire for us is that it encourages selfishness. God promises that he will care for us when he teaches us to pray for our daily bread – but he does not promise to underwrite “the American Dream” for us, or to insulate us from the various shifts in the economic climate. It is not wrong to have a large house or a big bank account – but it is wrong to set our hearts on such things as the foundation of happiness. To pray for material blessings simply because we think that they are essential to our happiness is to treat prayer as a form of magic and to regard God as a grandfather who wants to spoil us rather than a Father who wants us to grow into maturity, into the image of Christ. In addition, to pray for material blessings and the like selfishly is, as James warns, to set in motion the forces of competition among Christians, so that there are fights and quarrels.
There are also some interesting comments about marriage and prayer in the epistles. In 1 Cor 7:4-5, Paul says, “For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” These verses come from a part of 1 Cor where Paul is discussing marriage, and I am sure that a lot could be said about these two verses. For our purposes, however, I want to note two things.
The first is that it seems that times of protracted prayer were not at all uncommon in the early Church. When Paul speaks of “a limited time,” he seems to be speaking in terms of days, not hours (which would make no sense) or weeks. In those days, most people were self-employed and they could, if they wished, take two or three days for personal purposes, including prayer. Our lives are much more controlled by the clock and it is difficult for ordinary people to take days at a stretch for anything personal simply because they want to.
The other thing that I get from this passage is that it is wrong to use spiritual activities as a weapon in personal relationships. Paul says that refraining from marital relations was to be by mutual consent, not because one spouse said to the other, “If you were as spiritual as I am, you would take days at a time to pray. I am going to pray, and you will just have to put up with it.” In my years as a pastor, I have seen that dynamic at work in a few relationships, and it was always a sad thing. At times, it looked to me that the person who regarded themselves as “more spiritual” was actually less spiritually mature. If the other partner were not a Christian, such statements did nothing to make Jesus Christ more attractive. We should make it a matter of prayer that all Christian couples should mutually encourage each other in spiritual growth, and not fall into the trap of using supposed Christian maturity as a tool to feel superior or to get one’s own way.
There is another passage that talks of marriage and prayer. 1 Peter 3:7 says, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” Peter, who was a married man, was telling his brothers in Christ to honor their wives and to regard them as spiritual partners. It is tempting for a man to use his superior size and strength, and perhaps the weight of societal pressure, to get his own way in the home. Men and women are spiritual equals. It took the blood of Christ to redeem both men and women; we all stand before God on the same basis. The Bible does say that the husband is the head of the home – but from what I can see in Ephesians 5, the husband as the head of the wife is a position of responsibility, not a position of privilege and selfishness.
Peter seems to picture marriage between Christians as a relationship that involves prayer together as well as individually. For years, Mary and I had our individual “Quiet Times” with the Lord, but did not pray together except for remarkable circumstances. Then a few years ago, we started taking about ten minutes each morning to pray together for one another, for our children, and for various things we knew about. It was not a huge amount of time, but it was a blessed time – and we have had better communication and have seen some great answers to our requests. Two weeks ago, I spoke of three ways to put prayer more fully into your lives, and one way was for married couples to pray together for a few minutes each day, if they were not already doing so. It can be a simple as one thanksgiving and one request each, but something is much better than nothing. (The other two things I suggested were to pray daily for your major occupation of the day and for your major “enemy” or to take a few minutes each day to record a blessing and a challenge that you had experienced.)
Marriage is a “one flesh” relationship, and it both affects our prayers and is affected by our prayers. The apostles warned us of the dangers of selfishness in prayer and marriage, and they tell us that married couples need to take care of how they relate to one another and of how they pray individually and as a couple.
IV. Two Major Passages on Prayer
While prayer is frequently mentioned in the New Testament, many of the passages after the Gospels that touch on prayer are simply notes about prayers that were said or comments on prayer in relation to other things. There are two passages that talk about prayer itself, and do so for more than one verse. These two passages are 1 Tim 2:1-4, 8, and Ph 4:4-7.
Here is what 1 Tim 2:1-4 & 8 say, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth… I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.” One of the phrases I have heard about living as Christians is that, while we may live in the world, we are not to be of the world. Paul puts it this way in Phil 3:20, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Our primary identity is that of subjects of the King of Kings. We are indeed citizens of nations here on earth as well, but that citizenship is not to take precedence over our loyalty to the Lord.
But even though our highest loyalty is to be to the Lord, that does not mean that we are to ignore or demean the nation in which we live. Paul says that we are to pray for those who govern us. When he wrote, the Emperor and his governors were not believers in the Lord. Some of those leaders were perfectly dreadful and unjust, persecuting Christians and reigning out of selfishness and the love of power. But Paul said that we are to pray for our government and its officials. The aim of such prayers is that we would have a society that is orderly enough so that people are able to think of more than simply where they might be able to get food for the day and how to avoid being killed by lawless mobs, which would be the case if there were no organized society. If people are able to think of more than simply where their next meal might come from, they are able to consider the claims of the Lord Jesus. Those who are believers are able to use the calm to grow in faith and character. To pray for one’s nation and one’s leaders has a spiritual aim, not merely a physical one of it being more pleasant to live in a well-run society than in a chaotic one.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of our heavenly Father having the grace to send rain to both the just and the unjust. To pray for our nation and our leaders is to pray for God’s common grace to continue not only in the natural realm but in the sphere of human society. God is under no obligation to continue such grace, and indeed sometimes he withdraws such grace to an extent as a reminder of how bad things would be if he did not restrain human sinfulness. Paul tells us to pray for our government as an appeal to God to maintain his common grace towards all humanity, not only for their blessing in this life, but also so that they may have the opportunity to consider Christ. Of course, that also means that we have the responsibility to share the Gospel with those around us who do not yet know the Lord.
The other passage in the epistles that teaches about prayer directly is Phil 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
One of my seminary professors called this passage the assurance of the convertibility of worry into prayer. It tells us not to be anxious, but rather to pray for our concerns. Paul makes it plain that anxiety is opposed by three things: rejoicing, thanksgiving, and requests. A few weeks ago, I said that thanksgiving was a very important part of prayer and of Christian living. But rejoicing and giving thanks are very difficult things to do when one is in the midst of some personal crisis or watching someone about whom we care deeply go through hard times. How can we rejoice when a job is lost, business is faltering, cancer has been diagnosed, or a child is going astray? For what can we give thanks?
Such events are indeed painful and can be the source of great anxiety. If they are all that we can think about, we will indeed be consumed by the situation. What we can rejoice in is that God is God and God is good. The first question in the Heidelberg Catechism is “What is thy only comfort in life and death?” and its answer is, “That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.”
It is not always easy to take great theological truth and apply it to our psychological reality. Perhaps the first prayer in painful circumstances could be, “Lord, I know what you say, and I know what I feel, and the two do not line up. Your Word says that you will never fail me or forsake me. My heart tells me that I am in agony. Speak to my heart and remind me that you are in control and that you are good.”
There are three aspects to a living faith: knowledge of the truth, assent that the truth is indeed true, and reliance upon the truth as reality. In order to pray as Paul teaches in Philippians 4, we need to rely upon the truth of God. When we rely upon his Word, we can rejoice that God is God. We can rejoice and give thanks that he is more powerful than all the dreadful things that have happened to us or could happen to us. We can rejoice and give thanks that he is so powerful that even deliberate evil done to us can be turned into a blessing. The book of Genesis closes with the story of Joseph, who was betrayed by his brothers, yet that very betrayal became the means of the salvation of Israel from death in a great famine. Joseph speaks to his brothers when they are reunited in Egypt, saying, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
During the last year that I was Rector of Trinity, I was tortured by watching the events in the Episcopal Church. Each week seemed to bring a new horror of apostasy. I was not sure of what to do or when to do it. I had three Christian songs I listened to in order to remind myself of what was really real: “In Christ Alone” and “Blessed be Your Name” by the Newsboys, and “God is in Control” by Twila Paris. They all spoke of God’s faithfulness regardless of outer circumstances, and they helped me to both remember and to rely upon God and his promises. I was also meeting with a group of other pastors for mutual support, and with Raymond about once a month, as well as praying with Mary regularly. It can take that kind of support to keep one focused on God and his promises when the circumstances are painful and puzzling.
I suspect that we in America tend to be “Lone Ranger Christians,” expecting to find everything we need within ourselves. While it is true that we need to rely upon Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation, and that no one else can have faith for us, it is also true that being a Christian is personal but never private. We are linked to fellow believers, and God gives us the gift of one another to support and encourage. I think that we are more aware of how we need each other than we were a few decades ago, but it is still tempting to think of the Christian life as “me and Jesus.”
If we want to pray with rejoicing and thanksgiving, we may well need others around us to help us remember that God is God and God is good. We may also need to make ourselves available to others to encourage them. It is easier to pray when we know others are praying too.
When we pray with thanksgiving, rejoicing that God is God, we can lift our petitions with assurance that God will respond. He may not give us what we ask for when we ask for it – but we can be sure that he will give us the best. We belong to him body and soul, and he is using everything to work toward our full salvation. We are not only freed from the guilt of our sins, but we are also being freed from the power of our sinful nature and we are being conformed more and more to the image of Christ. Paul’s comments in Phil 4 tell us that the result of prayer with thanksgiving is a transcendent peace that rises above our circumstances. Verse 7 tells us, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God’s peace will enable us to trust Christ ever more fully – and as we trust ever more fully, we will have a greater peace. It is a wonderful ascending spiral of blessing and growth.
We do not need to worry. Worrying assumes that merely by considering all the dreadful things that may occur, we can prevent them from occurring – which is, of course, perfect nonsense. Worry only gives us more to worry about. But when we choose to remember that God is God and that he is good, relying upon his goodness, we gain peace. We may also gain some fresh insights that will help us to deal with our concerns – but even if our outer circumstances do not change, our attitudes, and our hearts, will grow better. Our faith will deepen, and we will know God better.
I want to conclude with a brief look at two more verses that touch on prayer. In Rom 8:26-27, Paul says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Whenever we pray, the Holy Spirit is there, deepening our prayers, purifying them, and interceding before the Father for us. This truth is a profound comfort. We do not need to ask for exactly the correct thing, or praise God in some exacting way, or else the Lord will not hear us. A young child learning to speak may make sounds that no one else can make sense of – but that child’s mother knows what is on the heart of the child. In the same way, the Holy Spirit takes our halting, unsure speech, and understands what it is we are lifting up to God. We may not be all too sure ourselves, but God knows.
Then in 2 Cor 1:11, Paul makes this request of the mistake-ridden Corinthian Church: “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” The great apostle Paul tells the weak Christians of Corinth that he wants their help. He wants them to pray for him and for his ministry. There is no individual or organization so greatly gifted or so well-organized that it does not need prayer.
The early Church knew that, from its days in the Upper Room to its spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. No progress is made without prayer. The early Church was a praying Church. Whenever there has been a great revival, there has been prayer. The great English Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon never preached without a group of people praying for him both before and during the worship service. I read a story once of how a visitor to the church where Spurgeon was pastor was asked if he would like to see “the furnace room.” He thought it was an odd request, but said that he would. He was taken to the lower level, and saw several hundred people gathered there, praying for the services that would be held later that morning. Their prayers “heated up” the worship. I know of churches and ministries today in which no event is held without prayer beforehand – and also during the course of the event itself.
God wants us to use our skills and abilities to their fullest. He wants us to offer him gifts from our treasure and our time. But he wants us to do so in the context of prayer, as we acknowledge that our skills, our time, and our money are not sufficient, but are made useful and effective through his presence and his power. In ourselves, we are unable to do what God plans to do – but through prayer and trust, God takes our best efforts and uses them to increase his Kingdom and to bring to himself the honor due his name.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Series on Prayer at Fairlawn CRC - Jesus' other Teachings on Prayer
Prayer Course, Session IV 3rd October 2010
Jesus Teaches on Prayer
I. Jesus, the Man of Prayer
In Mark 1:35-37, we read, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’” It did not take the disciples very long to see that prayer was a very important part of Jesus’ life. He modeled prayer for them. Later on they would ask him to teach them to pray, and as they did, he gave them a prayer to pray, and to base their prayers on.
We looked at that prayer the past two weeks, and today we will look at some of the other teachings Jesus gave about prayer during the days of his earthly ministry. But first, I do want to note something one of the class members shared with me during Coffee Hour last week: that is, if the Lord gave us this prayer, it is a prayer that he wants to answer. He wants his name to be hallowed. His kingdom is coming, and his will is going to be done. He will supply us with daily bread, and he will most definitely forgive us our sins – and empower us to forgive others. He will deliver us from the evil one, enabling his saints to persevere to the end. The requests in this prayer are requests that God wants to answer.
While the Lord’s Prayer is one of the most important part of Jesus’ teachings on prayer, but it is not the only one. There are other things he says over the course of his earthly ministry, and today we are going to look at several of these teachings. They are scattered a few verses at a time through the Gospels.
II. “In My Name” and “Ask Whatever You Will”
I will begin with some words on prayer that Jesus spoke at the end of his earthly ministry. During the Upper Room Discourse in John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (Jn 16:24) That is one of several places in this discourse where Jesus says we are to pray in his name. His statement is why we say, “in Jesus’ name, Amen” at the end of prayers – or in many written prayers, “through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever, amen.”
But what does it mean to pray “in Jesus’ name”? How many of you have ever wondered? Does anyone have an idea of why Jesus would ask us to pray in his name?
It is important that we pray in Jesus’ name for a number of reasons. However, I am going to mention two reasons that are not good reasons at all. One is tradition – we do it because we have always done it and we can’t imagine not ending prayer without “In Jesus’ name, amen.” I have been to some public events where prayer has been offered, and the prayer is concluded with “in your most holy name, amen.” Sometimes that is done by someone who does not wish to offend non-Christians who may be present, and sometimes it is done by someone who is a Unitarian – he does not believe that Jesus is divine, but since Unitarianism is a Christian heresy, he still has the lingering ghost of an idea that prayers need to be offered in the name of someone.
Tradition is one poor reason to end a prayer in Jesus’ name, and superstition is another poor reason – the idea that your prayer will not be answered because you did not fulfill the proper formula. The idea that a person has to follow a specific form in praying or else the prayer will not be heard reduces prayer from what it is supposed to be to something more like magic. It is very easy to think of the purpose of prayer as asking for things that we want – and if we think that way, it is easy to fall into regarding prayer as magic or something close to it. I can remember times when a church event was being planned, and we would talk about the weather – and someone would say, “Let Charlie deal with that; prayer is his department.” I was often at a loss for words – I did not want to be harsh, but I wanted to say something like, “I am a pastor, not a witch doctor!” My prayers do not have greater “pull” with God because I do pray regularly, and certainly not because I have been ordained. God wants to hear the prayers of the littlest child as well as of the greatest saints – for God receives all those who offer prayers on the same basis – the shed blood of Christ.
And that is the main reason we pray in Jesus’ name: because we only have standing to approach God in him. He was our representative on the cross, shedding his blood as an atoning sacrifice on our behalf. Because he died, we live and have been adopted as children of God. I forget where I first heard the saying, but theologically speaking, we pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is trinitarian, for all three persons of the Trinity are involved when we pray. We can pray to each person of the Trinity directly, of course, but for the most part, when we pray, we speak to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name because we are able to enter the Father’s presence only by being in Christ.
Furthermore, we pray in Jesus’ name because we are asking him to pray for us. Jon will be talking more about that next week, so I will not go into it, but when we pray in Jesus’ name, we are asking him to pray for us.
In the Upper Room discourse, Jesus tells us that we are to pray in his name. He also makes a remarkable promise. In Jn 14:13, Jesus says, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” A little later on, in Jn 15:7, Jesus repeats this promise: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” He repeats this promise again in v 16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” Jesus had also made this promise earlier. In Mt 18:19-20, Jesus told his disciples, “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Whatever we ask in Jesus name, especially if we can get someone to agree with us and pray for the same thing will be done for us. That is quite a promise, isn’t it? There are those who have taken this to mean that prayer is a blank check – all they have to do is to decide what they want, and then pray in Jesus’ name, and they will receive what they have decided they should have. If you want something, then all you have to do is to name it, and then claim it in Jesus’ name.
However – those who think as I have just outlined have made more than a few major errors. Jesus had no intention of giving us a “blank check,” such that we could ask for anything that popped into our heads. Jesus did want to encourage us to pray big and bold prayers – for the Kingdom. I said in our first session that the purpose of prayer is not getting things from God, but rather fellowship with God, where we open our hearts to him and enjoy time with him. He has adopted us a his children, through Christ, and it is his desire that we bear the image of God as we did before the Fall – the same image that is seen perfectly in Jesus Christ. God’s purpose is not to make our voyage through life a trip on a cruise ship. Certainly, Jesus tells us to pray expectantly for our daily bread – but before we get to praying for our physical needs, we pray for God’s name to be known and honored, for his Kingdom to come, and for his will to be done.
John 15:7 has an important qualifier in its promise of bountiful answers to prayer: “If you abide in me and my Word abides in you…” To abide in Christ is constantly to depend upon him – to remember and rejoice in his sacrificial love and to prize him above all else. As we abide in Christ, we also drink in his Word as life and strength. It soaks into our hearts and minds, and his Word shapes us. If we are abiding in him and his Word is abiding in us – then Jesus can safely promise to do what we ask, because he knows our hearts are set on his glory and the extension of his Kingdom, not on what this world, seen apart from him, seeks. “Ask whatever you will” is not a blank check. It is a promise those whose hearts are set on the Kingdom of God.
The promise of “if any two of you agree” in Mt 18 has an important context. Mt 18:15-20 deal with what to do when a brother or sister in the church have sinned against you, so the setting for “two or three gathered together” is not simply any gathering of Christians, but two or three people who have met to deal with a sin. It is a promise to the one who has the difficult responsibility of telling one of his fellow Christians, “When you did “x”, you committed a sin against me. Can you repent and apologize?” It is also a promise to the one who has committed the perceived offense that the Lord will be present in the conversation. Both persons need to be aware of, and open to, that presence. It is also a promise that, should the situation require the further response of including a few others or the entire congregation, Jesus will be present to help them come to a good conclusion. The promise of “if any two of you agree” means that if the original pair of people are able to reach an agreement and to come to a place of repentance and forgiveness, the Lord will grant them a restored relationship and help them to grow. It is also a promise that should the situation require the participation of more people, the Lord will help them in the process and will guide them into a good and beneficial course, if and as they depend upon him. What Jesus wanted his disciples to agree on and to pray for was for good relationships, in which offenses would be forgiven and become a springboard for spiritual growth as sin is dealt with graciously within the Church.
The promise does have a larger application to any gathering of Christians. The Lord will be present with his people when they have assembled in his name. The promise also points to the important of consensus within the body when they plan and when they pray. A divided congregation needs to come to terms about its lack of consensus before it can proceed. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are always in agreement, and if we are to reflect the image of God, we need to be in consensus as well. This is a huge topic in itself, and I cannot develop it much more this morning. I will say that there will always be differences within the Church and within any congregation. Some are differences that do not really matter, some are differences that are actually helpful, and some are differences that matter a great deal and must be dealt with or the mission of the congregation will be harmed. At the very least, we always need the wisdom of the Lord Jesus to discern what kind of differences we are dealing with. And if there is hurt and sin involved, we need his presence in order to repent of what is harmful and to do what is good and helpful for the relationships within the body of believers.
III. “Ask, Seek, Knock, for the Father Gives Good Things”
Jesus teaches on prayer in a number of other places in the Gospels. He gave the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and also in Luke 11 after the disciples had asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In both cases, he soon told his hearers that they should pray with expectation. In Mt 7:7-11, he says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
These verses are echoed in Luke 11, although with one slight difference. Luke says that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. I have no doubt that Jesus often repeated his teachings with slight variations during the days of his public ministry. Any one who teaches does that – and it would be all the more the case in a society where there was no mass media to capture every word spoken. There is no essential difference – the Holy Spirit is simply the best of all possible good gifts.
One commentator I read says that the “ask, seek, knock” refers to increasing levels of intensity of purpose. One is serious in asking, still more concerned in seeking, and almost desperate in banging on the door. At any rate, Jesus commends persistence in actively seeking a gift from God. If human fathers, as sinful as they are, seek what is good for their children, how much more true is that of the Lord, who is goodness in its purest form?
In my first presentation, I said that God never answers a request with a “No.” His replies to our petitions are either, “Yes,” “Later,” or “I have something better in mind.” I think that there is another possibility as well – “I have something better in mind, but it will not come until later.” God promises to give us the right thing at the right time. Jesus wants us to be assured that his Father, who is now our adoptive Father, wants the best for us and will give what is best.
But what is “the best”? God giving us what is best for us is not always giving us what we ask for. His promise is that he will restore in us the full image of God, that in the end, we will be like Jesus in our character and faith.
How many of you have read The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom? That book is a remarkable story of faith in action during the hard days of WWII. First the ten Boom family took in Jews to hide them from the Nazis, and God protected them and enabled many Jews to get to safety. Then their work was discovered, and the family was arrested. Corrie’s father died almost immediately and the family was scattered and imprisoned. Corrie and her sister Betsy were eventually placed in the dreadful concentration camp at Ravensbruck. Miraculously, they still had a Bible, and were able to do ministry among their fellow prisoners. Astonishing things happened, such as the seemingly bottomless small bottle of vitamins that increased their resistance to disease. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have lasted a week among the prisoners, but it kept on providing daily doses for many weeks. Corrie and Betsy learned to give thanks to God even for the fleas that bit them – for those fleas kept the guards away.
Both sisters were in prison, and both looked to God in faith. Betsy died in prison, however, while Corrie did not. I am sure that both sisters prayed to survive the war. Did God answer only one sister’s prayer? No, he answered both: to Betsy, he said, “I have something better – you are coming home to me.” To Corrie, he said, “Yes – and I will give you a ministry that will touch the hearts of many.”
In Jeremiah 17:7-8, we read, “"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
When we trust the Lord with all we are and have, we will be aware of our circumstances – but our happiness and contentment do not come from our circumstances, but rather from the Lord. The tree that is planted by a stream can endure a drought because its roots do not depend on rain for water, but on the stream. In the same way, when we are firmly planted in the Lord, we can survive in adverse circumstances, because the Lord sustains us. That does not mean our circumstances do not affect us, for they certainly do. But it does not mean that our circumstances determine our happiness and contentment in the end, but rather God upholds us and our hearts rejoice that we know him and can enjoy him.
Joni Eareckson Tada broke her neck in a swimming accident when she was 17 years old. She became a quadriplegic. She had grown up in a Christian family and had made a profession of faith. That faith was now severely tested. There were days when she wanted to die. She would have committed suicide – but of course was physically unable to do so. Later one, she determined to make the best of it. She first became an artist, holding her pen or brush in her mouth. Later on, she became an author and speaker. She is now about 60 years old, one of the longest surviving quadriplegics in the country. And she now says that she thanks God that she broke her neck!
Why would she give thanks for that?
She says that, looking back, her faith as a 17 year old was a shallow faith. Left to herself, she would have had God as a part of her life, but only a part. With a broken neck, she had to depend upon God and his mercy and power on a day to day, even moment to moment basis. It took her some time to recognize that, but she has written that her stubbornness and independence would have remained unchecked unless she had come to radical dependence upon God because she had no resources of her own. Joni Eareckson Tada is rooted in the Lord. She knows her circumstances, but they are not the determining factor in her happiness and contentment.
I know that God does heal people, because I have seen it happen. But God does not heal everyone who asks for healing. I have pondered that for a long time, and my provisional thought is that God heals some to show his power – and he does not heal others to show that knowing him is sufficient for joy. God is enough.
We are not guaranteed to get exactly what we ask for when we make our requests to God – but we are guaranteed to get what we need to know God better and to become more and more like Jesus.
IV. Persist in Prayer
In Luke 11 and Luke 18, Jesus tells two parables to encourage his followers to persist in prayer. The first is the story of a man who has an unexpected guest arrive late in the evening. He has no food to offer the man, so he asks his neighbor for some bread. Hospitality was very important in the ancient Near East; if he could not put something before his guest, he would fail as a host. His need was great. Jesus notes that even if the neighbor was already in bed and had no desire at all to get up, he would eventually give the man some bread, if only to stop the pounding on the door. The second parable is similar to the first: a widow was suffering wrong from someone, and asked a judge to hear her case. The judge, however, was corrupt, and only took cases when he felt like it. He had no heart for justice. The woman persisted in asking for a hearing. At last the corrupt judge gave in. He was worn down by the repeated requests of the widow.
Jesus wanted his followers to know that if even earthly people, as selfish and stubborn as they are, will give in to persistent requests, how much more will our loving Father give to us as we persist in prayer?
In Hebrews 11 we have what some call “The Bible’s Hall of Fame for Faith.” Hebrews 11:35-39 says “Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised”
These were people who were longing for the Kingdom of God, but who never saw the Kingdom. But they trusted God and acted as citizens of the Kingdom of God, giving him their trust and loyalty in the face of opposition. Some saw remarkable things, such as the woman of Zarephath, whose son was raised from the dead through Elijah, or Daniel, who was preserved from death in the lion’s den. They knew the reality of that statement in Jeremiah, that those who sink their roots into God will be like trees planted by the river, able to bloom and produce fruit even if there was a drought. They prayed, and many saw extraordinary answers to prayer – but none saw the fullness of God’s Kingdom. Neither have we. We are still in the interim period, in which God is calling a people to himself and forming them as his own children.
We are to pray in this interim time – we are to pray for God’s Kingdom to come, and we are to pray for our physical needs in our day to day lives, and to pray for our spiritual growth and health. Even as we do, we pray knowing that the Kingdom is not yet here, and so all will not be perfect – unless the Lord arrives soon!
Jesus wanted to have his followers persist in prayer because he knew that life in this fallen world is difficult and we may become discouraged. There are many miracles recorded in the Old Testament, and we may be tempted to think that they were an almost daily occurrence. But if you look at the timeline of the Old Testament, the events it records from Abraham up to the return of the exiles from Babylon took place over a period of 1600 or 1700 years. While we cannot say that the miracles recorded in Scripture were the only ones that happened in that time, the time span still lets us know that dramatic miracles can easily be far apart. God seems to work through means and in quiet ways far more than he does by very obvious miracles. Nevertheless, we are to persevere in prayer. God knows the best timing, and he knows the best series of events. Trust means that we hang on, assured by the character of God, the wisdom of God, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus that God is for us and that he will do what will bring honor and glory to him, and joy and thanksgiving to us.
God wants us to pray because he wants to enjoy fellowship with us and through that fellowship to produce in us his own image. He will grant us what we need, and that includes daily bread, forgiveness of sins, and spiritual protection.
The Psalms are the Bible’s prayer book and hymnal. They were used in the Temple worship and later in the synagogue. Some were songs of praise and rejoicing, some were prayers of confession, some were meditations on God’s goodness. In many we see the psalmist pouring his heart out before the Lord – perhaps in joy, perhaps in sorrow.
Here is Psalm 13, a short prayer for rescue:
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am(I) shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
This psalm begins in anguish. It ends in promise of faith, because the psalmist has opened his heart to the Lord, and expressing to God his fears and pain, he has found relief. He does not have to hide, and so he is able to remember the goodness and strength of the Lord.
When we are in anguish, wracked with fear, anxiety, guilt, or grief, it can be easy to say, “I am a Christian. I should not feel this way.” A person can think that they should not be feeling the emotions that they have, and so try to hide those emotions. The trouble is that when one hides emotions, they gain more power over you than if you recognize them. We live in a culture where feelings are often taken to be the ultimate reality, so there are certainly some people who wallow in their feelings or take their emotions to be the one sure-fire guide in life.
Emotions are real, and we ignore them or try to control them at our peril. One the other hand, emotions are not ultimate reality. Our feelings tell us important things about ourselves and our responses to what is going on around us. If we can recognize our emotions, which may be hard to do with the less pleasant ones, we can then look more fully at our hearts, and learn some important things. I have found that when I am angry, there is really some fear behind that anger, and I am try to use anger to fight off the fear. Having see that, I am now more able to see what my fears may be and to take those fears to God. I can then admit my fears and express my trust that God is my ultimate protector. Instead of telling God, “Please take away my anger,” I can offer to him the source of that anger. As I do so, he can then affirm to me through his Word that he will stand as my protector no matter what. My fear is lessened – and I am also far less likely to get angry.
Jesus told us to be persistent in praying, because God will respond to our prayers. I am convinced that one reason God wants us to be persistent is so that we will pour out our hearts to him, even if some of what we may pour out is different than what we think a Christian is supposed to feel or do. The chief purpose of prayer is fellowship with God. God will do things as we make requests of him – but the main purpose of prayer is not to get God to do things, but to enjoy him with openness of heart. As we fellowship with God, we will give him more and more of what is in our hearts – our hopes, our fears, our joys, our sorrows. In the process, we learn more and more about ourselves and where we need to change and some reasons why change is difficult. In prayer, we build our relationship with our heavenly Father – who truly fathers us by helping us to grow up, spiritually.
Jesus tell us to pray in his name – for it is in his name that we have acceptance before God the Father. He wants us to soak ourselves in his presence and in his Word, so that we can know him better and in so knowing, ask for those things he is planning to do. God can thus say to us, “Ask for whatever you want,” knowing that our hearts are longing for what he longs to give. We can ask with positive anticipation, for we know that our heavenly Father always gives good things – and we can pray with persistence, knowing that our concerns will be treasured and that the Lord will help us to grow in him as we pray.
Thus we can say with the psalmist, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”
I have a little homework to suggest to you. It comes from an idea that the Rev Sam Shoemaker had about fifty years ago. He was an Episcopal pastor in Pittsburgh and he started what is known as “the Pittsburgh Experiment.” He challenged the businessmen of the city to pray for 31 days – asking God to bless their businesses, and to bless their enemies. And remarkable things happened as they prayed.
We stand at the beginning of October, and I would like you to consider praying for the next 5 weeks, until Nov 7. Perhaps you already have your time with God each day, but if not, I want to suggest three possible ways:
1. Pray for your major occupation each day, and pray for those you do not appreciate or who may be actively seeking to bring harm to you.
2. At the end of each day, or perhaps at the beginning of the next day, write a few sentences, recording the greatest blessing you experienced that day, and also the greatest challenge you faced.
3. If you are married and are not doing so already, set aside five minutes each day to pray together.
Perhaps in November, we can share some of what happens!
Jesus Teaches on Prayer
I. Jesus, the Man of Prayer
In Mark 1:35-37, we read, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’” It did not take the disciples very long to see that prayer was a very important part of Jesus’ life. He modeled prayer for them. Later on they would ask him to teach them to pray, and as they did, he gave them a prayer to pray, and to base their prayers on.
We looked at that prayer the past two weeks, and today we will look at some of the other teachings Jesus gave about prayer during the days of his earthly ministry. But first, I do want to note something one of the class members shared with me during Coffee Hour last week: that is, if the Lord gave us this prayer, it is a prayer that he wants to answer. He wants his name to be hallowed. His kingdom is coming, and his will is going to be done. He will supply us with daily bread, and he will most definitely forgive us our sins – and empower us to forgive others. He will deliver us from the evil one, enabling his saints to persevere to the end. The requests in this prayer are requests that God wants to answer.
While the Lord’s Prayer is one of the most important part of Jesus’ teachings on prayer, but it is not the only one. There are other things he says over the course of his earthly ministry, and today we are going to look at several of these teachings. They are scattered a few verses at a time through the Gospels.
II. “In My Name” and “Ask Whatever You Will”
I will begin with some words on prayer that Jesus spoke at the end of his earthly ministry. During the Upper Room Discourse in John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (Jn 16:24) That is one of several places in this discourse where Jesus says we are to pray in his name. His statement is why we say, “in Jesus’ name, Amen” at the end of prayers – or in many written prayers, “through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever, amen.”
But what does it mean to pray “in Jesus’ name”? How many of you have ever wondered? Does anyone have an idea of why Jesus would ask us to pray in his name?
It is important that we pray in Jesus’ name for a number of reasons. However, I am going to mention two reasons that are not good reasons at all. One is tradition – we do it because we have always done it and we can’t imagine not ending prayer without “In Jesus’ name, amen.” I have been to some public events where prayer has been offered, and the prayer is concluded with “in your most holy name, amen.” Sometimes that is done by someone who does not wish to offend non-Christians who may be present, and sometimes it is done by someone who is a Unitarian – he does not believe that Jesus is divine, but since Unitarianism is a Christian heresy, he still has the lingering ghost of an idea that prayers need to be offered in the name of someone.
Tradition is one poor reason to end a prayer in Jesus’ name, and superstition is another poor reason – the idea that your prayer will not be answered because you did not fulfill the proper formula. The idea that a person has to follow a specific form in praying or else the prayer will not be heard reduces prayer from what it is supposed to be to something more like magic. It is very easy to think of the purpose of prayer as asking for things that we want – and if we think that way, it is easy to fall into regarding prayer as magic or something close to it. I can remember times when a church event was being planned, and we would talk about the weather – and someone would say, “Let Charlie deal with that; prayer is his department.” I was often at a loss for words – I did not want to be harsh, but I wanted to say something like, “I am a pastor, not a witch doctor!” My prayers do not have greater “pull” with God because I do pray regularly, and certainly not because I have been ordained. God wants to hear the prayers of the littlest child as well as of the greatest saints – for God receives all those who offer prayers on the same basis – the shed blood of Christ.
And that is the main reason we pray in Jesus’ name: because we only have standing to approach God in him. He was our representative on the cross, shedding his blood as an atoning sacrifice on our behalf. Because he died, we live and have been adopted as children of God. I forget where I first heard the saying, but theologically speaking, we pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is trinitarian, for all three persons of the Trinity are involved when we pray. We can pray to each person of the Trinity directly, of course, but for the most part, when we pray, we speak to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name because we are able to enter the Father’s presence only by being in Christ.
Furthermore, we pray in Jesus’ name because we are asking him to pray for us. Jon will be talking more about that next week, so I will not go into it, but when we pray in Jesus’ name, we are asking him to pray for us.
In the Upper Room discourse, Jesus tells us that we are to pray in his name. He also makes a remarkable promise. In Jn 14:13, Jesus says, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” A little later on, in Jn 15:7, Jesus repeats this promise: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” He repeats this promise again in v 16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” Jesus had also made this promise earlier. In Mt 18:19-20, Jesus told his disciples, “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Whatever we ask in Jesus name, especially if we can get someone to agree with us and pray for the same thing will be done for us. That is quite a promise, isn’t it? There are those who have taken this to mean that prayer is a blank check – all they have to do is to decide what they want, and then pray in Jesus’ name, and they will receive what they have decided they should have. If you want something, then all you have to do is to name it, and then claim it in Jesus’ name.
However – those who think as I have just outlined have made more than a few major errors. Jesus had no intention of giving us a “blank check,” such that we could ask for anything that popped into our heads. Jesus did want to encourage us to pray big and bold prayers – for the Kingdom. I said in our first session that the purpose of prayer is not getting things from God, but rather fellowship with God, where we open our hearts to him and enjoy time with him. He has adopted us a his children, through Christ, and it is his desire that we bear the image of God as we did before the Fall – the same image that is seen perfectly in Jesus Christ. God’s purpose is not to make our voyage through life a trip on a cruise ship. Certainly, Jesus tells us to pray expectantly for our daily bread – but before we get to praying for our physical needs, we pray for God’s name to be known and honored, for his Kingdom to come, and for his will to be done.
John 15:7 has an important qualifier in its promise of bountiful answers to prayer: “If you abide in me and my Word abides in you…” To abide in Christ is constantly to depend upon him – to remember and rejoice in his sacrificial love and to prize him above all else. As we abide in Christ, we also drink in his Word as life and strength. It soaks into our hearts and minds, and his Word shapes us. If we are abiding in him and his Word is abiding in us – then Jesus can safely promise to do what we ask, because he knows our hearts are set on his glory and the extension of his Kingdom, not on what this world, seen apart from him, seeks. “Ask whatever you will” is not a blank check. It is a promise those whose hearts are set on the Kingdom of God.
The promise of “if any two of you agree” in Mt 18 has an important context. Mt 18:15-20 deal with what to do when a brother or sister in the church have sinned against you, so the setting for “two or three gathered together” is not simply any gathering of Christians, but two or three people who have met to deal with a sin. It is a promise to the one who has the difficult responsibility of telling one of his fellow Christians, “When you did “x”, you committed a sin against me. Can you repent and apologize?” It is also a promise to the one who has committed the perceived offense that the Lord will be present in the conversation. Both persons need to be aware of, and open to, that presence. It is also a promise that, should the situation require the further response of including a few others or the entire congregation, Jesus will be present to help them come to a good conclusion. The promise of “if any two of you agree” means that if the original pair of people are able to reach an agreement and to come to a place of repentance and forgiveness, the Lord will grant them a restored relationship and help them to grow. It is also a promise that should the situation require the participation of more people, the Lord will help them in the process and will guide them into a good and beneficial course, if and as they depend upon him. What Jesus wanted his disciples to agree on and to pray for was for good relationships, in which offenses would be forgiven and become a springboard for spiritual growth as sin is dealt with graciously within the Church.
The promise does have a larger application to any gathering of Christians. The Lord will be present with his people when they have assembled in his name. The promise also points to the important of consensus within the body when they plan and when they pray. A divided congregation needs to come to terms about its lack of consensus before it can proceed. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are always in agreement, and if we are to reflect the image of God, we need to be in consensus as well. This is a huge topic in itself, and I cannot develop it much more this morning. I will say that there will always be differences within the Church and within any congregation. Some are differences that do not really matter, some are differences that are actually helpful, and some are differences that matter a great deal and must be dealt with or the mission of the congregation will be harmed. At the very least, we always need the wisdom of the Lord Jesus to discern what kind of differences we are dealing with. And if there is hurt and sin involved, we need his presence in order to repent of what is harmful and to do what is good and helpful for the relationships within the body of believers.
III. “Ask, Seek, Knock, for the Father Gives Good Things”
Jesus teaches on prayer in a number of other places in the Gospels. He gave the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and also in Luke 11 after the disciples had asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In both cases, he soon told his hearers that they should pray with expectation. In Mt 7:7-11, he says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
These verses are echoed in Luke 11, although with one slight difference. Luke says that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. I have no doubt that Jesus often repeated his teachings with slight variations during the days of his public ministry. Any one who teaches does that – and it would be all the more the case in a society where there was no mass media to capture every word spoken. There is no essential difference – the Holy Spirit is simply the best of all possible good gifts.
One commentator I read says that the “ask, seek, knock” refers to increasing levels of intensity of purpose. One is serious in asking, still more concerned in seeking, and almost desperate in banging on the door. At any rate, Jesus commends persistence in actively seeking a gift from God. If human fathers, as sinful as they are, seek what is good for their children, how much more true is that of the Lord, who is goodness in its purest form?
In my first presentation, I said that God never answers a request with a “No.” His replies to our petitions are either, “Yes,” “Later,” or “I have something better in mind.” I think that there is another possibility as well – “I have something better in mind, but it will not come until later.” God promises to give us the right thing at the right time. Jesus wants us to be assured that his Father, who is now our adoptive Father, wants the best for us and will give what is best.
But what is “the best”? God giving us what is best for us is not always giving us what we ask for. His promise is that he will restore in us the full image of God, that in the end, we will be like Jesus in our character and faith.
How many of you have read The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom? That book is a remarkable story of faith in action during the hard days of WWII. First the ten Boom family took in Jews to hide them from the Nazis, and God protected them and enabled many Jews to get to safety. Then their work was discovered, and the family was arrested. Corrie’s father died almost immediately and the family was scattered and imprisoned. Corrie and her sister Betsy were eventually placed in the dreadful concentration camp at Ravensbruck. Miraculously, they still had a Bible, and were able to do ministry among their fellow prisoners. Astonishing things happened, such as the seemingly bottomless small bottle of vitamins that increased their resistance to disease. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have lasted a week among the prisoners, but it kept on providing daily doses for many weeks. Corrie and Betsy learned to give thanks to God even for the fleas that bit them – for those fleas kept the guards away.
Both sisters were in prison, and both looked to God in faith. Betsy died in prison, however, while Corrie did not. I am sure that both sisters prayed to survive the war. Did God answer only one sister’s prayer? No, he answered both: to Betsy, he said, “I have something better – you are coming home to me.” To Corrie, he said, “Yes – and I will give you a ministry that will touch the hearts of many.”
In Jeremiah 17:7-8, we read, “"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
When we trust the Lord with all we are and have, we will be aware of our circumstances – but our happiness and contentment do not come from our circumstances, but rather from the Lord. The tree that is planted by a stream can endure a drought because its roots do not depend on rain for water, but on the stream. In the same way, when we are firmly planted in the Lord, we can survive in adverse circumstances, because the Lord sustains us. That does not mean our circumstances do not affect us, for they certainly do. But it does not mean that our circumstances determine our happiness and contentment in the end, but rather God upholds us and our hearts rejoice that we know him and can enjoy him.
Joni Eareckson Tada broke her neck in a swimming accident when she was 17 years old. She became a quadriplegic. She had grown up in a Christian family and had made a profession of faith. That faith was now severely tested. There were days when she wanted to die. She would have committed suicide – but of course was physically unable to do so. Later one, she determined to make the best of it. She first became an artist, holding her pen or brush in her mouth. Later on, she became an author and speaker. She is now about 60 years old, one of the longest surviving quadriplegics in the country. And she now says that she thanks God that she broke her neck!
Why would she give thanks for that?
She says that, looking back, her faith as a 17 year old was a shallow faith. Left to herself, she would have had God as a part of her life, but only a part. With a broken neck, she had to depend upon God and his mercy and power on a day to day, even moment to moment basis. It took her some time to recognize that, but she has written that her stubbornness and independence would have remained unchecked unless she had come to radical dependence upon God because she had no resources of her own. Joni Eareckson Tada is rooted in the Lord. She knows her circumstances, but they are not the determining factor in her happiness and contentment.
I know that God does heal people, because I have seen it happen. But God does not heal everyone who asks for healing. I have pondered that for a long time, and my provisional thought is that God heals some to show his power – and he does not heal others to show that knowing him is sufficient for joy. God is enough.
We are not guaranteed to get exactly what we ask for when we make our requests to God – but we are guaranteed to get what we need to know God better and to become more and more like Jesus.
IV. Persist in Prayer
In Luke 11 and Luke 18, Jesus tells two parables to encourage his followers to persist in prayer. The first is the story of a man who has an unexpected guest arrive late in the evening. He has no food to offer the man, so he asks his neighbor for some bread. Hospitality was very important in the ancient Near East; if he could not put something before his guest, he would fail as a host. His need was great. Jesus notes that even if the neighbor was already in bed and had no desire at all to get up, he would eventually give the man some bread, if only to stop the pounding on the door. The second parable is similar to the first: a widow was suffering wrong from someone, and asked a judge to hear her case. The judge, however, was corrupt, and only took cases when he felt like it. He had no heart for justice. The woman persisted in asking for a hearing. At last the corrupt judge gave in. He was worn down by the repeated requests of the widow.
Jesus wanted his followers to know that if even earthly people, as selfish and stubborn as they are, will give in to persistent requests, how much more will our loving Father give to us as we persist in prayer?
In Hebrews 11 we have what some call “The Bible’s Hall of Fame for Faith.” Hebrews 11:35-39 says “Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised”
These were people who were longing for the Kingdom of God, but who never saw the Kingdom. But they trusted God and acted as citizens of the Kingdom of God, giving him their trust and loyalty in the face of opposition. Some saw remarkable things, such as the woman of Zarephath, whose son was raised from the dead through Elijah, or Daniel, who was preserved from death in the lion’s den. They knew the reality of that statement in Jeremiah, that those who sink their roots into God will be like trees planted by the river, able to bloom and produce fruit even if there was a drought. They prayed, and many saw extraordinary answers to prayer – but none saw the fullness of God’s Kingdom. Neither have we. We are still in the interim period, in which God is calling a people to himself and forming them as his own children.
We are to pray in this interim time – we are to pray for God’s Kingdom to come, and we are to pray for our physical needs in our day to day lives, and to pray for our spiritual growth and health. Even as we do, we pray knowing that the Kingdom is not yet here, and so all will not be perfect – unless the Lord arrives soon!
Jesus wanted to have his followers persist in prayer because he knew that life in this fallen world is difficult and we may become discouraged. There are many miracles recorded in the Old Testament, and we may be tempted to think that they were an almost daily occurrence. But if you look at the timeline of the Old Testament, the events it records from Abraham up to the return of the exiles from Babylon took place over a period of 1600 or 1700 years. While we cannot say that the miracles recorded in Scripture were the only ones that happened in that time, the time span still lets us know that dramatic miracles can easily be far apart. God seems to work through means and in quiet ways far more than he does by very obvious miracles. Nevertheless, we are to persevere in prayer. God knows the best timing, and he knows the best series of events. Trust means that we hang on, assured by the character of God, the wisdom of God, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus that God is for us and that he will do what will bring honor and glory to him, and joy and thanksgiving to us.
God wants us to pray because he wants to enjoy fellowship with us and through that fellowship to produce in us his own image. He will grant us what we need, and that includes daily bread, forgiveness of sins, and spiritual protection.
The Psalms are the Bible’s prayer book and hymnal. They were used in the Temple worship and later in the synagogue. Some were songs of praise and rejoicing, some were prayers of confession, some were meditations on God’s goodness. In many we see the psalmist pouring his heart out before the Lord – perhaps in joy, perhaps in sorrow.
Here is Psalm 13, a short prayer for rescue:
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am(I) shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
This psalm begins in anguish. It ends in promise of faith, because the psalmist has opened his heart to the Lord, and expressing to God his fears and pain, he has found relief. He does not have to hide, and so he is able to remember the goodness and strength of the Lord.
When we are in anguish, wracked with fear, anxiety, guilt, or grief, it can be easy to say, “I am a Christian. I should not feel this way.” A person can think that they should not be feeling the emotions that they have, and so try to hide those emotions. The trouble is that when one hides emotions, they gain more power over you than if you recognize them. We live in a culture where feelings are often taken to be the ultimate reality, so there are certainly some people who wallow in their feelings or take their emotions to be the one sure-fire guide in life.
Emotions are real, and we ignore them or try to control them at our peril. One the other hand, emotions are not ultimate reality. Our feelings tell us important things about ourselves and our responses to what is going on around us. If we can recognize our emotions, which may be hard to do with the less pleasant ones, we can then look more fully at our hearts, and learn some important things. I have found that when I am angry, there is really some fear behind that anger, and I am try to use anger to fight off the fear. Having see that, I am now more able to see what my fears may be and to take those fears to God. I can then admit my fears and express my trust that God is my ultimate protector. Instead of telling God, “Please take away my anger,” I can offer to him the source of that anger. As I do so, he can then affirm to me through his Word that he will stand as my protector no matter what. My fear is lessened – and I am also far less likely to get angry.
Jesus told us to be persistent in praying, because God will respond to our prayers. I am convinced that one reason God wants us to be persistent is so that we will pour out our hearts to him, even if some of what we may pour out is different than what we think a Christian is supposed to feel or do. The chief purpose of prayer is fellowship with God. God will do things as we make requests of him – but the main purpose of prayer is not to get God to do things, but to enjoy him with openness of heart. As we fellowship with God, we will give him more and more of what is in our hearts – our hopes, our fears, our joys, our sorrows. In the process, we learn more and more about ourselves and where we need to change and some reasons why change is difficult. In prayer, we build our relationship with our heavenly Father – who truly fathers us by helping us to grow up, spiritually.
Jesus tell us to pray in his name – for it is in his name that we have acceptance before God the Father. He wants us to soak ourselves in his presence and in his Word, so that we can know him better and in so knowing, ask for those things he is planning to do. God can thus say to us, “Ask for whatever you want,” knowing that our hearts are longing for what he longs to give. We can ask with positive anticipation, for we know that our heavenly Father always gives good things – and we can pray with persistence, knowing that our concerns will be treasured and that the Lord will help us to grow in him as we pray.
Thus we can say with the psalmist, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”
I have a little homework to suggest to you. It comes from an idea that the Rev Sam Shoemaker had about fifty years ago. He was an Episcopal pastor in Pittsburgh and he started what is known as “the Pittsburgh Experiment.” He challenged the businessmen of the city to pray for 31 days – asking God to bless their businesses, and to bless their enemies. And remarkable things happened as they prayed.
We stand at the beginning of October, and I would like you to consider praying for the next 5 weeks, until Nov 7. Perhaps you already have your time with God each day, but if not, I want to suggest three possible ways:
1. Pray for your major occupation each day, and pray for those you do not appreciate or who may be actively seeking to bring harm to you.
2. At the end of each day, or perhaps at the beginning of the next day, write a few sentences, recording the greatest blessing you experienced that day, and also the greatest challenge you faced.
3. If you are married and are not doing so already, set aside five minutes each day to pray together.
Perhaps in November, we can share some of what happens!
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