Prayer

The prophet Elisha approached the king of Israel. A battle against one of the enemies of the nation was brewing and the prophet wanted to encourage the king. So, the prophet tells the king to take some arrows and strike the ground with them. He shot three times and stopped. And this is what it says next. ‘Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times.”’ Now, I have lots of questions about what happened back then, but this much is clear. If the king had shot five or six times the history of Israel, from that point on, would have been very different. The king had the power to alter the course of history.

Now, why do I tell you that? My point is simple. You can alter the course of history, not by shooting arrows but by your prayers. Your prayers are powerful. They can change history. They can change your life. James makes the same basic point when he writes, ‘You do not have because you do not ask.’ He’s telling some Christians that life could have been different if they had prayed. What do you think? Is he overstating things? Obviously not. It’s in the Bible. But just to drive the point home, let me remind you of what Jesus said. ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.’ The history of the Church as a whole and of so many of the saints would have been different, better, if more of those saints had believed Jesus’ words and took them more to heart. Your prayers can change your life.

It’s pretty obvious by now that I’m going to talk about prayer this morning. My goal in this is to encourage you. I want to encourage you in your prayers so that you might enjoy, to the fullest possible extent, all that Jesus offers in the Gospel. I want to do this not just for your benefit, though that is something I desire. I want to encourage you in this because I am convinced that your full enjoyment of Jesus will result in the spread of the Gospel.

Our text is Matthew 6.7-13. Please, listen as I read it.

Let’s start by looking at Jesus’ comment on ‘empty phrases’. That label covers lots of territory including ‘church words’. Now, clearly, it’s not wrong to use these church words. The problem is not in using them, but in using them without thinking. That’s when they lose their meaning and become empty. So, consider the word ‘bless’. Obviously, that’s a good word. It’s in the Bible. But it too easily can become an empty phrase, something uttered without thought. So, it is good to ask the Father to bless someone – as long as it’s clear what you are asking Him to do for that person. It might be good to establish the habit of filling out this word when you pray. Tell the Father in clear words what blessing you are asking for. Be specific. This relates to another potentially empty phrase, ‘watch over’, as in, ‘Dear God, please watch over my kids.’ What exactly do you want the Father to do with your kids? Make sure nothing bad ever happens to them? Is that a wise prayer? Do you really expect the Father to keep them from every bad sort of thing? Is that what’s best for your kids? You need to think about your prayers. What exactly are you asking the Father to do? Is that request wise? It’s easy to slip into empty phrases. So many of them – ‘bless’, ‘watch over’ – sound so good and right. So, be careful.  

Then there’s this. ‘…your Father knows what you need before you ask him.’ This raises some interesting questions. Here’s one: ‘If the Father already knows what I need, why should I pray?’ Well, it’s true that if prayer is a matter of informing God of your needs, then it really isn’t necessary. God already knows everything, including your needs. But if prayer is something else, something other than informing God, then what Jesus said will make sense. If prayer is, instead, part of a conversation, then that changes things, doesn’t it? What if you were to see prayer as something like this. ‘Father, I have this problem. As I’ve thought about it, I have some ideas on what should happen. But I’m not sure. So, what do you think?’ That’s part of a conversation. You let your Father know what you’re thinking, and then He lets you know what He’s thinking. Out of that comes a conclusion, some course of action. So, here’s the question to deal with: Are your prayers a series of monologues or are they your part in a conversation where you and the Father are discussing life? It makes so much more sense to me to think of prayer as a part of a conversation. That way prayer is no longer just a religious duty that is supposed to be done. It’s discussing important matters with your Father.

Jesus next lays out a model prayer. We call it ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. Jesus, here, breaks prayer down into six different categories or areas. The first three are about God: His name, His kingdom and His will. The last three are about us: dealing with our daily needs, dealing with our sins, dealing with Satan. Let’s look at the last three first.

Here, Jesus tells us to pray for ourselves. There certainly is enough to pray about. But we need to be careful. Earlier I quoted James’ rebuke about not having because of not asking. There’s a bit more to what he wrote. ‘You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your [and here there are several ways this last word has been translated] passions, evil desires, pleasures, lusts.’ According to James, there is a kind of asking for yourself that is just fine and a kind that is really wrong, misguided, selfish. Once again, the Scriptures make the point that you need to think about your prayers. The question here, of course, is how to tell the difference between praying well and praying selfishly. Did you notice how Jesus laid out His model prayer? The three areas about the Father – His name, His kingdom, His will – are first. They have the priority. But that doesn’t mean that once you’ve spent enough time praying about those areas, then it’s okay to move on and focus on your own passions, evil desires, pleasures and lusts. The first three areas provide a context for the last three areas. So, we pray, ‘Father, I want Your name to be the praise of every person alive, Your kingly authority submitted to, Your commands obeyed’ and we pray the details that fit with those three categories. Then, when we pray about our lives, we tie those requests to the Father’s name, His kingdom and His will. The first three categories provide a context for our prayers about the last three categories. Now, again, that means that we need to think about what we are praying for. We need to ask ourselves, ‘Do the requests that I make of the Father for myself fit with those first three categories that Jesus told me to pray about?’ To be sure, there will be lots of times when you will not be sure how to pray about something, how to pray for it in the context of those first three areas. And that’s okay. Remember that prayer is your part of a conversation. ‘Father, this is what I’m thinking when it comes to praying about that issue. What do You think? Am I seeing this correctly? Does it fit with the priority of Your name, kingdom and will?’   

Let me give you a personal example. I used to pray that I would become famous, that my name would be great, that I would be known. I didn’t say it that way at the time. I probably prayed that I would be able to minister effectively to a larger number of people for their growth in the Gospel, or something like that. (Isn’t it amazing what you can hide behind a bunch of church words?) It was only later, when the Spirit was kind and pointed out my lust and my pride, that I gave it the label of ‘wanting to become famous’. It’s my shorthand now when I feel that same temptation. ‘So, you want to become famous?’ Only one name can be hallowed, and it isn’t going to be mine. And that helps me when I pray about myself. So, those first three categories guide us when it comes to the last three.

So, what have I said? Our prayers have the potential to bring about great change. Remember what James said. ‘You do not have because you do not ask.’ There is more of Jesus for you to enjoy. But the only way that that is going to happen is if you pray and ask for it. Be aware of the danger of using words but of actually saying nothing; empty phrases. Also be aware of chasing after selfish desires hidden behind church words. You may have lots of questions about your prayers. But don’t let that discourage you. These are just some things to discuss with the Father. And remember: if the king had shot five or six arrows, history would have been very different.

Now, I want to make this as down to earth and helpful as possible. So, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to describe my prayer life to you. We don’t normally discuss our prayer lives with each other. New mothers go to experienced mothers, and they discuss what to do when. We may talk about a movie that we liked and explain why. And some of us will even discuss how to improve our golf swing. But I don’t think that we talk much about how we pray. So, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to tell you how I pray. Now, I want to be clear. I am not presenting a model that you’re supposed to follow. This is how I structure things, and I may be the only person for whom this way works. So, my intention is not to prescribe how you are to pray. My hope is that hearing about my habits of prayer will help you to think about your habits of prayer.

First, there are two kinds of praying that I regularly do. There is planned prayer and ‘in the moment’ prayer. Let me start with that second category. As you know, I live alone and I do much of my work, things like studying and preparing, alone. There are issues that come with that, but one benefit is that my prayer life has grown. Since there isn’t anyone else to talk to, I’ve learned to talk a lot to God. The ‘in the moment’ prayers are just things that I mention to Him in the moment. I find that there are times when I’m listening to a lecture or reading a book that I will pray something like, ‘Lord, I want that good quality in my life’, or ‘Father, please don’t let me fall into that sin’. There are times when I’m working on the sermon that I’ll discuss with Him how to get some point across. There are frequent ‘Thank Yous’ as I see His kindness to me, as well as lots of quick cries for help when something is going wrong or I feel the presence of some temptation. This kind of praying is my response to something that just happened. I pray in the moment. I think that this is some of what Paul was getting at when he wrote, ‘Pray without ceasing’.

And then there are my planned times of prayer. I pray every morning and every evening. There is a place where I do all my planned praying. I kneel next to my bed. I think that posture matters. The body and the soul affect each other. It’s my suspicion that praying while your body is slouched on the sofa with your feet up on the coffee table tells your soul that nothing especially serious is going to happen. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. I also pray out loud. I find that that I can concentrate better. It also makes it feel more real. It’s a reminder that I’m really talking to someone, though my ‘in the moment’ prayers are almost never out loud. Evening prayer is right before bed, and it is very brief. I thank the Father for the day He has given me and for the things that I could accomplish. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking that life is more than things accomplished. The day was also spent in my being changed. The Spirit did things during the day to mold me more into the image of Jesus. I’m working on how to pray about that.

Then there’s morning prayer. That takes much more time. I always make my bed first. Remember, I’m kneeling next to my bed. It makes a difference to me that I’m not praying in the midst of the chaos of bed sheets and blankets strewn about. I say all of this because it seems to me that, again, the outside affects the inside, the body affects the soul, the physical affects the Spiritual. It helps me to have an orderly place for my conversations with the Father. That encourages a quieted soul. It seems to me that having a regular place for prayer can be very helpful. It might be that you kneel next to your bed or you sit in a chair that you’ve turned so that it faces the wall or maybe something else. However you do it, I think it’s good to have a place where the distractions are fewer; a place that says to your soul that it’s time for prayer.

The first part of my morning prayers is usually completely unstructured. I usually spend a little time getting quiet. Then I pray about whatever my mind goes to. Before my prayer time, I’ve been up, had my coffee, read some blogs and then read my Bible. Sometimes that provokes some thoughts that lead into things that I want to pray about. I often thank the Father for things like being a solid rock in my life, for His patient love for me, for being so forgiving or other similar things. I often tell Him that He is my hope. There is no way that I will make it without Him. (The older I get, the clearer that becomes.) Sometimes when there is a particular situation that I have been thinking about I’ll focus on that. This is also the time when I pray for myself. I pray, among other things, for direction, protection and correction. The Father needs to guide me, protect me from Satan, and confront me about my sins. All of that is the first, unstructured part of my morning prayers. Then, comes my prayer list. I pray for my kids, each one has a day of the week. I pray, similarly, for extended family. Then, I pray for you. Each family has a day of the week. I’ll also pray for missionaries, other pastors and organizations that I support. So, the first part is completely spontaneous and the second is pretty well planned out.

I don’t usually spend time in my morning prayers praying for forgiveness of particular sins. The reason for that is that I don’t let dealing with sin wait. If I think that I have sinned, I discuss that with the Father right then. And then, if it becomes clear that I have sinned, I deal with it immediately. And sometimes there’s nothing to think about. It’s just too obvious that I have sinned. So, again, I deal with it right then.

Now, once again, let me say that this is just how I pray. Keep in mind that I don’t have to punch a clock somewhere nor do I have to show up at an office. And there aren’t any kids clamoring for breakfast. Also, being a pastor, one of my top priorities is to be prayer. So, my situation is different from yours, but I hope that sketching this out will stir up in you a thought or two about your prayer life.

Let me close with two thoughts. First, you learn how to pray by praying. Reading a book on prayer or even listening to a sermon can be helpful. But if prayer is your part of a conversation with another person, then you grow in that conversation by conversing.

Then, consider this: the God who created the six or seven billion people who are alive today and knows each of them, wants to enjoy conversations with you. He will listen to all that you have to say, never being distracted by something else, never dozing off, never thinking He’d rather be somewhere else. When you are talking to Him you have His complete attention. And having heard what you have to say, He will always respond with amazing love and surprising wisdom. He is, after all, your Father, and you are His child. This is why Jesus has come. It is my hope that you will enjoy many conversations with your Father.