“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
[Philippians 4:6 (ESV)]
“Why should I talk to God anyway? God already knows what I need; it even says so in Scripture. And if God designed the universe and controls all that happens in it, how could I expect my prayers to make any difference? Isn’t prayer presumptuous, as if my puny human mind could remind God of something he hasn’t already though of? Why should I ask anything of God? God will do whatever he chooses anyway. Right?”[i] Sound familiar?
Do we sometimes feel as if your prayers are of little or no importance since God is going to do what God is going to do? Or can prayer change things? Understanding God from this side of heaven is impossible for us to comprehend and how our words to Him could ever change things. Are the first series of questions at the beginning of this paragraph a biblical idea about prayer? Should we give up and give in to the belief that our prayers will not change a thing in this world? If that is true then prayer is powerless, but if that idea is wrong and we live without prayer, then our lives will be powerless to change the smallest thing.
A lot depends on your definition of prayer. I am sure most Christians would say that prayer is just about asking. Look in your dictionary to see what it says about prayer. The words supplication, asking, request, beseech, and petition are most likely found. And most would say that is true, but that is not what prayer is all about. Prayer is about a relationship and communication. One good definition I found was in The American Heritage College Dictionary, which states “An act of communication with one worshipped, as in devotion or thanksgiving.”[ii] If we look at the life of Christ we see Jesus getting away from the crowds to spend His days and nights in prayer. As in Luke 6:12, “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.” [Luke 6:12 (ESV)] We don’t know much about what Jesus prayed about but if He needed something, all He had to do was command it to happen. So if His prayer life was only to ask God for something, then what did He do all night long in prayer? Or was His prayer life one of spending time alone with God. He used His time to enjoy the presence of His Father. Just as we do when we enjoy spending time alone with those we love. Not that asking is wrong but if that is the only thing we use prayer for then our spiritual prayer life will be a very empty one. Prayer for us needs to be part request, part intercession for others and part transformation. As R. A. Torrey puts it, “Your growth and mine into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be in exact proportion to the time and to the heart we put into prayer.”[iii] Scripture also address the idea in this way “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” [Romans 12:2 (ESV)] One area most of us probably need a transformation in is in our prayer life. We need not see it as a duty but a pleasure. As Andrew Murray says “Let Your wonderful revelation of the Father’s tenderness free all Christians from the though that prayer is a burden, and lead them to regard it as the highest privilege of their lives – a joy and a blessing.”[iv] Just think how our walk with Christ would be transformed if we saw prayer as a pleasure and a privilege, instead of a burden. Seeing communication with the Lord of creation as a gift that will bring our walk with Him closer. And to see that it does not only change the world around us but also the heart within us.
Now let’s turn our attention to the part of pray called petition. Some will say we shouldn’t ask for ourselves, that it is selfish and self-centered. But that idea is not a biblical one. Jesus didn’t say that if you ask God for something that you were selfish, in a matter of fact He encourage it. In Matthew 7:7-11 Jesus said, "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!” [Matthew 7:7-11 (ESV)] And in the Old Testament it says, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. [Psalm 34:15 (ESV)] And in the life of Hezekiah who was the King of Israel who was told by Isaiah the prophet to “Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover." [Isaiah 38:1 (ESV)] Hezekiah didn’t just wait to die, he believed prayer was affective. He turned to the wall and prayed to God. And it did change things because God answer his prayer as we see in Isaiah 38:5 "Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. [Isaiah 38:5 (ESV)]
But what about us, do we believe that God will answer our prayers? Do we persist in asking over and over even though an answer has not come yet? Do we grow impatient and think that our request isn’t important or that God will not even listen to us? That is an area each and every Christian struggles with. We all wonder if our requests are worth the time of the Creator of the universe. Or are they so small that we need to take care of them ourselves in our own way. But that is not true of God, He does care and He does desire for us to communicate our needs to Him. As in James 4:2 which states, “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.” [James 4:2 (ESV)] And Matthew 6:26-30 says, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” [Matthew 6:26-30 (ESV)] God loves His children and longs to give them all that they need, but His children don’t seem to ask Him for such things. And we run, chase and pursue what we think we need and lose heart because we miss out on what is most important. And that is our relationship with God who gives with a loving heart. “The eyes of God are awake to assist the blind in their necessity, but he is likewise pleased to listen to our groans, that he may give us the better proof of his love.”[v] God desires to use our difficulties and the difficulties of others to show us His abounding love for us. He is not a God of a clinched fist but of an open hand as we read in Psalm 145:15-16: “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.” [Psalm 145:15-16 (ESV)] We need to look to Him as the filler of our needs and to turn to Him not only in our desperation but also in our times of plenty. As we long to strive in our weakness to grow past our infirmities, we need to remember that God is the true source of our strength. That He is here to bring us relief from such pains of life, but we need and must use the vehicle of prayer to communicate them to Him. Not because He is blind to such concerns but that we come to Him humbly in order to turn our situations over to Him for His glory not our own. He longs to be our provider as John Calvin said in his book, The Institutions of Christian Religion. In which he states, “use and experience confirm the thought of his providence in our minds in a manner adapted to our weakness, when we understand that he not only promises that he will never fail us, and spontaneously gives us access to approach him in every time of need, but has his hand always stretched out to assist his people, not amusing them with words, but proving himself to be a present aid.”[vi] So do we look to ourselves to provide the fix for our problems or do we turn to God and release control to Him. A decision all mankind must make, and a decision that will eventually bring us to our end, or bring us to God’s beginning for our lives. A decision you must make, and live with the consequences. Consequences that will be good or bad, but your choice to make. Will you use the vehicle of prayer to propel you into a deeper relationship with God or will you live a life like the opening statement of this lesson. Go back and read the first part again. And ask yourself if that is how you want to continue to see prayer. Or you can ask God in prayer what John Wesley did, he said:
Deliver us, O God
from a lazy mind,
all lukewarmness of heart
and all depression of spirit.
We know that these must deaden
our love for you;
mercifully free our hearts from them all.
And give us such a lively, fervent,
and cheerful spirit
that we may vigorously perform
whatever you command,
thankfully suffer whatever you choose for us,
and always be eager to obey your holy love
in all things;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.[vii]
-John Wesley
Discussion Questions:
1. What is your attitude towards prayer?
2. How has prayer changed your life? And how has God used
prayer to change you?
3. Do you believe God is interested in the small concerns of
your life? Or is He not concerned with your situation?
4. Is your prayer life one of asking only? Or is it a
combination of asking and transformation?
5. Do you see praying for yourself as selfish and
self-centered? Why?
6. Does daily prayer produce patience or anxiety? And how
does that affect your time in prayer?
7. What do you see missing in your own prayer life?
8. How can you in this coming week incorporate prayer into
your daily life?
Downers Grove, IL., Copyright 2002, pp 20.
(This quote was not written by John Calvin but by the author,
Carolyn Nystrom to challenge the readers attitude towards prayer.)
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston MA,
Copyright 2002, pp 1094
New Kingsington, PA, copyright, 2000 pp17.
Whitaker House, New Kingsington, PA, copyright,
1981 pp 29.
Dimensions for Living, Nashville, TN., Copyright 1991, pp 62.
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